I've nearly finished my cottage-style garden room.
I have never laid a stone before this project and it shows, but I think it's safe and looks cottage-y so kind of meets my spec.
I have been building this in my garden after work since June last year (11 months). It is full stone with lime mortar and every single thing is reclaimed or recycled.
Not a single bit of concrete or portland cement has been used (except the glass block window mortar) The full build has cost £500 ($700) all inI
Firstly I did have access to a small van so I collected as much free/cheap or stone as possible from facebook marketplace when people in my area were knocking down walls and stuff. This led to a mixture of lovely coursed stone batches and sometimes basically garden boulders which I would very roughly shape with a bolster chisel.
There was an existing concrete pad from an old garden structure so I was lucky in that regard but it was an odd shape, like a rhombus so I just sort of ran with it and dug a rubble trench foundation 5ft deep sloping away to daylight around the entire perimeter and then started the wall about 3ft underground in my biggest stone blocks.
I'm not sure if this is something I'll come to regret but I put the inner facing half of the wall on the concrete pad, and the outerfacing half on top of the giant stone block footing. They were then tied together with long through-stones and any tiny gap in the middle filled with lime mortar/smaller rubble).
I regret not using a string line or plumb line as it's maybe a little too "cottage-y" with not a single wall or opening anywhere close to straight. I later realised this isn't exactly doing yourself a favour when it comes to window and door frames!
Slowly slowly, I try to do a little amount every day as then it adds up. I still have to finish the door frames this weekend and the doors and guttering/downpipes. No rush now the roof is on and the couch is in.
Very fun build, I would love to do another with what I've learnt but would have to find more garden from somewhere!!
Please be super critical, I used hand tools only like it was 1850 for some reason, I don't quite trust myself with power tools ha
Flooring grade and level indoor/outdoor yet to be finalised so don't judge that part.
I will keep this post updated with future cracks and movement if any occur for the Googlers, I did a lot of googling whilst building and often took tips from the permaculture communities old posts so I know how helpful that can be.
TLDR: Full stone from Facebook marketplace quarry, NHL 3.5 hydraulic lime+sharp sand, clay soil, man cave, garden, hand tools only, no Portland.