Tiny Cottages in the Wilderness

Dwellings of Heavenly Peace and Beauty

I spent a lot of time dreaming about the plans for my present home around a quarter century ago and then built it in three phases spread apart by five years each between breaks in work as I saved money for each phase by working across the globe. It is a large and comfortable home in a modern urban area. When I began the home it was in near wilderness but with the grace of the Lord it has now developed into one of the most modern areas in the country, a modernization that I have contributed to, including naming the streets on a North American pattern.

However, my first love has always been and still is the country side, hills and forests and I keep frequenting that area, living in rented places or guest houses. Human history attests to the fact that those who are spiritually inclined love modest dwellings in quiet and green isolated locations. Queen Victoria, who became the mightiest of Queens our planet has seen during her lifetime, was also fond of such cottages. Every summer for a few months she would leave for Balmoral Castle but after checking in, she moved to another small cottage and it is said that those were the happiest moment of her life. Queen Victoria was a highly spiritual person with deep spiritual leanings as revealed in my book - The Babaji Affair.

If opportunity permits I shall build another small cottage in a wild green location, close to hills and natural water sources, even now for summer visits, although it is getting to be a bit late in the day now. As a result the plans I make up now are for small tiny homes and cottages. One design was shared earlier (A cottage for Mother Hubbard). Here are a few more. The first is small tiny cottage with just one small room as a bedroom. It has a small entrance lobby with a small table near the kitchen to enjoy a baked pie of onions and wild mushrooms picked up nearby, or fish and chips made with the fish caught earlier in the day from the brook that flows down the hill and behind the trees at the back. The brook is so near that if a surprise guest dropped in with a bottle of wine, one could run down to it with a net and catch a few more fish in a hurry while grabbing a bunch of that sweet crunchy wild cos lettuce that grows beside the black berry bushes and which needs nothing more than generous dab of that mayonnaise sauce that has been sitting in the fridge, for the salad :).  A plan for a more spacious two room cottage is also shown. It is spacious enough to keep the table for the fish and chips with salad in the kitchen.

The second design has two largish rooms, one to use as a living room on the ground floor and a second as a bed room on the first floor. There is a small toilet and wash basin on the ground floor because one cannot run up the stairs during the middle of TV news to a larger washroom on the first floor. A closet is shown but more can be built under the stairs.  The stairway leads to an attic and terrace on the roof of the first floor. Having to cross two or three doors to reach a room is a security feature that I build into all my designs.The entire details are not posted here but any architect can work them out, or inquire from me as a comment in this post.It must be noted that there is a difference in design between wooden dwellings and those made from brick, cement and concrete. The present designs are intended for brick and concrete constructions although they can be rendered in wood too.

Top Cottage image from wikipedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:XN_Kerascoet.jpg

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

 

A Tiny One Room Cottage

A Two Room Cottage

There are plenty of designs for small cottages on the net and these should add to the pool for enthusiasts around the world, especially younger ones who can locate a spot in the wilderness and begin working towards their own place of heavenly beauty and peace. Building homes and cottages is a long term project and the time to begin working towards it is soon after thirty, so that it is all comfortable and nice by the time one is fifty. The single room cottage has no side widows so it can a built as a row as some more cottages for friends. The two room cottage has no window on one side and as a result can be built as a duplex along with a friend. It is always easier when more than one person gets into a project like, but it can be done alone too, as I did for my home that was in the wilderness, but I did request the help of a friend from Delhi to come in for a couple of months in the second heaviest phase and had the help of my adopted son Shyamu in the third phase for the first floor, around fourteen years ago.

Plan for a Small Cottage, ground floor

 

First Floor Plan for a Cottage