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When The Retiree Builds A Stone House All By Himself In The Mountains Of Santa Catarina, In The Itajai Valley, What Seemed Like Stubbornness Becomes A Lifetime Work Built Stone By Stone
He was once a farmer, now he has a wax factory, a truck, a tractor, but he confesses that, being alone, the routine is different. He is retired, but he insists that he cannot stay still. In the midst of the rural scenery, the stone house stands out. It is a construction without luxury, but made with time, patience, and love, a direct result of the decision that a retiree builds completely alone every detail.
Stone By Stone, Without A Plan And Without Help
Mr. Dionísio Bertou started the work in 1995. According to him, it took 20 years to build the house. Stone by stone, he raised the walls that today tell their own story. There are more than 2,000 stones fitted, carved, adjusted by eye and by ear of the hammer.
While others built wooden or brick houses, he decided to build with stone. He heard that it was crazy, that no one would believe a whole house could come from a massive stone.
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But the retiree builds completely alone each layer, insisting until the shape he had in mind became a wall. He learned from no mason, took no course.
He learned by doing. There were no plans, no drawings. He calculated as he placed the stones, “more or less as it came,” until they fit.
Millions Of Hammer Strikes And A Trade Invented In Practice
The stones are meticulously shaped with hammer strikes and a pointer. Mr. Dionísio jokes but knows he is not far from reality when he says there were more than 5 million hammer strikes over the years.
To take a corner of stone, it often took dozens of blows, and not always did the impact stay only on the mineral; it came straight to his hand.
Instead of getting discouraged, he faced the effort as part of the journey. With each adjustment, each corrected corner, the idea that a retiree builds completely alone a stone house without cracks and without a plan became less improbable and turned into a concrete example of persistence.
Cool In Summer, Cozy In Winter
Descendant of Italians, Mr. Dionísio wanted to honor his grandparents who came to explore Brazil. The choice for a rustic style was not just aesthetic.
Without paint, without plaster, and practically without wood in the structure, he eliminated problems like termites and reduced the need for constant maintenance.
The stone itself provides thermal comfort. The house stays cool in summer and cozy in winter, one of the great advantages of the old-fashioned way of building, inspired by Italian constructions from the past century.
In each room, there is a bit of the prowess of the curious self-taught farmer, entrepreneur, and carpenter.
Furniture, Details, And The Decorator Called Time
In the bedroom, which he humorously calls the “mansion bedroom,” almost everything was made by his own hands.
The bed was recently made with a twisted eucalyptus branch that was hard to find, used as the centerpiece. On the wall, there’s a guitar. Of course, he made that too.
The house has two floors and the upstairs holds even more of the owner’s personality. Living on a minimum wage doesn’t allow for great shopping luxuries.
The decorator around here is time. There are accumulated objects, worked wood, details that witness days and nights of someone who prefers to create rather than buy ready-made.
Resilient Structure And Silent Admiration
Up on the roof, Mr. Dionísio looks over the neighborhood as if observing a small kingdom spread across the hills.
When asked if any engineer has ever visited the house, he replies that yes, some have come. And the reaction is almost always the same: admiration for the fact that, after 30 years, the stone house has shown no cracks.
Even on the roof, he feels secure. He says he is more solid there than many would feel on the ground.
It is the practical confirmation that when a retiree builds completely alone with calm and criteria, the result can be as solid as a work signed by professionals.
Between Brazil, Italy, And The Desire To Leave
The retiree has been to Italy three times. The memories from there stir his imagination and feed the desire to, perhaps, build a new life on the other side of the ocean.
From time to time, he thinks about selling everything and leaving. He talks about enjoying life, changing the scenery, starting over.
But for now, he stays. The stone house is more than a shelter. It is family memory, a tribute to his Italian ancestors, concrete proof that he never knew how to be just a spectator.
Even when he thinks of leaving, what holds him back is precisely what a retiree builds completely alone over decades: roots, stories, and walls that speak.
Solid Dreams, Slow Time, And Music On The Porch
Not only of stone, cement, and hammer lives Mr. Dionísio. He likes to sing, to compose, to let the music echo between the walls he built.
In a time when everything seems hurried, his house teaches that the most solid dreams are those built slowly and with one’s own hands.
With each visit, the impression is the same: more than a curious construction, the house is the summary of a life that chose the long but consistent way.
At the top of the hill, between the wind, the stones, and the music, there lies the question he answers every day with his example of a retiree who builds completely alone his own destiny.
If you had the chance to start a lifework like this, would you have the patience to endure years of labor and also be a retiree who builds completely alone something that will stand for decades?
Gostaria de morar em uma casa assim, na Irlanda tem mtas casas de pedra