Choose where to build

Pick ground that is dry, safe from floods and falling trees, facing the sun, and near water but not too near.

easy⏳ a daytradition — not yet hand-tested

A house is only as good as the ground under it. Build on wet ground and the walls rot. Build in a flood path and one storm takes everything. Build in deep shade and you fight cold and damp forever. One careful day of looking saves you months of misery, so walk slowly and let the land tell you what it does when you are not watching.

The land always leaves clues. Water stains on tree trunks, moss on one side of rocks, a line of driftwood far from the stream — these are the land's memory of its worst days. Your job today is to read them.

You need

• A full day of daylight — you must see the site in morning and afternoon light to know where the sun goes.
• A source of water already found — a spring, stream, or place you can dig a well. You will carry water every single day, so this matters.
• A stick about as tall as you — for poking the ground to test how soft or wet it is.
• Your eyes and patience — most of this job is looking, not doing.

Steps

1. Stand at your water source and walk outward. Good sites sit 50 to 200 paces from water — close enough to carry a bucket without dread, far enough that a flood or a rising stream never reaches your floor.
2. Look for high, gently sloping ground. A slight slope (you barely notice walking it) lets rain run away from the house instead of pooling under it. Avoid the very top of a hill — wind hits hardest there — and avoid the bottom of a valley, where cold air and water both collect at night.
3. Read the flood clues. Look for:
   • Dried mud or a line of leaves and sticks caught in bushes — that is how high water once rose. Build well above it.
   • Plants that love wet feet: reeds, rushes, willows. Where they grow, the ground is wet for part of the year.
   • Dark, squishy soil. Push your stick in — if it sinks easily or the hole fills with water, walk on.
4. Check the sun. In the northern half of the world, a slope facing south catches the most sun; in the southern half, face north. Morning sun on your doorway dries the dew and warms you cheaply. Note where shadows fall at midday.
5. Look up before you look down. Stand where the house will be and check every tree within falling distance — a tree can reach as far as it is tall. Dead trees, leaning trees, and trees with big dead branches (people call these widow-makers, because they kill) must come down first or you must move.
6. Check what the wind does. Face the direction storms usually come from — locals, moss patterns, and bent trees all tell you. A rise, a rock face, or a stand of healthy trees on that side is a free windbreak.
7. Test the ground itself. Dig or poke a hole a forearm deep. You want firm soil — packed earth, gravel, clay that holds its shape. Loose sand shifts; pure soft muck sinks.
8. Mark the spot and sleep on it. Push stakes into the corners of a rough square, then come back the next morning. If dew is heavy there, if it feels cold, if something bothers you — trust that and look again. A day's delay is cheap.

Watch out

• Beautiful riverside flats flood. Flat, lush grass right beside a stream is flat and lush because the river visits. Build on the terrace above it instead.
• The bottom of a slope collects everything — cold air, rainwater, and creeping damp. Move partway up instead.
• A lone big tree looks like nice shade but it drops branches, draws lightning, and its roots fight your posts. Keep the house at least one tree-height away.
• Old dry gullies are not safe — a gully is dry until the one storm that carved it comes back. Never build in one.
• Don't build touching the water source. Your waste, ash, and washing will foul it. Stay uphill and at least 50 paces from where you drink.
• Animal paths matter. A well-worn game trail through the site means large animals walk there and will keep walking there. Shift aside rather than argue.

How it works

Water always runs downhill and cold air does too — it flows like slow, invisible water and pools in low ground at night. That is why a spot halfway up a gentle sun-facing slope wins: rain drains past you, cold air slides below you, and the sun does part of your heating for free. Everything else in this guide is just reading the marks that water, wind, and gravity left behind.