Oklahoma Dreaming: Make Your House Affordable

by Donna Schoenkopf

last time: getting tough

1. Never waste anything. It can be used for something eventually, if not by you, then by someone you know. You can use this stuff to repay debts, give a thoughtful gift to someone, be generous to the world at large.
2. If you are building your house in the country, STOP cleaning up after yourself until you are finished with the building part, unless you are in a total mess. I learned to leave stuff where it landed when I built my house and shed. You can just reach over and grab any old thing to help you:
        A. brace something;
        B. lay something on;
        C. pry something with;
        D. mark where you want something.
   You have plenty of room in the country to collect stuff. But make sure you don't just go pulling stuff out of piles you've left out. There might be snakes. Especially copperheads, which love wood piles especially. And if you get bit, it costs money, if not your life!

3. Face your house to the south, with most of your windows along the south wall. In the winter those windows will collect light and heat because the sun is low. In the summer the sun will be straight over head so that your house will be in shade. You will spend very little in energy costs, just by facing your house in the right direction.
4. Make sure to have cross ventilation. This is excellent for cooling with no energy expenditure. That means you must ask somebody who knows to tell you what direction the prevailing winds come from. Make sure you have windows on that side of the house and on the opposite side. That way air circulates through the house. A couple of windows on the other walls can't hurt. Wind DOES change direction from time to time.
5. Wood heat. Easy and cheap. And purdy.
6. Shade for cooling. Plant deciduous trees on the south and west sides of your house. In the summer they leaf out and shade your house and in the winter they drop their leaves and let the sunshine in. Low energy costs.
7. Have as few walls inside as possible. It takes energy to heat those walls. Also air circulates better with big rooms.
8. When you first build your house, let every form of plant life root and grow. Weeds, grass, wildflowers, EVERYTHING. They make the soil more nutritious. They prepare the soil. Then, if you MUST you can mow the whole shebang. It is then a LAWN. It all blends. You don't have to be persnickety about eliminating weeds. It all is just green and lush. Trust me. Also, no cost for herbicides, fertilizer.
9. Don't throw away ANY wood. It is unbelievable what you can build with it. Just lay it on the ground if it is in plank form and you have instant walkways and decks. Hey, if it rots, just put in another plank. You can make gorgeous walkways of all different kinds of wood. Your artistic ability is all that is needed.

10. Make a compost pile. Two is better. Three is best. But one crummy pile is swell. Throw all uncooked, unseasoned vegetable matter, coffee grounds, eggshells in the pile. Cover with dirt when you feel like it. Throw hay, grass, etc. on it. You get FREE fertilizer of the highest grade. And you'll be surprised how quickly your pile grows. You can use a trash can with holes poked in the bottom or dig a hole in the ground or get fancy and make one out of that wood you didn't throw away. If you're very ambitious you can turn the whole thing with a pitch fork or, if you used a trash can, you just tip it over and roll it from side to side. Compost piles are whatever you what them to be. They are adaptable to you. Friendly little guys. Don't be intimidated.
11. Plant plants that will turn into food. But don't use ANY pesticides, animal traps, etc. You can fence stuff in if you have deer, birds, rabbits or such like. But it is fun to watch the animals discover your crops. (I, or should I say, Peewee, planted wheat when he put in the water and power lines and then sowed wheat over the disturbed soil. It has now ripened. Deer eat some of it. Turkeys eat some. And I shall eat some...just like the Little Red Hen.
12. Buy used stuff, rather than new. I got a great lawnmower for a great price because a guy who fixes and repairs riding mowers had a walking mower he got in trade and practically gave it to me. I get tables and chairs, dishes, clothes, furniture, appliances, EVERYTHING used. Well, not underwear. Or shoes.
13. Think in terms of SYSTEMS to solve problems. I have ticks here. I didn't want poison. It wouldn't really do the trick anyway. Plus the groundwater gets poisoned. So I researched what would be the natural predator of ticks. GUINEA HENS!!! I also have snakes. Answer: GUINEA HENS!! And cats!! The more animals you have on your property, the better, for getting rid of snakes. AND I'll have eggs to eat and even if the coyotes get 'em which is hard to do because they roost in trees, I'll have more because I'm gonna get a ROOSTER! Plus, they are WONDERFUL watchdogs. Winwinwinwinwinwin. Try to think of the big picture when you've got a problem. Remember, everything is connected to everything else in the Universe.
14. Don't waste water. I live in the country. I use my gray water (water from washing machine and shower) on my shrubbery and grass. Water costs a LOT in the country. I don't use well water because of the preponderance of toxic chemicals put there by IDIOTS.
15. Good insulation is a must. I wish I could have afforded more natural insulation when I was building but I couldn't. Don't beat yourself up if you can't do something because of price. Just go on and look for opportunities to do good for the planet next time. If you become a perfectionist, you'll just give up because you can NOT do a perfect job on anything. So relax.
16. Windbreaks, if you have strong winds, are a must. Get fast growing shrubbery and slow growing pines as a way to get something in the ground quickly, with potential for future strength and coverage. You need evergreens to protect your structure in the winter. So make sure your windbreaks are of the evergreen variety. You can get great stuff cheap from the U.S. Forestry Service AND they will tell you when, where, and how to plant it.
17. Part of having an affordable house is that you must give yourself whatever it is that you absolutely cannot do without. The price you pay for being miserable is too high a price. If you can't afford it, you can either save up or use the above mentioned System Method to get it. For instance, I found I absolutely could NOT afford to go through intense FEAR when lightning and tornadoes were pounding the countryside in the night time. So I looked on the internet, learned all about how to protect myself, and have installed lightning rods, am gonna have a safe room for tornadoes, and am having protective film on all my many sliding glass doors and windows. If I hadn't sacrificed to get these things to ease my fear, I swear to God I would have walked out the door and never come back. That's what I mean by affordable. I'll say it again ... you can't afford to be miserable. HOWEVER, don't kid yourself about needing something. Make sure it's NEED, not just WANT.

