Hand-Built Stone House Tour 

Hello Judah! Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you're inspired. There's a lot of simple but hidden things to learn if you want to work well with stone. If you want to get serious about your stone work, connect with me by email at steve@stevemaxwell.ca. I could save you 10 or 20 years of trial and error! Bye for now and thanks for watching, Steve

And a lucky man to have a wife who would share this with him and work along side him.

Thanks Patrick! I appreciate you taking the time to write. Drop by my website baileylineroad.com

Thanks for your note and kind words. Tell me about your plans for building with stone. I'd like to hear. Bye for now, Steve

@baileylineroad my plan is to do something much simpler then what you have here. A box shape and one floor. Then to use metal joists and rubber roofing. (I'm trying to make a completely fire proof home as fire is common here in AZ). Rock is also plentiful and often given away for very low prices or for free. I am thinking a concrete foundation and metal rebar as well

Same…

Good Morning! Thanks for your note and kind words. Great to hear from you and to hear about your aspirations. I was 18 when I decided I wanted to leave the city where I grew up and live in the country. I was 22 whenI bought my 90 acre property on Manitoulin Island, Canada, and here I am, 58 years old, living in the stone house my wife and I built while raising our five kids. It's been a great adventure and I'd be happy to mentor you, if you like. There are many ways this adventure can go wrong, and just a few for making it work well. Send me an email at steve@stevemaxwell.ca if you'd like to talk.

Exactly

Hi Jeff! Thanks for the kind words. Yes, all local stone I quarried and shaped myself. Drop by my website baileylineroad.com for a visit sometime. You'll find lots of stuff there, including tool giveaways, articles and the chance to ask me questions. Bye for now and thanks for watching! Steve

Insulation does not go on the outside of anything...

Good Morning and thanks for your question. I grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, Canada and decided to move to the country when I was 22. I'd saved all my grass cutting and Christmas money ever since I started cutting lawns when I was 12. I paid $16,500 cash for my 90 acre property in 1985, with no house. In 1988 I took at shot at writing magazine articles, since I figured I could make money with that without traveling for work. I could work at home and that's what I did. Over time I got better at this kind of writing, then moved into creating content for the internet when that became a thing. So in short, I work from home writing articles and making videos (no wasted time or money commuting), I don't watch TV, I work ten hours a day, six days a week (on work that I love every day, all day). My wife used to be a registered nurse, but she stopped working outside the home in 1998 when our 3rd child was born. I don't have a particularly large income, just average for a family of 7. But I do a lot of things directly for myself without it costing me money. The house you saw, for instance, cost me only about $35 per square foot in out-of-pocket expenses. The rest was my own labour. My truck is 30 years old (but I've kept it up so it's still completely reliable), and I wear simple work clothes 6 days a week. I could go into more detail, but essentially I spend very little time in non-productive activities (I love my work, so work isn't work), I do everything I possible can for myself without money, I earn money without wasting time traveling, and I've enjoy good health all my life. Does this help? Bye for now, Steve

Good Morning! Yes, I'm a big fan of trees, too. Before I got married I planted trees for two summers in northern Canada. We'd plant about 1000 seedlings a day each. Here on my own property, planting trees was the first thing I did - pines, maples, oaks, locust and fruit trees. Those trees were about as thick as a pencil when I put them in the ground in 1987. Now some of them are 16 inches in diameter at the base. Drop by my website baileylineroad.com for a visit sometime. You'll find lots of stuff there, including tool giveaways, articles and videos of interest to hands-on, how-to people. Bye for now and thanks for watching! Steve