Early+Homes

There were no homes for rent when colonists began to arrive in America. Desperate for protection from the elements, settlers first sought refuge in caves, [|wigwams] that Native Americans shared with them or had abandoned, and huts made of branches and sod. One common method of building a shelter started with digging out a hillside, extending a framework of saplings for a roof and front wall, lining the inside walls with bark and covering the visible exterior with sod. These first homes often lasted three to five years, until a better home could be built. Wood was the most common building material used in the middle colonies. Simple clapboard houses, boards nailed to four corner posts, and roofed with sod or thatch were the next step up from a sod house. The Swedish settlers to Delaware were the first to build log cabins, warm sturdy structures like the ones they had lived in in Sweden. Glass was a scarce commodity and ingenious methods were used to create windows, including oiled and waxed cloth or paper or thin sheets of animal horn. The Iroquois lived in [|longhouses], which were long structures made of sapling bent to form a rounded frame, covered with mats of bark.
 * Early Homes in the Colonies**