The Maine house

Ok, played around a bit.  Added a second floor loft.  The intent is to only be there a few months of the year, but there was a ton of space above the center living area and heat rises, so I figured we might as well utilize an area that will be warm.  And it will give us a higher vantage point when looking out at the ocean and a better chance to spot whales.  I think I'll put some comfy chaises up there and a really good long distance set of binoculars.

Aside from that change, it's pretty much what I'd first done with it.  The original plan was a four bedroom two bath with no master.  At this point in my life, I'm not sharing a bathroom with anyone, like a teenaged kid still living at home in a house full of siblings.  So I converted two bedrooms into one and added a large master bath and walk in closet.  On the other side, since the living space was VERY cramped, I turned one bedroom into a den / study / dining room.  I'm sure the breakfast bar will get the most use, but having that formal dining area will be nice when we have company.  And we do definitely plan on having lots of company up there.  For grandkids for one thing will be taking turns coming up for a week or two at a time.  Then there are the kids, parents, cousins, and so many friends.  A two person breakfast bar just wasn't going to cut it.  So with this change, there's room for four to six people to sit and eat at the table, and if we're really full, put a couple kids at the bar too.  The bathroom and other bedroom were left as is.

Now that I'm thinking of the floor plan and visitors, I'm thinking perhaps in the loft should be a pull out couch.  If we have a pull out in the living room and a pull out in the loft and the bed in the bedroom, we could easily fit six adult visitors, and if we do two couples, we could fit three or four kids in the living space between the couch and pallets on the floor.  Heck, maybe I can even find a couple chairs that pull out into twin beds for the living room too!

With average daytime highs in the 70-80 degree range and lows in the mid 40s to upper 50s, I'm guessing we'll be spending a lot of time outdoors.  I'd love to walk the beach each day.  I'm sure John will be staying on the porch.  Walking isn't really a good idea for him anymore.  But even with company over, we could sit on that porch and enjoy coffee in the mornings and a glass of wine with our dinner each night.  On the nicer, cooler days we could spend all day out there.  We'll pop a couple firewood holders on the front porch and keep them wrapped in a tarp so the firewood stays dry.  A fire on the cooler evenings would be so relaxing!

So anyway, this is the plan that I've got for now.  Nothing big or fancy, but good enough for company to come enjoy and us to have enough room.

More house edits

The more I thought about it, the more I hated the idea of the dog's yard being off the guest room.  What if we have company?  Our dogs are up between five and six in the morning.  I don't want to wake company.  They also go out as late as 11 sometimes and don't want to disturb company.  I hate the garage door facing the front of the house and would much rather give it that guest house look, but when given the two options, I decided it will just have to look like a garage.

So the door that was in the guest room is gone and replaced with a window.  The door to the dog's yard is now off the dining room.  The two car garage and workshop portion of the garage has been spun back around and the gates have been moved.

Then we started talking about furniture.  We liked everything except the master suite.  By the time we put in a king size bed we were kind of limited where we could hang a television.  Because of John's health, he seldom leaves the bedroom, so a TV to keep him occupied is needed.  He also needs his recliner in there for when his legs are hurting really bad.  So add a king bed and a recliner and the need for both of them to face the TV and the room just wasn't functional.  I tried to change doors, windows, the opening to the WIC, etc and nothing else worked.  I finally gave up and decided to just add three feet to the room.  In doing so, the only way to keep the house 'balanced' was to add that much to the dining room as well.

I got that done, added the fencing for dogs and the new rails for the back porch.  Added the walls going off the back of the house to enclose the walled garden that leads to the pool house.  I also pulled the old flooplan from before the three feet was added to the master and the dining room, and I put in the electric outlets and light switches.  It will still need some work, but I went room by room deciding where I'd need outlets for most things in the house.  I tried to keep the number of outlets and switches to the minimum.  Since I want to have lots of can lighting as well as nightlights at floor level, we shouldn't need lamps.  That helped a lot.  The master study will definitely be the biggest challenge for electric, having to power two laptops, a desktop, the printer, etc all in one place.

Anyway, this is the new floor plan as well as the electric and light switch schematic.

Now that I've got this one done and seldom change anything, I think I'm going to start to focus on the plans for the Maine house and do those edits.  Then all I need is to get things organized so we can start to build!

More on building the house

Spent last night when I couldn't sleep looking for light fixtures, ceiling fans, and look at tons of kitchen cabinets.  I love those hickory cabinets but just couldn't see putting them in with the countertops I like.  And I like the countertops more than I liked the cabinets, so finding a new cabinet was the solution.

