"It is a secure house that you can live in and build from," she said, designed either to be the first piece of a larger permanent house or to be placed at the back of a lot and turned into a guest house or other outbuilding after a permanent house is completed."
I live in an old colonial four-square farmhouse built in 1906. On the corner of our property, built into the side of the hill with a fieldstone "basement" is 'The Homestead House.' This is where the family lived while they were building "the big house." They kept a cow, a goat, a pig, maybe some chickens in the basement of the house, which opens up onto a fenced area for grazing. The upstairs has an area for a kitchen and an area for sleeping, with a fireplace in the kitchen area. The outhouse is long gone. (It's in bad shape, but I may restore it some day; it would make a neat summer kitchen.)
It's about the size of this starter cottage, and that's the ONLY way (besides a tent, or in an underground home if you're a "Wisconsin Badger") people used to live while they were improving their lot in life and settling this great country of ours!
(And I had to answer to you, Arkady, because whenever I see your name on the boards, I silently remind myself to thank Martin Cruz Smith for inventing you! Can't wait to read of your new adventures; your stories are too few and far between for me!)
What a nice post. How many of our ancestors started in a humble home that grew as the family did. Dormers enlarging attics into bedrooms, porches added and them enclosed. No offense to those who live in trailers (I've lived in several) but they lack a sort of permanence.
(And I had to answer to you, Arkady, because whenever I see your name on the boards, I silently remind myself to thank Martin Cruz Smith for inventing you! Can't wait to read of your new adventures; your stories are too few and far between for me!)
Boy, I'm pining for the return of Arkady as well. He always had a sort of honesty, dignity and resolve that I wish I had. It is amazing that Gorky Park was written while the Soviet Union was still The Enemy... Seems a lifetime ago, doesn't it?
A_R