Outside Spaces
In the West, people are often obsessed with the inside of their homes and with brick and mortar strongholds. It's still very much a castle and ramparts mentality. Other places around the world have a different take on it. Sometimes this is climate-related, but often it's a lot more to do with mindset. All too often when moderns do find their corner of paradise, they build homes that are way too big, (I'm yet to hear someone complain they built one too small), even when they're on the Mediterranean. Massive homes cost a fortune to run, are arduous to clean, and use ridiculous amounts of resources. It's odd, it's as if people forget their land entirely. Or view it simply as something to look at out of the window.
For me the land is the home. The inside space is just a shelter for when it's too cold or wet to go outside. Even now in my new space in cool, wet northern Spain, it's the outside that calls and where I spend most of my time. Because it's by cohabiting with nature that we touch her secrets and reconnect with who we really are.
The Mud Home was lucky in one way of course. Summer on the Mediterranean normally bestowed upon us a solid five months without rain. And this gave rise to all sorts of exciting possibilities. So here's a taste of my mud life from Turkey, and how a rethink of your outside space can create multiple beautiful and inexpensive worlds for you.
For me the land is the home. The inside space is just a shelter for when it's too cold or wet to go outside. Even now in my new space in cool, wet northern Spain, it's the outside that calls and where I spend most of my time. Because it's by cohabiting with nature that we touch her secrets and reconnect with who we really are.
The Mud Home was lucky in one way of course. Summer on the Mediterranean normally bestowed upon us a solid five months without rain. And this gave rise to all sorts of exciting possibilities. So here's a taste of my mud life from Turkey, and how a rethink of your outside space can create multiple beautiful and inexpensive worlds for you.
The Köşk (pronounced kershk)
The köşk (Turkish style gazebo) was probably my favourite area on my land. I reused the tent platform Celal and I made back in 2011, and then Esra and I went into the forest and found some old tree boughs. We chainsawed them off and attached them to the platform. I then built the back rests. Every summer Esra and I rolled out the bamboo over the top to create a shade.
Cost:
Foraged posts = zero (perhaps 2 bucks for chainsaw fuel)
Back rest wood = £10
Bamboo = £ 10
Can't remember how much the original platform base wood cost.
The köşk
The Forest Reading Room
Did I say the köşk was my favourite area? Darn it, perhaps it was the forest reading room. I loved the privacy of this space. No one could find me:) This 'room' was almost free to make with the most expensive item being the beanbags. All I did was clear a spot in the forest, add a makeshift bookshelf in the trees, hang some pictures from branches, and away you go.
Cost:
Beanbags = £20
Coffee table = zero (I painted up an ugly TV console going to landfill)
Cost:
Beanbags = £20
Coffee table = zero (I painted up an ugly TV console going to landfill)
Bookshelf, look no nails.
The Bathroom
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Hmm, did I insinuate that the forest room was my favourite? Because I loved my outside open-air bathroom. To shower at dawn or dusk with the birds twittering, and the forest aroma wafting all about you is paradise. It's like being Eve all over again. And that loo had a view too:)
Cost:
Wood for composting loo: £10
Toilet seat: £8
Water jug: £3
Shower head: £1 (the best pound I've ever spent)
Cost:
Wood for composting loo: £10
Toilet seat: £8
Water jug: £3
Shower head: £1 (the best pound I've ever spent)
The Kitchen
Okay so every space was my favourite. I hate cooking, hence in order to entice me to take up the pans and wooden spoons, I need to be somewhere insanely beautiful. My outside kitchen, which I used all year round, was that beautiful:) It was also ridiculously cheap to make. The entire thing cost about £150 and most of that went on the roof tiles. The break down is below.
Cost:
Sink = £15 (aluminium sink price) The rocks, limecrete and recycled fruit crate as drying rack were all free.
Wooden shelves = £ 5 (old wood cut offs)
Kitchen wall = zero. Rocks and earth plaster
Wood for posts = Can't remember but most of them were cut from the land, so didn't cost a thing.
Sink = £15 (aluminium sink price) The rocks, limecrete and recycled fruit crate as drying rack were all free.
Wooden shelves = £ 5 (old wood cut offs)
Kitchen wall = zero. Rocks and earth plaster
Wood for posts = Can't remember but most of them were cut from the land, so didn't cost a thing.
Everything but the kitchen sink was free.
The Guest Room
Being a bit of an introverted hag, I rarely accepted guests up on the hill. But when I did, they usually sat here in the guest room:)
All it is, is a small terrace and a couple of chairs I nabbed from my neighbour who was going to throw them out. The rest is rocks and tree stumps with reject circles of granite I picked up from the granite yard for free, that have been placed as coffee tables.
Cost: Zero
I hope this nudges you to view the land in your environs in a new light, because the outside world is more than just an excursion, or a place to stick a lawn. It's our home.
Cost: Zero
I hope this nudges you to view the land in your environs in a new light, because the outside world is more than just an excursion, or a place to stick a lawn. It's our home.
Do you enjoy these posts? Are you inspired? Is The Mud Home useful to you?
If so, please consider supporting it on Patreon, and becoming a Mud Member for as little as $2 a month. Mud Members enjoy email priority and have access to my private news feed, where they can follow my progress building up my new off-grid Eden in northern Spain. It's a private community and a place to ask questions.
If so, please consider supporting it on Patreon, and becoming a Mud Member for as little as $2 a month. Mud Members enjoy email priority and have access to my private news feed, where they can follow my progress building up my new off-grid Eden in northern Spain. It's a private community and a place to ask questions.