I settled on Aspen Beadboard cabinets.  A nice white so it will match the countertops very well and also keep the kitchen nice and bright.  I also like that they have so many options and such a great variety of cabinet sizes.  Varying heights of wall cabinets, varying depth of base cabinets, solid or glass doors, etc.  They also have the double wall oven cabinet and microwave cabinet that I liked.  I think the beadboard will go well with the overall look we're going for as well.  So, these are the cabinets:

For lighting, other than the can lighting, I picked out a matched set of lights for the foyer, dining room and pendant lights over the bar.  The foyer light will be the largest with five lights, and a smaller matched light with three lights for the dining room since it's a much smaller area.  

The pendant lights aren't an exact match.  I'd love to find the same fluted glass for the pendants if I can.  But if I can't, then it's at least close enough.  

Lastly, I picked ceiling fans.  In the house we have now, we've put them in just about all the rooms.  We use them a lot.  I'm thinking with a new home though that has plenty air flow and excellent insulation we shouldn't need them everywhere.  I've chosen to put them in the bedrooms and on the patio in the back.  Still unsure if I want them on the front patio.  I'm envisioning maybe one on each side, but still undecided.  These are the patio fans:

And the bedroom fans.  I like these but was a bit worried about the texture.  The fans we have now are smooth paddles but collect dust like crazy.  This one though has a special coating that they say deflects nearly 60% of dust.  Considering it's also going to be a new house which means much less dust than a very old home, I think the two things combined will keep it from getting too bad.  

So that's where we stand for now.  I also worked on a plan for a pool house out back.  I might have posted the photo before, but will post again along with the sketch.  It'll be a preformed in ground pool, just a rectangular shape with a small square addition on the top left corner that will be housed under a fake cave.  The area next to the 'cave' will house all of the pumps and filters and we'll put more fake stone around it to hide it from view.  Built in planters will be in the room as well as a mini kitchen and a bathroom / dressing room.  Windows along the top will be remotely operated to open and vent out any humid air, as well as having a dehumidifying system.  Between the bathroom and mini kitchen will be a fireplace for the cooler days.  

My original plan for this had been an efficiency apartment attached to the right, but I think I prefer it just the way it is.  Will make a wonderful little area to swim and get some exercise year round.  I've seen a lot of pre-set sized wood frame buildings that you can pick up fairly cheap.  Add in the pre-formed in ground pool and you've got a great little pool house for a fraction of what it would cost to do a custom build.

Building the primary house

I've been playing with floorplans for years and have hundreds of them saved up.  The last few years we've played with a few different ones and altered them until we got them to be perfect for us.  One was an amazing farmhouse with a wrap around porch and a big second floor with a row of dormer lining the front and lots of bay windows.  It was also about 3500 square feet and for two people, even though it gave us lots of room for kids and grandkids, it was truly silly to think of spending money to build something like that for just us.  Besides, our ultimate goal is to have our southern / primary home built in the next three to five years and to have a summer home built in Maine in the next eight to then years.  Building a monster size house in the south would have completely destroyed any hopes of a Maine home.  So, we have decided to stick with this house plan for our southern home.  The layout is appealing to us and there is a guest room if needed, as well as a Rec room downstairs that would easily hold a pull out couch if needed too.  The big covered patio out back gives us more than enough outdoor living space.  The garage will hold both our vehicles plus an RV when the day comes that we buy that so we can start to travel back and forth between the summer and winter homes.

The main level of this house under air (not including porches) is just over 1900 square feet.  The basement level I'd estimate to be just under 500 square feet, so I'm guessing it's around 2400 square feet total.  We'll be doing a standard 2x6 framing with concrete log siding.  I found this today and just thought it was a great thing.  Unless you get close enough to touch this, you'd never know it wasn't real logs. They can do any color you want, and we're looking at a White Ash log color with a white 'chinking'.  We'll go with a stacked stone in a nice grey tone along the bottom of the house and up the front pillars.  I'd like the stone along the clerestory windows as well, but we're still tossing that idea area.  So, here is the floor plan and the general look of the house, as well as the garage.

As you can see on the sketch of the house, the posts and railings on the porch will be darker than the siding.  We'll use the same color trim around the doors and windows.

Because I'm such a control freak, I plan everything years in advance.  I've spent weeks going over different things for the house and here is what I came up with.

Flooring:

Master bedroom, master study and guest room will be hickory hardwood engineered flooring

In the main level living spaces, kitchen, bathrooms, and showers will all be slate tiling.  

All living room / dining room / kitchen, bedrooms / study, and bathrooms will have radiant heat flooring.

Rec room will be a pet free zone and will be the only room with carpet.  The laundry and half bath downstairs will have the radiant heat flooring with the same slate tile as upstairs.

