Episode-2586- Small House – Big Land Living with Beau Brotherton
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Beau and his wife Kelly are the kind of people who see what could be and don’t hesitate to make it happen. With their four kids, they sold their 2000 sqft suburban home to do this crazy thing of converting a 16×48 shed into a full time home. A year into this adventure, they are in the process of restoring the land and building a permaculture homestead.
Beau is the creator of the Better Together Life Youtube channel and Podcast, Shed to House Facebook group, and is the author of the “Get Off Your Tail and Homestead” book. He joins us today to talk about their journey and converting an 800 square foot shed into a home and a homestead for his family of 6.
Resources for today’s show…
Beau’s Links
- BetterTogetherLife.com
- Better Together Life on Facebook
- Better Together Life on Instagram
- Better Together Life on YouTube
- Shed to House Facebook Group
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Thank you Jack for having me on today!
On basements in the South:
I lived in NC for a while and nobody had basements there either. The claim being they couldn’t due to the red clay.
Well, almost nobody. I worked with a guy who’s house was built on top of the old municipal in-ground pool. Still lined with mosaic tile around the edges. Didn’t have any leaks or cracking issues.
So, what’s so different between the construction of a basement and an in-ground pool? How many in-ground pools are all over the South? Certainly the I-beams for support are still a necessity. Couldn’t we just build a pool and then “O no, the swirling death cloud moved this shed on top of it.”
Just my thoughts based on an observation I made a few years ago…
Great interview Beau!
Bazinga!
My father-in-law is a builder, previously in the midwest, now in Florida. He’s always said that a basement is the most expensive way to support a house, and that may be why most homes in the south don’t have them. The depth isn’t needed for frost protection, and it may be cheaper to add square footage above grade than to do a basement. There are drawbacks to a basement as living space, but they’re definitely helpful when a tornado comes.
Here in the midwest we’re seeing more Frost-Protected Shallow Foundations (Google it) and fewer basements. My cousin built this way outside of Duluth, mainly because of a high water table in the area.