DIY Network

Mississippi-Delta House: Off the Beaten Path From "Be Your Own Contractor: Vacation Homes" episode DBCV-104

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In this episode of we meet homeowners Meri and Tim Tenhet who acted as their own contractors when they built their vacation home, elevated on stilts, in the Mississippi delta -- just a half-mile from the Mississippi River.

In this segment the couple tells about the area where they built their weekend getaway and about the process of clearing the land in a conservation-conscious manner to minimize disturbance to this protected river-bottom environment.

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Figure A

Location

The Tenhet's getaway home was built near Sherard, Mississippi, in the heart of the delta and in close proximity to the river. It's only about a 30-minute drive from Meri and Tim's home in Clarksdale, Mississippi -- the town known as "the birthplace of the blues." The nearest large city is Memphis, about 2 hours northwest (figure A).

The Price of Solitude

For Tenhet family, a vacation home meant being able to enjoy the outdoors. Tim is a sportsman and enjoys hunting, and Meri and her daughter Elliot enjoy horseback riding. Their cabin is built on the land owned by Ward Lake Land Company, a hunting club that encompasses about 6,000 acres of hardwood bottom-land behind the Mississippi River levee. The Tenhets bought a partnership share in the club, including a parcel of land and hunting rights.

The location they found for building was on the banks of the Little Ward Lake. It's a beautiful piece of land, but one where building was not entirely simple. For building in this area, they were limited to either building on the levee or building in the flat area and elevating the structure 16-1/2 feet above the ground. The second option, which the Tenhets chose, also required building a road in and bringing in electricity and water lines to the location. Though there were additional costs involved, they preferred this option for the privacy and tranquility of living "off the beaten path."

In the end quarter-mile gravel road had to be built, and a water supply had to be installed off of a main line about that same distance away. For aesthetic reasons, they had their main electrical supply lines installed underground rather than with overhead power lines. Finally, there was the added expense of building an elevated structure. Despite the added expense, the couple is happy with their decision.

Stewardship of the Land

The partnership to which the Tenhets entered is subject to a conservation easement which prohibits clear-cutting of large areas for home lots. Trees were carefully selected, and specific ones were marked for cutting to allow the building of the house structure. Tim and Meri strove to place the house in a natural surrounding, leaving the area looking as undisturbed as possible (figures B and C).

Figure B

Figure C

Figure D

Low Maintenance, Please

Because this is, after all, a vacation home, it was important to the Tenhets to keep maintenance worries and expenses for the house at a minimum. "We wanted to build a cabin that didn't require daily or weekly maintenance," says Tim, "so going into it, we tried to keep those things in mind."

Because this is in an area that can have freezing temperatures in the coldest part of the winter, one critical factor was building in such a way as to make sure that water lines didn't freeze, causing burst pipes and water leaks, when the house was sitting empty. The Tenhets worked with a plumber to devise a method for quickly and easily draining the house's water lines via external spigots (figure D). This helped prevent any unwanted "wet surprises" when returning to the cabin after time away.

In the segment that follows, the do-it-yourselfers discuss the kitchen design, cabinets, electrical installation, lighting choices and some other custom features.

RESOURCES :

Resources for Be Your Own Contractor: Vacation Homes episode 104: Mississippi-Delta House

Majesty of the Mississippi Delta
To order this book from Amazon.com, click here.

My Mississippi
by Willie Morris, David Rae Morris
To order this book from Amazon.com, click here.

Square Books
Oxford, Mississippi
Website: www.squarebooks.com

Federal Emergency Management Administration
Website: www.fema.gov