Inside An Austere Amish Home (17 Photos)

“Austere” was the adjective that struck me on my first look at these photos. We’ve looked at plenty of plainer Amish homes here before. This one definitely belongs in that group.

The home is in the area of Reading in Hillsdale County, Michigan. This is the southern bit, the state’s sole county which borders both Ohio and Indiana.

The Reading settlement has been around for 45 years now, and is one of four Amish communities in the county.

You can see the exterior of this home is unfinished, with the Tyvek HomeWrap still exposed. That is not uncommon with the plainer Amish homes. I believe it reflects budget realities of a home still in progress.

On first look this home resembles a Swartzentruber Amish home, but this is a plain Swiss Amish community. The plainer Swiss groups have some of the simplest homes you’ll see.

There are around 400 Amish people living in this community. So not a small one. But not a huge community either, which might be why we see this home listed on a public real estate website.

The basic description and photos via Zillow:

Amish country home in Reading Township, Michigan situated on 5 lovely acres. This property has a huge newer barn with incredible storage potential and a few other nice outbuildings as well. Immediate possession is possible.

There is a well on the property and there is also an older septic on this property which has never been used by this current owner, the condition is unknown. Call today for more details!

The home is listed as having one bathroom, but I don’t know if that’s right. Swiss Amish usually use outhouses. The note about the older septic never used by the owner also suggests that to be the case. So let’s have a look.

Inside the Home

First, the entry room, where mud boots and dirty shoes stay, and where the family might do things like washing clothes and canning. Very basic with the particle board interior.

Another look inside the kitchen shows us a spacious area typical of Amish kitchen/dining areas.

The ground floors of a lot of these plainer Amish homes especially will consist mainly of a large kitchen/dining space, and one sitting room, and then the parents’ bedroom. On the left we see the entrance into the main ground floor room.

Main Room

Here’s the main room where the family would have visitors, and spend evenings together. Notice the bed in the corner, which is also common in plainer Amish homes – a small bed in the large main room.

Basic hickory rockers are also typical for this type of home. These have a covering, and what looks like a cushion for added comfort. That little stove no doubt can get this space pretty toasty in winter.

Bedrooms

Now a look at the home’s bedrooms. This is one of the more basic Amish bedrooms you’ll see anywhere, from the flooring to the furnishings to the oil lamp.

Really little to no decor in this home, other than maybe a calendar and clocks in the main rooms.

Another small bedroom has a similar aesthetic. The home is listed as having just two bedrooms.

Probably a young Amish family live here, based on the crib in the other room, the small chair here, and the size of the home and number of bedrooms.

Basement

Pan storage area, inside the staircase leading to the basement. Interesting place to keep them.

The basement itself is clean and well-organized. And on the left, we see that the family has put in their canning work for the coming winter. Whether they spend it in this home, or somewhere else, depends on how quickly this home sells.

Another staircase leads to an unfinished upstairs section of the home, used for storage.

On the property

Outside we see open buggies, which are traditional in many Swiss Amish communities.

Here are some of the outbuildings. The light mounted over the entrance on the right indicates this was probably once a non-Amish-owned property.

And inside one of them, a garage/storage area. An assortment of interesting things in this photo. It’s also possible that this space is where the family holds church services, when it’s their turn.

Price

This home measures 2,048 square feet in size, on five acres of land. So what’s the price?

It’s currently on the market at $195,000, represented by Karen Foust with Century 21.

It’s realy one of the plainest Amish homes we’ve looked at here, and would take some overhauling to get it up to most non-Amish people’s standards. But it might make a nice project for someone, at an affordable price.