Kitchen:

Cream Pearl grantite countertops

Right now I like the hickory cabinets, especially because they'd tie in the bedroom flooring.  But with the grey / white granite countertops, I'm kind of leaning toward going with a more classic white kitchen cabinet.  We'll see!

A basic white kitchen door with the same 3/3 windows that the entry / exit doors will have in the house.

Other:

I detest lamps with a passion.  Throughout the house there will be can lighting everywhere.  I don't mind the overhead chandeliers and pendant lights and such, but for primary lighting, this will be it.  

Because there will be so many can lights, chandeliers, pendant lights, etc, I thought this was a great little light switch box.  You can control four different things in one!  

This is just a nightlight.  I'll add a couple of these in the living room, one or two in the dining room and one in the kitchen, as well as one in each bathroom.  I hate having to turn on an obnoxious bright light in the middle of the night!  These will also be attached to the risers on the stairs doing down to the basement so you can see the steps even if the main lighting source is off.

This is half nightlight, half electric outlet.  For the outlets in the kitchen and bathroom, I'll use these.  

I don't like the plain switches and the square ones never did anything for me.  These oval light switches I thought were a nice change.  Something a bit softer.

How cool is this?  A USB charging station right on your electric outlets.  Sweet!  I'll add one of these to each of the bedrooms and one to the living room and Rec room.  

Entry:

Entry / exit doors.  Nothing fancy, just a nice standard french door.  I'll look into a set of sidelights for the door as well and maybe a nice arched transom like the sketch of the house shows.

First photo is the pendant light and the photo above is the wall light.  The wall lights will be attached to the front stacked stone posts at the steps.  The pendant light will hang in the entrance in front of the front door on the porch.

Some interior design elements:

Bay window in the dining room

Exposed beams in the great room

Stacked stone and either reclaimed hardwood or the concrete log will be used in the master bathroom.

A bar similar to this will be built into the Rec room downstairs.  Will have wine glass hangers under the cubbies.  The cubbies will be a wine holder.  A small sink will be on the base and storage under.

And the grounds..............

A driveway will be lined in shade trees with the bases surrounded by hostas and flowers.  The trees will totally obscure the view of the house from the road, only opening up right before you approach the main driveway.

Off the porch behind the house will be a large walled garden.  On the far end will be a small building containing an indoor pool (similar to the photo on the right) and a small efficiency guest apartment.  The garden itself will be filled with pathways, a couple ponds connected by a stream filled with koi, and large grassy areas for sitting and enjoying company.

Only a couple shade trees will be in the back garden, but they'll be covered year round in small lights.  A gazebo will sit in a corner, also covered in small lights and lamps will be along the pathways to light the way to the pool in the evenings.

At some point my plans include putting up a large barn that can be used for get togethers for the family.  I envision a kitchenette and bar along one side with tables and chairs along the other.  A dance floor in the middle and a loft along the back that has lounge chairs for relaxing and watching the party.  Again, lots of small lights to give it an intimate feel.

And the driveway.  As you pull up to the house there will be a circular drive and right before you get to it, a nice little stamped design in the center.  The rest of the drive in front of the house once you're out of the trees will be stamped and stained concrete as well.

I spend hours every week going over the floor plan, deciding where each light switch will be and how furniture will be arranged.  It's the push I need to work harder on my nursing degree and getting the credit report cleaned up and spotless!

So disheartened today

I woke up today in a funk I supposed.  I've read so many articles that are just making me bonkers.  I have a really bad feeling about where our country is headed and I know that, couple with the weather, just started the day on a bad foot.  It's been rainy and overcast all day with a storm rolling in, brining colder weather. Normally I'm all for colder weather, but this is just that yucky cold that's not cold enough to bring snow and not warm enough or dry enough that you can toss on sweats and socks and be comfy.  It's just..............yucky!

Then my daughter came by with the grandbabies.  We had a great night, watched lots of awesome old cartoons, but both babies are sick and have been for a while.  She'd given them their meds before coming over, but after several hours it was wearing off and the poor things were just miserable.  When their temps started to climb I had to say good bye so they could get them home and get some meds in them.

Shortly after my daughter called to let me know the youngest, only 2 years old, has a temp of 104.8!!  She got him meds and in the tub to see if it will bring it down but if not they'll have to take him to the ER.  Then she said there was also something on her door from the sheriff's office.  That really ticked me off.  She was kind enough to take in a cute little husky mix when she bought her house a year ago.  No one claimed the dog.  She already had three and adopted a fourth as well, so didn't have room for a fifth, but she wasn't going to let it starve.  When temps were bad it stayed inside with them.  Not much else you can do.  I used to run the shelter and know what happened to it when I left and she didn't want the dog to die, so she just kept asking, hoping someone would offer to take the poor dog.

