Chuvash homestead consisted of kilkarty, kartish – a front yard (the yard itself) and a back yard. A cage was built on to the dwelling house (schurt, purt). Peasants of average means had homesteads that consisted of a barn, a stable, a cattle-shed (vite), a shed and a cellar. Almost every Chuvash yard had a summer kitchen “lasch”. A bath-house was built a little farther from the homestead, at the ravineside near rivers.

Well-to-do peasants had two houses (izba), two-storied barns of good quality and the whole complex of rooms for harvest storage and cattle keeping. Prosperous peasants’ homesteads had up to 30 buildings, poor peasants’ homesteads only had a dwelling house, inner porch (it was used as a barn) and a cattle-shed. Yards were separated by an oak fence or paling. From the end of XIX century two or threefold gates with a span roof (“tsar’s gates”) became widespread. Their posts were decorated with relief carving, a Bulgar solar circle and “a string”. In the yard under the shed various kinds of transportation were kept: a cart (urapa), a perch (varam urapa), sheaf-cart (karman) and a sledge.

Prosperous peasants had festive carriages – tarantass with a wicker basket, sledges with a back, wedding kibitkas with half-closed wagons covered with leather.

A house with four walls is a common type of houses. In XIX prosperous Chuvash began to build five-walled houses with stone foundation. In many regions of the Middle Volga and especially the Ural region the Chuvash built houses from saman, caespitose-beds and stone. There were basically span roofs, some rich Chuvash people had hipped roofs. Roofing was made of a bark, straw and shingle, by the end of XIX century board, iron and tiled roofs appear.

House finishing and decoration were often trimmed with carving. Carving (more often solar circle) was used when decorating posts of gates.

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