March 2012 Update

Not much to report I am afraid.  My new job has me working almost every waking hour, including the weekends. Ryan is still working on the second floor drawings but in taking up all of my slack, not much going on there.  We are still on track to turn in our drawings to someone by spring. Since spring starts this week, we have at least three months to get our act together.  Good thing is that my new job pays a living wage, so we are on track to have almost half the property paid off by next February. Which gives us a nice chunk of change to get started.  More when I can...

Our House... the template

We have finished the design of the house and are busy (Ryan is busy) re-drawing the sketches so that we can get them to the architect for a once over and some engineering help.  It seemed only appropriate to show everyone what the house is based upon.

Located on the title space is a photograph of a model of the 1995 Life Magazine Dream House created by Dennis Wedlick Architect LLC.  I spoke to him last year and let him know personally of our project. The initial inspiration for our house goes solely to him and his brilliant design.We owe him and the publishers of Life Magazine the credit for giving us something to dream about. I saved the original magazine in my desk for all of these years dreaming that someday, I could live in a house as unique and beautiful as this one. I can't believe that this might actually happen.

Here is the south face of the home in it's original iteration:

Life Magazine's 1995 Dream House

 

 Floor Plan Drawings:

Downstairs

Upstairs

Ryan and I have spent the better part of the last year thinking and troubleshooting and changing these original plans into something that works for this project and the way that we live.

I will post the finished drawings he as I have them. We assume that the counties architect is going to monkey with them, but we a hoping not too much :)

Cheers  :)

February 2012 Status Update

Here it is, almost spring. We are gettiing ready to make our 12th payment on the property. The way it is going, we will have this thing half paid off by the time we start construction in the Spring of 2013!!  We could not be happier about this development.

Ryan is working on the house elevation drawings and re drawing all of the plans so that we can submit them to the county.  That's about it.

Thank you to all of our new neighbors who are keeping an eye on the property and our fallen trees.  I start a new job on the 27th which is going to do several things for us:  more money so that we can pay this off sooner and I will be able to remote in from home on those "snowed in" days that we are sure to have when we finally get out there.

Stay cool and come back soon!!

January 2012 Status Update

I have started to feel a little guilty that I am not out here every week putting something up. I am just not motivated right now.  :(

The felled trees are still not done and we have gone up about once a month for the last two to chop, chop, chop some more wood off of them. We are getting to the bigger stuff that is testing the limit of our chain saw, so it's not motivating. We will continue to work on that in between storms and as our work schedules allow.

The House Plans are almost done!!!!  We are enlisting the services of a friends wife who will render them in 3D so that we can see what we have done before we hand them over to the counties Living Building Architect for a once over.  Our plan is to have submitted the drawings and gotten tentative approval for our design by summer 2012. Our house is going to be so awesome.  In case I haven't mentioned this, it is based off of the 1995 Life Magazine Dream House design by Architect Dennis Wedlick.  He just completed the Hudson Passive house to rave reviews and acclaim.

Here is the summary:  Basement (subterranean but in the heating envelope) housing the water room, electrical and the train room. First floor which has three sections:  a garage with a mud-room leading through double doors to a passageway that is transitional between outside and inside leading through a large door into the heated envelope housing the kitchen, dining room and living room. There is a wide stairway leading to the second floor that houses our bedroom, Shaelyn's bedroom the communal bathroom and the laundry room as well as a Pullman Car room located centered over the garage. All of the second floor is in the heating envelope except a large storage area adjacent to the Pullman Car room.  Both the first and second floor are passively heated with hydronic radiant floor supplement as well as a soapstone wood stove centrally located on the first floor. The chimney affect will be utilized for the first and second floors as well and the house will be zoned so that we can seal off certain areas when not in use. The house is large but there isn't a single place in it that is wasted space.  It really is awesome and we hope that the architect thinks so as well.

Loan:  We have paid off 17% of our loan to date. That's in 10 months and we are pretty happy about that.  By spring 2013, we are on track to be able to break ground and start with the underground cistern, the ICF and maybe even start framing.

Dorothy Rest In Peace

Early Monday morning, November 21, just before 1 AM, our smallest and most vulnerable duck suffered a tragic accident.  Something had been visiting the greenhouse at night and was raiding the ducks eggs. Dorothy appears to have fallen into the center of the greenhouse and landed wrong, breaking her leg.

Ryan found her and after much agonizing thought and many difficult phone calls, decided to put her down. She went very quickly and by the time the decision had been made, appeared to have accepted what was about to happen.  We buried her the next morning in the garden.



Dorothy (middle) at several weeks old

Dorothy in Front



The property is starting to look like itself again

October came and went. It finally feels like Fall. Ryan and I completed work stripping off the branches this week. The property is starting to look like it did before we had four huge trees drop upon it.

The house plans are also coming along as we started working on the second floor which will house the Master Bedroom and bath, Shaelyn's room, the Pullman Car and another bathroom. That's going to be a lot of composting toilets for one house!

October 2011 Status Update

Ryan and I are re-evaluating where we stand money-wise at this point. I was up for a job that had a good wage and got pretty far in the recruitment, so far in fact, that we started thinking that I had it in the bag. Alas, it fell through. :(    This sets our timeline back probably a year or so. That's not the worst thing in the world. In fact, it gives us more time to plan the house. We expect to break ground in spring, 2013. 

Currently we are:

• Continuing to process the felled trees. (Expected completion summer 2012)
• Finishing work on the first floor design and starting on the second floor.
• Paying off the property as fast as we can in order to be able to start buying the house systems. The first system will be the water cistern. 

Future posts will continue to focus on the Petal Requirements and details of the systems that we will be using to be in compliance with the Petals.

One last note:  We have decided to get animals (mentioned earlier) to maintain the yard and provide rich compost and fertilizer for the garden and grounds.  As well as provide fiber, companionship and to create a peaceful, farmlike setting full of wonderful chores and experiences that seem to have gone bye-bye in recent times. This will be good for Shaelyn (our city-raised, soon to be 7 year old) and the new neighbors child. None of our neighbors have farm animals and we understand that at least some of them are looking forward to animals in the neighborhood.  A barn has been added to our plans to facilitate these animals.

The animals we are getting are 2 or 3 Pygora Goats from Hawks Mountain Ranch.in Gaston, OR. We were hoping to get a pair of friends that were having a hard time getting adopted but I am proud to report that Chip and Ralphie have found homes.

This is a brand new baby Pygora

This is Brinn. Isn't she gorgeous??

And  one, possibly two, Llamas from Sijama Llamas out of Mulino, OR