Inside A “Bare Bones” Michigan Amish Home (25 Photos)

When you take the spartan exterior and simple furnishings of this Michigan Amish home together, “bare bones” certainly fits the bill. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a homey place to live.

This is a pure Amish shop home if I ever saw one. From the outside it is very functional looking – unpainted metal siding. Inside there is a plain but (relatively) cozy Amish home.

We are looking at an Amish community in Coldwater, Michigan, and obviously going by the season, these photos were taken in summer.

This appears to be one of several plain Swiss Amish communities in the region. Coldwater is in Michigan’s Branch County, home to well over 2,000 Amish people.

One of the simpler Amish homes you’ll see. Coldwater, Michigan (Branch County)

But what’s the point of a “shop” home and why do Amish build them? The point of a shop home: build an inexpensive shop building to first live in, and later build a proper home, with the original building becoming a workshop or other non-living space structure.

We’ve seen them here several times before, including this 2-in-1 shop home and woodworking business, or this Amish shop home with its own storm shelter.

But compared to those shop homes, this Michigan home is on the even plainer side of things. That is evident from the outside, with the “raw” metal siding. Others we’ve seen are in shades of red, brown, tan, and white.

Here’s the home description:

Welcome to this 30×70 home with shop on a 1.63 acre lot. This home features two bedrooms and a large open floor concept. There is a well and septic from prior home. Family gets water from the current well.

The shop has a large attic for storage. A portion of the property in fenced in. As most Amish houses, it has no electricity or plumbing. Call today for your own viewing!

Kitchen

Spacious-feeling kitchen-entry area. The floor appears to be painted concrete. Not the coziest floor covering, but that would make sense for a shop home.

Blue oilcloth on the kitchen table.

A kitchen-table length church-style bench is another common thing you see in Amish homes of all sorts. The bench is an easy way to seat the toddler-to-grade school-sized children.

Walk-in pantry. Large cooler probably used for extra cooling as this group wouldn’t be using propane refrigerators, etc.

Living Area

Recliner (or maybe just an especially lean-y chair) that looks like it’d be easy to nod off in.

Check out the board game collection. I see Life, Dominos (I think)…and that’s about all I can make out here.

Crib, rocker and small desk/table with what looks like a Bible among other books.

Bedrooms

There are just two of them. This photo provides an interesting contrast. Despite being a plain group (note the flypaper), you’ve also got a small bedroom fan here, presumably battery-operated.

Another angle of the same bedroom.

The second of two bedrooms. Not sure how it got so blue. This is not (yet) a large family by Amish standards. But they might be headed in that direction, perhaps that is the reason for the home sale.

While not a separate bedroom, there is a third bed in the main room.

Bathroom?

As for the bathroom, here you go:

This is a group which doesn’t use indoor plumbing, so it’s the outhouse option.

Garage part of house

Here is the other end of the structure, which I’m calling a “garage” for lack of a better word. Open top buggy characteristic of Swiss Amish churches.

The wringer washer, baby seat, small antlers, and kayak type boat are among the things that I notice here.

A later photo shows the same space with some changes – including one patriotic addition. This is interesting because, as a rule, the Amish don’t display patriotic symbols like the flag.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t patriotic on some level though, and despite the cultural norm against it, the owners here might feel comfortable putting up a U.S. flag in this out-of-sight garage-style space.

And this is the attic/crawlspace area.

Price

So…what are they asking for this place? For an Amish home, it’s a small lot and small square footage (and, it’s not even a proper home building). So, you already know it’s not going to be a million dollars.