My humble abode that I ain't so humble about

Sometime in mid-November, I started clearing land for my house. A week ago I finally spent my first night there. Lying in my loft bed, I stayed up half the night thinking about what else needed doing around the house. The rest of the night was spent trying not to worry about rustling caused by some inhabitant of my roof. For the first time in my life I am living alone, on a dirt floor, between bamboo walls, under a thatch roof.

For the first week, it took some readjusting to get used to life without electricity again. I had been living at the electrified co-op for the past two months, and I had to get reaquainted with my headlamp. Now though, I am trying to fight headlamp dependence, considering anything other than candles and lanterns giving in. The house and I are getting along swimmingly and I must say that looking at these pictures makes me yearn to go back and feel it's bamboo embrace. Also to make sure that the chickens or anyone else hasn't destroyed anything in my absense. Without further ado, the tour.

All these pictures turned out a little darker than I would have liked, but hopefully you can still follow. The first picture is from just inside my front door. At the top is my loft bed, you can see the planks and my mattress up there. The ladder is to the left, running diagonally up next to the chair. This is sort of the bedroom area, with the clothes on the right. The next photo is still from inside the front door but now looking to the left. In the foreground is the raised dining room/study area. There was a big rock, a trench, and some exposed pipe there, so it made sense to cover it up. Classes things up a bit. In the background, on the other side of the window, is my kitchen area, where I do my cooking. I am now realizing how poor of a job these photos do of distilling the essense of my house. Especially the last two because all the light is swallowed up outside. I'll try taking some pictures with the flash next time. The last picture is from the kitchen area, looking back towards the front door.

This entry is turning out quite lame. I'll do better next time I promise.