She's had problems with another neighbor that lets their dog roam all over.  It's been more and more aggressive and last week it attacked and killed her chihuahua when he went outside to potty.  The dog she'd been feeding had started hanging out with it as well.  After that she was afraid to let it near the house.   Her sister had spent the night with her when this happened and called to tell me and asked if I could come over.  When I got out of the van the dog that killed her dog charged me growling.  I kicked it to keep from being bitten and both dogs ran off.  I took care of what needed to be taken care of there and bundled up the family and they came to stay with me for the day.  I called the sheriff's office and asked them to go get both dogs.

Well, because she's tried to help the dog out, the state law says it's her dog.  The ACO didn't bother to go get the dogs for days and in the meantime the one that killed her dog and snapped at me attacked another small dog in the neighborhood.  The owners said they think it was the dog my daughter was trying to help, but she doesn't think it was because that dog has always gotten along with the other.  It's this other dog that's caused problems.  Regardless, the state law classifies it as her dog and she had a notice on her door when she got home tonight.

Now, I'm not sure if this is because of me but it's how I feel at the moment.  When I was fired from the job there, I'd been trying to work with the county with a major issue with the ACO.  He had violated not only policy and procedure, but also state and federal laws.  I had asked for over seven months for help with it.  At one point the sheriff was going to have me file charges against him and he'd arrest him.  I talked to a girl that was there before me who had been subjected to the same abuses I had and we both didn't want his wife and children humiliated by his arrest.  It didn't excuse what he did, but I thought we could work with the county to come up with a better solution.  This went on seven months until I was fed up.  I had photographic and video evidence of so many things this man was doing that were just horrible.  I finally went to the sheriff and had him watch the videos and look at the photos.  I told him I was contacting an attorney and possibly the media if something wasn't done.  Right is right, wrong is wrong and this was all very wrong and very illegal.  He had me go to the County Executive again.  But he had no computer that would play the photos and videos.  VERY small rural county with no money.  I told him also I was speaking with attorneys.

Next thing I know the county moves to fire me, stating to the media that I lied about the County Executive canceling the prisoner trustee program I'd put in place.  The county never asked me for anything, never interviewed me, never gave me a chance to speak.  The meeting was held late at night and no notice was given.  I wasn't even told I was fired!!  I showed up to work to get a dog to take to the vet and found the locks changed.  That was my notice; figure it out yourself.

I did get an attorney and we did file the paperwork through EEOC.  But I realized that 1) it wouldn't change anything.  This was going on way before me and would continue much long after I was gone, and 2) all it would do is destroy the reputation of the shelter that I'd worked so hard to fix.  That doesn't save a single animal life.  So I dropped the lawsuit.

In the meantime I put up with the girl who took over the position I had (and coincidentally is the best friend of the ACO) lying to people about me, stating I abandoned a mother dog and litter of puppies from the shelter to die (another rescue took them, not me), told people I stole money and items from the shelter (I can account for every single penny I took to that courthouse for deposit and there was nothing at the shelter that could have been stolen; as a matter of fact when I left, I left behind a TON of things I purchased for the shelter with my own money), etc.

In all the time that shelter has been opened, I begged the county to get more involved in owners that let their dogs roam at large.  I even did policy and procedure for the county to vote on.  And yet not a single thing was ever done, regardless of how many times we picked up various pets.  And yet all the sudden when my daughter tries to help an abandoned dog, she gets penned as owner and cited??  I'm just so frustrated.

I get small town politics, I do.  I was so very fortunate to be raised in a town that placed so much emphasis on truth and integrity.  I guess I was naive.  But I learned the hard way when I moved to rural TN that people here are different.  It's the good ol boy network and animal don't matter.  But I never in a million years would have thought the sheriff of that county, a man that I once had a tremendous amount of respect for and called friend, would turn out to be just like the others.  I just don't enjoy being here anymore.  I feel like I'm surrounded by a bunch of corrupt jackasses that are just looking to nail me or my family to the wall for anything, even if they have to fudge the truth.

As a side note, the only person who has seen the videos and photos of what happened at that shelter are the admins from that county, a couple very close friends and my attorney.  I have NEVER released them to the media.  And yet, here we sit.  I'm just done.  My kids and grandkids are here.  I don't want to move far.  But I'm seriously thinking of going a bit north to get out of this corrupt little rural backwoods pocket we're in.  And that kind of makes me sad.

How about a pod community?

