Mighty Nice Light

A Productive Weekend

2011-11-20T22:27:00.001-05:00

Well, not much is getting done on the house front but progress is still being made. We are in a position to make our offer now but we need to know how much is right to offer. We have lots of information on the property to help us with the decision but we just need to meet to discuss it and make the offer and that will likely happen in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I have no recourse but to try to prepare for the move as best I can.

Much of the next few months will be used in locating containers, grading land, sinking footers, and getting the septic taken care of. I can't do much to help with those outside of the secretarial work involved and that doesn't take a huge chunk of my day... well, at least not exclusively. I can still work on other things on hold and while waiting for call backs. After that, things will, no doubt, move along much more quickly and I will be doing more "hands on" stuff to help. Still, that will only be on weekends, at least at first.

So, I've been exploring solutions to the tiny space issues and deciding how I want to allocate space in the public spaces, the guest spaces and in my space. I've made a lot of decisions regarding layout of walls (very few walls at all) and types of doors (pocket) and whether all walls will actually need doors at all (not really). It's pretty fun surfing all the sites looking at all the different solutions people have come up with. I'm also reading a lot about small space design in general.

I had been looking at increasing my storage options in the house we are in. It's probably got twice as much square footage in living space as the one we are building, but it sucks for storage. It has tiny little closets and not many of them and, really, no built in storage other than those and the kitchen cabinets. Since we will be moving in short order, I didn't want to solve my storage issues with furniture that couldn't move with us.

That means I get to surf for plans for furniture pieces. I decided, in this case, on a bench for the end of my bed. This piece will transmute into a TV stand in my new bedquarters. Since I can't go around wasting space in the new place and I need storage here too, I designed a rolling box with handles to slide under the bench to act like a sort of drawer. Dan built both pieces for me this weekend. I painted them a nice dark espresso color. The hardware is silver. I have plans for some omoide that I plan to put on the front and sides. I'm making them out of recycled tin cans. I'm pretty excited about that project too. I'll post pics of the bench and the box/drawer later. I'll be sure to post the link to the website I got the bench plans from.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, we're having dinner at Aunt Donna's. She is a fantastic cook. I can hardly wait. I even have a small hostess gift for her. Well, it's from both of us but it's not as big a deal for Dan. They are very nice people. It was really nice of them to invite us. Oh, and that's also the day we draw names for the gift exchange. I love that! I know just who I hope I draw too.

Well, I'd better go do something productive before I have to go to bed.

Enthusiasm, it's all it's cracked up to be.

2011-10-14T22:22:00.000-04:00

So, we have some really exciting news.

First, I called the cable company and checked on the availability of cable at the new property (what? I was gonna wait for them to call?) and they said not just a casual "sure" but an enthusiastic "hell yeah". So, I'm all excited now and just about to climb out of my skin and now it's Dan's turn....

So, he gets up early the next day and calls the broker and tells him the news and sets him on his way to meet with the guys for the county. Now, I have to admit that I'm not clear who "they" are that were at the meeting but we got a message from the broker this morning. Dan decided to wait until he got up to call back. I mean, really? I'm pretty excited here and he sleeps in?

So, he goes out for a smoke (I know, I'm totally on him all the time about it) and calls the broker back. I wait and wait. I can hear him talking but not what he's saying and it's maddening. So I wait 'cause I'm like tied to the desk and can't follow him out the porch which is just torture...

So, FINALLY, he comes back in and says he has good and bad news. THEN, he walks like all the way through the house before he starts to tell me. Is he trying to kill me?

So, it turns out that none of it is bad news but some is good news and other is just news. Cool. So, the broker tells us that, when he saw the county people (got to find out what department) they got very interested and intrigued and enthusiastic about what we'd like to do. What we'd like to do is to recycle some shipping containers into a dwelling. They say it's never been done in the county the property we are interested in is in. That's kind of cool. It means we will be the first, the landmark case, for our county. In order to help them to make the decision about whether or not to allow it, we just need to get them specs on the containers. Since they are built to a specific set of standards, that makes it really easy. All we have to do is to find the standards governing how they must be constructed and get them to the team that does the approving. That will get the process rolling. Once that happens, we'll make an offer on the contingency that the building type gets approved.

One of my friends even suggested that we might get press coverage. I'm kinda doubting that but I still think it would be cool. Stuff like that is really encouraging to those of us who think "outside of the box" (so to speak).

Progress, It Happens

2011-10-11T21:37:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't think I'd be posting again this quickly but I wanted to make sure the entries reflect how quickly things really are moving.

Today, I contacted our local cable provider. We only have one, really, who seems to have the lock on most, if not all, of the state. While they were able to confirm that several addresses up the street from us, there is cable service, they could not confirm it for our proposed address. They are checking to see if we can get a cable connection at that address and will call me in 24 to 48 hours. The good news is that they seldom just say no as they don't get your money if you're not a customer. It just remains to be seen if they are ABLE to do it, not whether they WANT to go to the trouble. I am cautiously optimistic.

After the cable availability has been established, the realtor/broker will contact the county and make sure that the structure we want to put on the property will be Okay. Just because the deed says "no restrictions" doesn't mean we don't have to keep to code and zoning laws. In other words, we probably wouldn't be allow to put a strip joint on the property as it's zoned rural/residential (more's the pity).

So, as you can see, progress is being made even though we are both working full time and can't drive out to the property every day. On-site presence just isn't needed at this stage. It's pretty much all research and paperwork at this point.

I am trying not to get too "invested" in this property just yet. I really like it but much can still go wrong and cause us to decide it isn't a viable choice after all. At that point, we just start combing the listings again. It's a tiring process.

Eyes on the prize... I saw a lovely vanity and countertop set at Lowes this weekend :-)

Here We Go!

2011-10-10T23:59:00.000-04:00

Where to begin? Well, let us begin at the very most basic thing, land.

We are currently in the search for land. It can't just be any old plot of land. There are many aspects of suitability to be considered. Let's start with size.

Having owned and lived on many different pieces of land between us, it was decided that nothing less than a half acre would suit our project. That leaves us land for the structure (roughly 40 feet x 48 feet for its footprint) and lots of room for a yard and nature and whatever else we want to do. Perhaps you, as I do, are hearing the distant strains of "Don't Fence Me In" just now. More is obviously better as long as the price is right.

High speed internet is a non-negotiable item as well. It's not just a recreational thing. It's for employment. I work from home and my company really requires it of me. So, we need to be sure that we can get it on this piece of land.

We'll need the water, septic/sewer, and electrical utilities that all dwellings need. Most likely, the land we get will have a well and septic. In that case, the septic needs to accommodate a 4 bedroom house. It would be great, as well, if we didn't have to pay the electric company to run a line out to the property so one that had a previous dwelling on it might be a plus.

Once land is located that meets our needs, negotiations need to begin. As this part of the process is well documented by others and many, much more informed, guides than your's truly are available to you, I will not go into those details here.

Obviously, it's not in our best interest to tell you where, but we think we found a place we're interested in. It's a little over an acre. It needs some work to become suitable and we are only just starting negotiations so I'll not say much more for now.

I'll write more as progress is made. Hopefully, within the next two weeks, land will be ours and the adventure can begin in ernest. No, the place the land is in is not called "Ernest". Jeez.