Thread: Witch or hobbit house

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Hi all,

So I have down what I'm doing this year. BUT, I've thought of doing a hobbit or witch hut between our house and the road. There is a culvert, drainage ditch between the two and I figured I could build one into the side of the hill. I would make it octagon or round(ish). Put a door and round window with a creature waving. Now my big prob. with the whole set-up. I want to do like a thatch roof. Kind of like you would see on a cabana hut. Looks like straw bundled together. I would call it thatch but, I'm not sure. I tried looking at a couple hunting sites for a blind material but, that was a no go. Anyone have suggestions where I can pick this stuff up cheap and in bulk? And if anyone knows what it's called would be a big help!

Thanks

Thatch roofing is what it's called, but it's anything but cheap........
Do a search for thatch roofing or tiki bar roofing and you'll come up with plenty to look at.

Ok, I'll have to do a google search. Thanks for letting me know. The owner of our marina did his whole roof on his houseboat that way and did wooden walls so it looks like a cabana floating down the river. Really cool.

Did a quick search and found a 12' thatch umbrella cover for $200. I could either get an unbrella for my back deck and cover it or make a faux plywood roof and cover it with the unbrella cover and still do it pretty cheap. Ty again for the help.

How close to true does it need to be? Will it be in the dark? I was wondering if you could just get some cheap bamboo patio roll up screen and use that. Maybe with some dried tall grass attached to the ends so it'd drape over the side and look more "natural". Just a thought.

you could go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of hula grass skirts (actually plastic) you have to look at every thing differently when your a haunter, example a light box is not just a light box- it could be an x-ray machine or a table to hold bottles.
Thats probably why haunters are such pack rats, we know we will use everything someday some how! lol

It would have to look pretty realistic. The "house" would only be about 15 feet from the road. It would be out there for at least a month. Then I was thinking of putting some rope light down to the house through the yard so the kids could go up and see it closer. They love that stuff here. Last year they came by during the day just to see my huge pneumatic spider. I had put it in the back yard but, they wanted to pay it a visit. lol Go figure something I was thinking of skipping would be one of the biggest hits again.
I'm leaning toward the umbrella cover. We need the umbrella for the deck anyways. Been putting it off for years. Then I can also take them both on the boat when we go for our bar-b-ques and it would fit right in. It would also make the roof completely waterproof. I would just pick it up first and build the "house" to fit the umbrella.

Not sure of the outdoor climate conditions, but you could try this: use plywood as a substrate for your roof painting it a dark color.

For the thatching, try a combination of shredded brown paper bags, shredded tan colored plastic bags, twigs, and other organic-looking materials; bound in a linear fashion (say, sandwiched and stapled between free paint stirring sticks) That way, you can produce thatching "shingles"- much easier to install than genuine thatching. Use an outdoor wood sealer/polyurethane/stain on the materials, completely saturating more delicate materials. Spraying a protective coat when installation is done would also add another measure of preservation.

Then assemble thatching strips to your roof substrate.

Other pseudo-thatching materials: deconstructed matchstick blinds, cane, reed, dried grasses, bamboo skewers, muslin (soaked in latex paint/primer and allowed to dry vertically in a stiffened 'sheet', then cut into thatching strips) plastic straws, chopsticks. . .

depending on how you want it to look....and if you have them laying around....dead branches.
would give it more of a woodsy look

The weather here is unpredictible in Oct. Mostly cold with chance of rain/snow. I would use the brown paper bags and such for the roof and then varnish it all but, by the time I bought all the varnish and did all the work on the roof I could just as well buy the umbrella cover. Then I could use it later on for other things too. With the bags and such, I would have to throw it all away because, I don't have the space to store it and it wouldn't be recyclible.

The dead branches is a nice option. I will have to add some to the thatch. We get a lot of dead branches through the summer and fall. I can also collect them from my marina. Then we can use them as kindling later on.