In a world where both inflation and the number of mortgages are growing, people can only dream of getting housing cheap and cheerful. The former teacher of music school and the British farmer Michael Buck proved that it is quite easy to build a house with one’s own hands, without great sums of money.

It’s incredible, but the 59-year-old Oxfordshire art school teacher in retirement even in his old age, managed to build a small house of an amazing beauty in his garden, having spent just £150 ($250).

Of course, it was easier for Buck to realize his idea, since the land had been already belonged to him and had not required additional investments and construction execution (Buck drew up the building as a summer house), but Michael deliberately complicated his task: he wanted to use only those materials that he could find himself, and refused to use power tools.

The man for many years nurtured the idea of a project of summer house in the backyard, collected and procured construction materials. For example, the floorboards were taken from an abandoned neighbour’s boat, and the window glass was removed from the recycled truck. The roof of the house was covered with a straw, which he collected on his own in the neighbouring fields.

There is no electricity and running water in the house. And the heating is provided by a wooden oven, but this, according to Michael, is more than enough to heat the internal space, because the walls keep the heat well. Buck designed the woodpile as a museum exhibit (it is not for nothing that he worked in the art school), and the neighbouring well serves as a refrigerator. In the house there are amenities, although they are located on the street — compost toilet is located in a separate annexe. Michael takes water from a nearby stream.

While carrying out the construction of this house, Buck wanted to prove to people that anyone can build a house without spending money. «The house should not cost a lot of money! Yes, for construction you need land, but the house itself cannot cost millions! We live in a society where we spend our lives paying mortgage loans, which many people do not like — I wanted to show that you can build your house without a mortgage,» commented Michael.

By the way, Michael spent $250 on nails and building materials. Now he is renting a built house with an area of approximately 28 square meters to a woman working on a nearby dairy farm.