The Maine house is no more

As we get closer to the point where we can seriously look for land and build our home in the south, we've been focusing on the floor plan for the Maine house and looking into permitting and such.  During that search we found out that Maine laws pertaining to stand your ground / castle doctrine / duty to retreat were pretty crappy up there.  Because we take our safety VERY seriously, it removed the possibility of a house in Maine from the table completely for us.

We did find that VT has great laws but it's not on the water.  NH isn't too bad, but prices are pretty steep and permitting and such is a bear.  So we're punting.

We extended our local search for land.  KY has awesome laws for gun owners / rights.  We've looked and found some nice pieces of land up there.  Maybe if we build our annual house there we can build in AL or FL for the winter if we build along the very north shore of the Gulf.  Gulf beaches are where I grew up, although they were WAY south.  It would kind of be like going back home.  And land down there isn't too very expensive.  Of course there are the permitting issues of course.  They rape you when you build in that state.  But if it's a small house, maybe it won't be so bad.

So, we're back to square one.  If we're not putting a home in Maine for the summer, we'll need to reconfigure where the primary home will be.  I'm really leaning toward northern east KY up near the Ohio state line.  Instead of going north for summer, we could go south for winter.  Time will tell, right?!

In the meantime we're working at getting our land and house here set up as a true homestead.  It will add greatly to the value of our home for when we sell, and be very useful to us in the meantime providing a garden, eggs, chickens, pigs, etc.  This is the logo we're looking at.

Maine house........more edits

It always bothers me when the only guest bathroom available is located inside another bedroom.  I know if I'm company I'd be a bit weirded out if I were staying at someone's home and they had a friend come over who needed to use a bathroom and to get to it they walked through the bedroom I"m staying in.  My husband is sick and because of it he sleeps a lot.  What if we were staying with someone and he was napping and their company needed to use the bathroom?

Anytime I'm looking at our floor plans I always try to put myself in the house and in several different situations to make sure the plan actually works in real life.  Because of that I didn't think this plan worked.  If it had a half bath some place on the same floor that would be a different story.  So I decided to fix it.

By removing the closet by the fireplace and relocating the water heater to the guest bath, I was able to use the old closet as the door way into the guest bath.  I relocated pretty much everything except the sink, which was scaled back to a smaller sink making room for the water heater by it.

The other option is to put the water heater in the pantry.  I'm not a big fan of a water heater sitting next to my canned goods, so for me the heater in the bathroom, while it means putting in a false linen closet which I don't like, actually worked better.

I also removed the side lights from each of the entry / exit double french doors.  I'm planning on doors with large glass inserts so the side lights aren't really needed.  It also freed up space where the stairs are to the loft.

Master bath lost a sink, but given that there truly won't be much company there and we'll only be in the house a few months of the year, I don't see a single sink in the master as a huge issue for us.  Most likely when we don't have company, one of us will use the master and the other will use the guest bath.  I also expanded the closets in the master bedroom.  The plan, for us anyway, works much better this way.

I also cleaned up the outside of the photo.  It originally was meant to be a four bedroom two bath floor plan and each of the bedrooms had french doors leading to the porches.  Cute, but the new design eliminated both of the front french doors, although in the photo they still remained.  It also had the center of the house on the main floor with just a set of windows.  So the windows were moved to the sides where the bedrooms are and the french doors relocated in the center of the house where they belong.  Now it's a more accurate representation of what the house will truly look like.

And the edits continue..........

Not many changes this time, but here is it.

Screened porch was added to the back deck.  Because the house will sit so high on the main level because of the walk out basement below there will be tons of steps down.  Because hubby is disabled I was trying to figure out how to correct that when hubby said, 'add a slide'.   Ok, chances of my then nearly 60 years old disabled husband sliding down a bright red plastic slide made me laugh a good half hour.  But then I thought, 'that would be so cool for the grandkids'.  The oldest will be 18 by then, but the others will be between 7 and 11; they'd LOVE that!!  So the stairs are moved to one side and a silly looking slide is on the other.  Even when the grandkids aren't around, I have a feeling that Gramma might be using it!

I also added the platform area in the Rec Room downstairs.  Still trying to decide how to do the patio off the Rec Room.  Thinking maybe it'll just be a small enclosed area under the upper floor screened porch with maybe a small tunnel to the side?  I don't know.  I'll keep working on that.

Last I finished up the second floor of the garages.  It'll be a studio for hubby.  He's got a lot of musical instruments and wants so badly to have a recording studio.  I don't know why.  I honestly don't think he will ever use it.  Seriously.  The friends he has that are also into music all live up north and I doubt they'll be flying in to play around with him in the studio.  But I can move all of his CDs and records and books and junk up there and get it out of my house.  So he's got it now!!

And yet more changes...........

We had a wicked little cold snap here.  Temps were a few degrees below zero.  The CHA in the house couldn't keep up with the cold outside.  I have no doubt that was partially due to do our eighty year old newspaper and old clothing insulation.  Oh, and the inch wide gaps between floors and walls and windows and doors.  It certainly wasn't helped by the fact that our only fireplace is DOA.

After living in what felt like an ice box for a few days, I started playing with the floor plan to the TN house.  Aside from upping the insulation big time, which we'd already decided years ago we'd be doing, I also changed some walls and doors and added a couple new fireplaces.  Now there is the one in the great room but also one in the master bedroom and one in the dining room.  It meant the nice french doors going to the master suite onto the back porch were replaced with a single french door and the door that went from the dining to the porch is now gone completely.  A small price to pay for knowing we'll be warm!

I don't remember what the last posting was that I had for this floor plan but I've also changed the stair case.  Instead of a formal staircase going to the Rec Room downstairs, I've put in spiral stairs at the front entry.  A half bath down stairs with the laundry facility and a built in bar.  Next to the bar will be a raised floor to put a pull out sofa bed on.  There will be a loft over it with a twin bed.  In the photo they've put it over a queen bed, but there's no reason it can't go over a sofa bed, right?

I also found the PERFECT hardwood floors to go in the bedrooms.  I'm sure they'll cost about as much as the rest of the house, but they are exactly what I've wanted my entire life.  If they're too pricey we'll just put them in the two rooms of the master suite but I'd really love to be able to swing them in the guest room too.  Seriously, how amazing are these??

Other ideas I thought were amazing that we'd like to incorporate, including a fireplace that has built in seating.  Can you imagine coming inside from the snow and being able to take a seat right at the fireplace?  Too awesome!

I found this great idea for empty space walls.  I'll incorporate it in the blank wall by the bar.  Perfect, right?

Again, given space allowance, I'd like to have this system built into where the sofa bed will be sitting.  One big drawer that pulls out a full size bed.  A drawer next to it for storage.

And last, the cleaning ideas.  Baseboard vaccuum slots so I can just sweep right up to them and kick a button and it'll suck all that dust and dirt and hair out of the house.  Laundry chutes built into the backsplash in the kitchen that will go to a garbage disposal system.  

Getting really excited about our house!  Now I just need that money........