A home for the Hobbit

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https://twitter.com/Nature_You_Love/status/673723479611432960
While in graduate school in Canada, a close friend of mine, Brad, recommended several nice books to read including the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit (we are still friends). Ever since, I have been fascinated by Hobbits. Recently I found a lovely picture of a lovely Hobbit home on twitter that is shared with this note. If a human wished to make a similar home it is recommended they choose rectangular doors and windows rather than round ones unless you would like to hop into your home rather than walk in, and keep in mind the following points:

1. Choose a house or cottage plan that has doors and windows in front and back only and none on the sides. This blog has several such plans if one cared to search through older posts.

2. Sink in the home about three feet in the ground and have it six feet above ground to give room height of nine feet in the middle sloping down to seven feet to the sides.. The door would be on ground level and as you enter one would have three one foot wide steps to climb down into a passage or the living room

3. Keep windows at four feet height (a foot from the ground on the outside) all the way to the roof.

4. Build a strong six inch thick RCC roof and water proof it. Cover it with a thick plastic sheet for additional safety if you like. One may then lay on the soil from the sides in a slope and have a home covered with a lawn and garden.

5. Keep in mind that the drainage from kitchen and bathrooms would have to be led to deep pits to create the flow gradient.

The advantage of such homes will be that it will be well insulated, cool in summers and warm in winters. However such homes are really more convenient for Hobbits or Irish Leprechauns rather than humans, unless they are made as novelty in a children’s nursery school or a children’s park, because then they need to keep it only around four feet outside the ground. However, humans would do well to take advantage of the green side to insulate their homes. This is achieved by covering walls with grape vines and growing trees that shed leaves in winter around the home. Then after the grape vine and trees have shed leaves in winter they will help warm the home. When the grapes are ripe and sweet, just open the windows to grab a bunch :). In summer new leaves shall come up and cool the home instead and birds shall come to build nests on them or play on the branches while they sing a pretty song for you all day.

Comments

Rebb said…
Did you happen to see the first Lord of the Rings movie? I love the way they created the hobbit's home. It made me want to live in one like it. You also make me think of a spot in San Francisco in Golden Gate Park where there is a tree that someone has attached a little door to at the bottom. Many people bring little things and write notes and leave it there. A few years back hubby and I searched for this little door and wrote a short note. We also saw a father showing it to his son. It was sweet.
January 17, 2016 at 8:31 PM
ProfAshok said…
Yes I did see the movie and loved it Rebb. I too would love to live in one, any nature lover would but as an engineer I have realized that there are practical difficulties but I would settle for a home in a forest that was not too far from town and if the Lord wishes may still find one in the Himalayas before it is time for me to move on to a new life. Most dreams I had in life the Lord fulfilled but in his own time though at an easy pace, and perhaps he shall fulfill this one too :)
January 17, 2016 at 10:59 PM
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