Along the lines of the pod homes I came up with a few days back, I thought today that maybe pod communities could be possible.  They'd be great for multiple families that want to go in on the off grid lifestyle together.  Split the cost of 100 acres for example, which in rural areas like TN, KY and WV can easily be picked up for about $60,000.  If 8 couples / families decided to go in on it together, the land alone would only run about $7500 each.  By building a single large kitchen / dining complex in the center of the pod area and sharing that cost and then each family choosing how to assemble their family pod, it gives them flexibility of how they'd like to live.

Maintenance of the land, care of the livestock, growing of the gardens could all be shared responsibilities with shared benefits of the work.  Here is an example of what a pod community would look like:

Each family could enclose their personal pods in a single fence for privacy with fencing surrounding the entire 100 acres complex.  By sharing the financial burden and work load, everyone benefits.

Oh, how about pod housing!?

I'm active in trying to run the Tennessee house as efficiently as I can and cut pennies where possible.  One of the ways is by growing our own food as much as possible.  This year I'm stocking up on hay and straw bales so I can use them for a huge garden.

In learning about straw bale gardening I've met a lot of preppers.  It seems that not only are they interested in off grid living, they are looking at multiple families living on one piece of land together, working together to survive.  So that made me think of pods.

Ideally, several families would purchase a tract of land together.  They could purchase the living pod, kitchen / dining pod, and a storage / laundry pod jointly.

Then they each choose the sleeping pods they'd like.  A family with two daughters and a son for example could choose the luxury master suite pod for themselves; it has an entry room that would be a good place for a small private living space or a computer desk, a very large dressing room lined with closet space, a large sleeping room, and two bathrooms - a room for him with lav, sink and shower, and a room for her with a lav, sink and soaking tub.  For the two daughters they could choose the two bedroom with shared bath pod.  For the only son they could choose the single bed / bath pod.

By working with pods, families can reduce the cost of maintaining a home since the cost of the living spaces would be shared.  The individual families can then choose as they can afford.  The same family could choose to purchase the basic bed bath for themselves and put the two daughters in one bedroom and the son in the other of the two bed one bath pod.

Each family can choose a one, two or three car garage or any combo of those.  By connecting all of the pods on the outside with privacy fencing and placing some gazebos and patios around the common areas inside, it gives the families plenty flexibility for entertainment while providing plenty safety from outsiders.  By expanding the fenced area and putting the pods around the outside edges, you could even keep your garden and pond or well water safely confined within the secured area.

As an example, this could be a single family pod compound or a compound for a single couple that has room for an adult couple with two or more children to visit.  Likewise, this could be up to four single couples with no children.  Again, by expanding the area inside the fencing by moving the fencing back, you could even include a garden and / or pond or water source.

Construction idea

Ok, so my most recent thought is to find a contractor to work with that will build homes for us.  But not 'homes', just homes.  Something people can use as upscale hunting cabins, guest houses, or homes for people that are low income and want a real house as opposed to a mobile.  Also thought it would be nice if we built a base line home with a floor plan like this:

It's very basic.  Kitchen, bathroom with eat in bar, living space with a wood heater and an A/C unit in the wall behind it.  The little closet on the living room side of the bathroom would be half closet and half a set of drawers, so basically a built in dresser.  Add a couple bar stools to eat and a sofa bed in the living space and you're all set.  For just over $4500 I can buy the standard items needed to finish the inside.  If I find a contractor that can do the framing, roof, electric and plumbing for a decent price, these could be great little homes.  

I also thought I could do additions as options.  In other words, you buy the base home (above) but the front of it would have the two windows and a door in the center.  Where the two doors are currently would be a space that would accept another building adjoining it.  People could purchase a bedroom to add there, or you could buy the master bedroom / bathroom with a walk in closet.  You could opt for the higher floors with a ladder against the closet area that would go up to a sleeping loft that would be over the kitchen / bar area and bathroom.  

There could be a front porch option that people could buy as well to give additional outdoor living space, or a side porch off the kitchen for a larger outdoor dining space.  Because you'd start with the basic home and have the option to add on, it's something that could grow with a couple as they become a small family.   It will be highly insulated which will keep the heat / air costs very low.  For those interested in off grid, optional solar panels for the roof can be added as well as a propane fueled water heater.  Placed on a lot with a septic and well, off grid would be simple.  

From the exterior, the optional higher ceilings with the second floor sleeping loft would look similar to this:

The basic efficiency cabin with front porch would look similar to this:

And this would be the standard bare bones cabin, or at least very similar to it:

The hope is I could offer a basic bare bones cabin for under $12,000 and offer financing if needed.  If so I can hook up with a local realtor that sells a lot of land and do package deals.