18. When you mow your yard, acreage, whatever, leave the cut grass on the ground. It makes wonderful mulch/fertilizer.
19. Don't go killing all the insects in sight. They are beneficial and are part of the System. When Terry and Robert were here installing the lightning rods, Robert came in and asked if I had any wasp spray to kill wasps. I told him no. He said there was a wasp nest up in the eaves of the house where he wanted to install the copper wire. I told him those wasps were extremely docile. (I had actually cupped my hands around one to put it outside and it wasn't perturbed at all.) Robert, being a smart fellow, went back out, stapled in the copper wire right over the eave where the wasps were going in and out, and he and the wasps got along just fine. Also, insects are good entertainment. And they have been on this planet for a lot longer time than we have.
20. If you live in a hot, humid climate, like Oklahoma, air circulation is the best way to get cool. You can cool off just by opening windows and using ceiling fans. I was AMAZED with how much cooler I was with no air conditioner, just moving air. And I am a person who cannot deal with hot, humid air. THAT'S how much cooler it was.
21. An uncarpeted concrete floor serves many purposes. First, it is cool in the summer. Rosie the Cat comes in during the day just to lie on the concrete floor. Second, it is warm in the winter. It holds the heat that streams through the south-facing windows in the wintertime, because the sun is low in the sky in the winter. The concrete is mass. It is a good thing for regulating temperature. You can always put different kinds of interesting rugs on the floor. You can stain the floor (with natural stains and beeswax if you're really a cool person.) The floor itself is amazingly comfortable.
22. Make sure to water your concrete while it is curing if you don't want it to crack. Mine is incredibly smooth and beautiful. And a really great color. You know ... that taupe color that people think is the perfect neutral?
23. Consider your light bulbs. Please. They need to be the fluorescent expensive kind that use very little energy while putting out lots of light.
24. Put up a clothes line. It's good exercise. It lets you get outside once a week. It is very Zen. And saves energy costs.
25. Install an outdoor shower. It cools you off without air conditioning the whole house. It gets the crud off of you that you would normally track in, so consequently you don't need a carpet cleaning system or floor mops or whatever. AND it is wonderfully fabulously luxurious.
26. Send things through the Internet. Saves lots of energy.
27. Pick wildflowers or shells or pieces of wood or cans or oddities from nature to make presents or to decorate your house or to turn your yard into a paradise. It is personal and sweet and creative. I KNOW you can do this. Just try. Forget the goddam MALL!

28. If you are building a house in the country, whatever you do, DON'T throw away the scraps of drywall. They are VALUABLE. They are the best soil additive there is. They also clear up muddy ponds, stop leaks in ponds, and make ponds look beeyootiful. (You should see how beautiful my former mud hole looks after just a couple of months!!) Just toss whatever you've got into the pond. It'll sink and break down on its own. Gypsum (dry wall) is composed of very fine particles and will be pulled to whatever leaks you have and plug them up. Then the most wondrous plant life grows in the pond, aerating it, pulling toxins out, making it pure. A WETLAND!! For birds and fish and frogs and things. A miracle, that's what it is. As an aside, Arcata, California has an amazing water treatment system that people from all over the world come to see. It is a wetlands. Yes, that's right. A wetlands. The plants completely purify the water ... a miracle. Yeah. Don't you just love Nature?
29. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS say yes when someone asks you a favor in the country. That's how we all make it out here. For instance, this morning I felt a tick bite me on my back. I got a mirror and saw the little bugger (ha ha) parked sort of between my shoulder blades, but not quite, and for the life of me I could NOT get it off. I couldn't reach it. I even used a spatula. It just dug its nasty little head in deeper. So at 8:30 in the morning I called Dave, my neighbor, and asked if he could pick my tick. He said yes, because that's what you do in the country. I went over in my pajamas and he was waiting for me in the front yard with a large box of kitchen matches. He's dead now. (The tick.) And I have no remorse. Let's all give Dave a hand, shall we?

Clapclapclapclapclap.

Okay. I guess that's enough for now. Have fun.

Let me know how it goes.

next: life is cheap