Category Cob Remodel

12 Month Budget Friendly Cob House Course

12 Month Budget Friendly Cob House Course

Mississippi Mud Home, Affiliates, Cob Remodel, Daily LIfe, Homesteading Products, Instructional Resources, Tadelakt, Times Saving Ideas
by Rachel

12 Month Budget Friendly Cob House Course

12 Month Budget Friendly Cob House Course. I’m getting pretty dang excited! Last week I purchased a This Cob House Course from Alex Sumerall who is the founder of This Cob House, LLC. It’s super affordable and a no brainier for anyone looking to do any natural building. I’ve been jamming through the first month of the course so I can feel more ready to get started and decide which project is best to begin with. It’s hard when there are so many things to do and I’m excited to start them all. lol

12 Month Budget Friendly Cob House Course

Probably what’s best is to start SUPER small and do the mail box. We have this hideous mailbox that is quite common here in Mississippi and in the south in general. It’s a mailbox post made of welded rims. To me it’s the dumbest looking thing ever. Although on a positive note it is STRONG! So, seems like the perfect thing to cover in cob and make pretty. And I doubt it would take very long.

So I think I finally found a feed store that has plain old straw. If you want to build with cob you can’t just use hay in it for the binding tensile strength. Apparently this material will begin to rot. I had a hard time finding the straw. It always seems to have a ton of bramble and thorny material in it also. Not rad.

Why a Tadelakt Bathroom?

We had another plumber come and give us an estimate on doing the plumbing for the hall bath. The first plumber was a flake. The second plumber wanted to put 3 guys on the job for 3 days and charge me $3,000! I’m no plumber, but I could do it in 3 days for $3,000 hahaha. SO NOT COOL! It became obvious he wasn’t and option. The 3rd plumber says he can do it in less than a day for $800 which includes all parts. And I liked him best also. If he does a great job I’ll leave his info here on my site.

I’m really hoping that the tadelakt bathroom will be our next “indoor” project. We will try and keep 2 projects going at the same time. One inside one outside. So when it’s nice out we’ll be out there and when it’s not we have something to do indoors.

I feel like this is the best solution for what bathrooms suffer from in the super humid south. There would be no seams that need caulking; that would inevitably mold. So having a fully tadelakt bathroom must be better than about any other option. If you don’t know what this is check out the site below for a better explanation. It’s written in broken English but has beautiful photos and great explanation.

https://tadelaktmarrakesh.com/tadelakt.php

Tadelakt Bathroom
Tadelakt

Also check out my growing Pinterest board on Bathrooms here.

I mean just look at some of those gorgeous tadelakt bathrooms! I need to know how to do that. And I know I need help to feel confident enough to build a shower in the south with this humidity. Wish us luck! I think I have access now to all the knowledge I will need. But we would love to hear from you about your ideas!

Write us a note 🙂

Cob House Course

Check out the 12 Month Budget Friendly Cob House Course. This course is so affordable there really is NOTHING to loose. You can pay for it all at once or make tiny monthly payments. Alex is an amazing wealth of knowledge. I watched his YouTube videos for year before I found his amazing cob course. There is 12 months worth of content here which really provides you with everything you need to get started plus a community to share with and ask questions of. Plus you can learn about tadelakt in this class!

Happy cobbing ya’ll!

May grace, mercy and peace be with you and yours,

~Rachel, Mississippi Mud Home

So We Bought a Meth-House and it's Kinda Scary

So We Bought a Meth-House and it’s Kinda Scary

Daily LIfe, Cob Remodel, Instructional Resources, Mississippi Mud Home, Tadelakt
by Rachel

We Bought a Meth-House and it’s Kinda Scary

We bought a meth-house and it’s kinda scary. Nothing went as planned for this move from Northern Nevada, but ultimately God had us in His plan, and we were able to purchase this house on 1.5 acres for only $3,000 down! Yes, it needed A TON of work but the available rentals out here were all crumbling, disgusting and dangerous to our health. At least this way we’d have control over our home decisions and HOW we wanted to re-build and improve something. It has STRONG bones!

Meth-House to Cob Remodeled Mississippi Mud Home

I bought this meth-house / old farmhouse with my kids in Mississippi, in September of 2020. My 2 kids are both grown and my daughter Shayne has moved away to go to school and live in the beautiful North West; she will be 20 in just a couple weeks. So now it’s just my son Travis and I. He just turned 24 and currently suffers grand mal seizures, so what we are able to accomplish varies a lot. His seizures started in 2018 and have been a huge factor in our wanting to get on land and have a cob built homestead.

So We Bought a Meth-House and it's Kinda Scary, Cob, Tadelakt

This is the room that ended up being Travis’ bedroom. We gutted it, took all the crap paneling down from the walls and ripped up the carpet. We had to get it livable immediately. We painted the sub-floor with primer and a one spot under the window where you could see there had been a leak years before. Every window in the house needs replaced so we have to go slow and be strategic in what we work on first so that we don’t have to do things twice. Smart not hard.

Then I Found Jesus

When we first came out here I had been a hypnotist and Reiki practitioner for 10 years and had a business that I had converted to be strictly on-line so that I could care for my son. I worked primarily with people who had very interesting life experiences like myself. I loved my job and believed I was helping people. And of course I did help people, to a degree. But in this health journey with my son, in my business and personal life, the truth began to come to light and was impossible to ignore. I came to the south intending to eventually open a new office and see clients here locally, and I found Jesus instead. More about that on my other website www.DivineMatrixSOULutions.com and YouTube channel here.

