A Hobbit House
(Page 4 of 4)
March/April 2000
By Robyn Griggs Lawrence
Zuker scavenged the forest for days looking for just the right log to create an arch-top leaded-glass window by the front door. Once he found it, he bent a piece of cardboard to fit, then laid pieces of glass on top and soldered them together with thick leading. Stained-glass pros had told him that type of window was impossible to make, but, Zuker says, “you just keep plodding along until you come up with a trick that makes it work.”
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When carpenters told him it couldn’t be done, Zuker built a window seat out of a cedar log he found and crafted the front door out of 4-inch cedar planks. “You just don’t ever let anybody tell you it can’t be done,” Zuker adds. “Anybody can do anything if they’re willing to work hard. I didn’t have any skills—no special talents. I just wasn’t afraid of a little hard work”
Three years after he broke ground, Zuker deemed the house habitable—although he still considers it a work in progress. He estimates the entire structure—including appliances, well, and septic system—cost him $40,000, much higher than he had anticipated. “And I didn’t even put a dollar figure on my time,” he says. “I would spend twelve hours hammering the brass handle for the front door. How do you put a price on that?”
Cottage costs
To build his 900-square-foot home, Gary Zuker bought:
- 250 bales of straw, $375
- 6 cubic yards of blue clay, $25
- 60 tons of limestone boulders, $120
- 50 planed pine timbers, 70 cents per board foot, $2,000
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