Filling 'er up

We've finally allowed ourselves to begin acquiring things for the new house. We are firm believers in waiting to buy as you invariably change your mind. But we're close enough now to start looking for good deals on things that we are very confident we want.
The first item purchased was my kitchen sink:

Ignore the wonky cabinet - that's temporary and came with the sink. The sink is in great shape (although a bit dirty) and we found it on Craig's list. Amazing what you can find there. I was incredibly specific in what I wanted for a kitchen sink: white porcelain over cast iron, double drainboard, single basin (shallow), and big enough to fit my favorite cookie sheet in a flat position. Whew! Took 5 years to find one in good enough condition.

Now we're looking at cast iron tubs and bathroom sinks. Habitat for Humanity Restore is a great resource as is Craig's List. Wish us luck!

Progress Update

Ethan has completed the concept drawings and will start the engineered plans. He's done a great job translating my floor plan into an actual structure.

We've made it to the road with the power corridor. At least the cutting portion of the power corridor - the digging stage is still to come and I'm sure it will prove much more time consuming. We altered the path a bit. After getting past the tractor shed we were showing the path to D and J. J very calmly asked why we went left (tilted hill) when we could have gone right (flat hiking path already cleared). The answer was because we started at the home site and worked North and it's only when you look back that you realize that you could have gone a different way. We measured both and they are very similar lengths so we'll take the path of least resistance when we dig.

Now we could have pissed and moaned about the wasted effort (we had to clear quite a bit of brush to get to that point) but instead let go of that to choose the better path. In accounting we call those expenditures sunk costs and they should not be considered when making decisions about the next stage of a project. You spent it, there is no way to get it back, and you don't want to throw good money after bad. Same thing applies to physical effort (oddly, it's easier when applied to physical effort - it's really hard to ignore dollars spent).

Power

Last weekend we marked the trail that the electric will follow. We used a compass, 100 foot tape measure, and the survey map to figure out the straightest path from the pole at the road to the future home site. Marked trees with orange surveyors tape and then retraced our path to see if we stayed fairly straight. Then we came back another day to start clearing the trail. Mostly saplings that we could cut with the loppers but had to do some chainsaw work too. Cleared about 200 feet of the 2000. Whew! We've got a long way to go, but at least the weather is great for working outdoors. Who would have thought that we could cut like this in February. Usually the snow is too deep for us to work safely with the chainsaw but this year we've had almost no snow and the temperature has been in the 30s. I'm not a fan of climate change, but for once I'm grateful for the mild winter.

And it begins

The meeting with the architect went well and we've already had the site visit. In case anyone is wondering how we found him, we asked another trusted contractor who he likes to work with. Still had to do an interview to make sure we going to be able to work together, but it gave us a jump start. We also met with another architect to get a comparison quote and see who we liked better.

Now we're picking windows and doors to establish opening sizes before he starts to draw up the plans. We want to minimize changes after the initial design so we've also been doing a last minute "are we sure we have everything where we want it" review. And we've added a thing or two that would make a difference in the design. For example, we want a utility sink in the garage and will run a pipe off that up to the second floor porch for water use up there (I'm thinking outdoor bathtub!). This is key because we're building on a slab and need to have it in the design for waste and water lines.

Heading to the Home Show on Friday to check things out and get some info on solar heating and radiant floor systems. Woo-hoo!

Professionals

I've designed (and redesigned and designed again) our floor plans over the last several years. We'd talked about building a home for quite a while and I purchased the Punch landscape and building software so that I could play around with designs. It actually become quite relaxing, a definite creative departure from my normal analytic routine. Some designs were fanciful and had no hope of getting built; most incorporated layout ideas based on the many houses in which we've lived.

We've chosen the building style and I've designed a floor plan that we think will satisfy our lifestyle and the site. Now we need blueprints to actually get construction started so we're heading to the architect's office on Monday. I'm sure he'll have suggestions to improve the layout and I'll have to be very careful not to get defensive. After all, I've spent years fine-tuning this. But that's why you go to professionals, after all. To make sure your stair well actually does fit in the space you've allotted and that the trusses can span the building width without all those pesky interior walls.

Winter is the time to relax (and plan)

Okay, basically caught up to the right time frame. It's now the season to finalize plans and get ready for the building year to come.
We need to get my floor plans to somebody who can draw up the blueprints as step one. Then we'll start the permitting process and get going with contractors. Lots to do. We've already started speaking with SIP manufacturers (that whole walk before you can crawl mentality coming back to haunt us). They've been extremely kind and helpful about telling us where we should start (crawling). We'll get back to them soon I'm sure.
But for now, we'll sit back, enjoy the fire pit, and do some skiing once the snow starts.

Happy New Year and may 2012 be productive and full of family and friends. 

End of season

We got a lot of clearing done this summer. This is a picture of the future home site - we've done some initial blocking and will move the strings a bit now that we've refined the home size. It will fit better on the site and give us some separation from the work shop. I'll post a layout as soon as I figure out how to do that...

In the meantime, here I am on our future porch (you have to really use your imagination).