So very long story short, I closed my business for the services I had once offered and we began our new journey to create an income doing what we need to be doing everyday anyways; and so Homestead Harbor was born and is sort of a spin off of Mississippi Mud home. Which is my desire to share our possible solutions in fortifying this home to withstand these nasty storms AND repair the house with materials that can’t mold or mildew and will help mitigate the very humid conditions here in Mississippi.

We Bought a Meth-House, Cob, Tadelakt

It’s really common here in Mississippi to see homes rotting in real time before your eyes. I wish people knew what was possible with cob. How they could save their own homes with the very soil beneath their feet. So it is my hope to be an example of what is possible. And it may be that this has far more potential simply because there would be no need for building permits, as the home is already existing, and you’re simply re-modeling.

Tadelakt

“Tadelakt is an amazing finishing technique used to beautify and add waterproof function to your home. It is a water resistant finish so it can be applied to sinks, showers, pools, spas, baths, or to decorate a wall. It’s a great alternative to tiles in your bathroom.”

~Alex, This Cob House
We Bought a Meth-House, Tadelakt, Cob

I plan to take down the crap paneling in my bedroom and fill in the walls/between the studs with cob. The bathrooms are by far the worst thing inside of the house. These will be re-done with cob and tadelakt. We have to be realistic however for how long some of these projects might actually take with our budget and physical capabilities. But we are excited to get started and share our journey with everyone who wants to come along and hopefully learn from our mistakes and accomplishments. We hope to hear some great ideas from people and inspire others to do the same, and re-build their homes using some of these techniques.

We sure appreciate all the support we already have. If you are currently blessed and would like to bless us with any size of donation you can do that through Paypal by sending to inamaste@ymail.com If you live in Northern Mississippi, Western Alabama or South West Tennessee and want to donate supplies (old or new) please email me at Rachel@HomesteadHarbor.com

I’ll be featuring other homesteading/natural building channels, resources and sites that have inspired me over the past 15-20 years to do what we are doing now. Please share with us your favorite channels and families doing the same. And PLEASE share our site and channel with your friends and family.

I’ll sign off here since this is getting a little long. Thanks for taking the time!

May grace, mercy and peace be with you and yours,

~Rachel

Farmhouse Cob Remodel

Frugal Farmhouse Remodel with Cob

Cob Remodel, Daily LIfe, Instructional Resources, Mississippi Mud Home, Uncategorized
by Rachel

A Farmhouse Cob Remodel

Benefits of a frugal farmhouse remodel with cob. With less experience and money, you can remedy mold and mildew and stop your home from attracting destructive insects.

The sun is finally coming back. I thank God for that! It really has been a nasty and cold winter. The chickens are really happy about the sun too, and it makes me happy to see them happy. It’s also going to be nice to be able to get outside and get some projects done on the homestead.

When you buy an old farmhouse/trashed meth-house, the list of things to do and clean up seems never ending. But today I am indeed praising God for the roof over our heads and the food that is in the pantry and fridge. This time last year was ROUGH! And now here we are just barely over a year into our lives in this new place and it seems like it’s all going to work out. Even though daily sometimes, I have no idea how. But what is so new, is that I trust that, and trust in God in a new way that I never did before.

Today I thank God my son is here with me. He is breathing and conscious. We are now over a week since his last grand mal seizure and I’m praying that continues, forever really. One of the reasons we left our comfortable home was to find someplace we could actually own and grow a garden; to become a homesteading family.

This isn’t where we intended to be but it’s where we ended up. And for that, right now, we are grateful. This house might be a wreck. It might smell bad in a lot of places, but we have a roof and it’s ours! And we hope you come along with us as we figure this thing out.

Why This Farmhouse Remodel is called Mississippi Mud Home?

Well, because it’s a cob remodel in Mississippi. See everything in Mississippi begins to mold and break down even as you build it in your mind! Hahaha, no… really! So I’m hoping all the things I’ve learned from watching my favorite natural building, homesteading family channels helps us out here. I REALLY hope my projects help other people here in the south who may have never heard of these more affordable, DIY methods.

Why A Cob Remodel?

We plan to re-build this home with cob to solve many of our key problems. Mainly the mold and mildew issue because of the high humidity levels. But then there’s also the termites and other wood eating insects out here. Uggg every disgusting insect you can think of thrives out here in this environment!

So how do we protect this place from them!? We’re going to use cob. But first we’ll be treating all of the wood we uncover with a borax and water solution. We’ll also burn the wood using the Shou Shugi Ban method. You can watch about why this is an amazing technique from one of my favorite homesteading family channels here. And check out their website and blog here. https://tinyshinyhome.com/earthbag-chicken-garden

And I can’t forget to mention the terrifying storms out here! We have no storm shelter but thankfully this home is on a good foundation and is built from white oak. It’s STRONG! However since we have no storm shelter, it could stand to be stronger and I’m hoping that my ideas will make it so 😉

I am new at this blogging thing and I hope you can see the value in sticking with us to watch this place make it’s transformation from a drug house with a truly scary and sad past to a wonderful and productive small family homestead. More to come! Thanks for taking the time to read and share.

Till next time, may grace mercy and peace be with you and yours!

~Rachel, Mississippi Mud Home

Frugal Farmhouse Remodel with Cob / Mississippi Mud Home
Before we bought it in August 2020. You can’t see all the trash under the grass in this photo. Sometimes things look worse before they get better.