Plan Enlargement and Fencing

I had been sick for a couple of weeks around Thanksgiving and have made a few major changes to my plan, so that's my poor excuse for not keeping up on here. Plus, a new dating relationship and church activities have kept me distracted.

The tree guy finally finished cutting most of the excessively tall/large trees from the wooded area and hauled them off. That procedure left a lot of mangled fences and piles of branches. So two weeks ago my dad and I cleared things out again and got started putting in some metal fence posts and stringing up the barbed wire. We're on the last leg of the fencing, which will total around 750-800 feet in length (we have about 150 ft left to do).

On bad weather days and evenings, I've been redesigning my house to accommodate a family of four, just in case my family size changes in the future. Instead of being around 300 square feet, we're looking at around 700 sq ft. The newest plan is two full stories, with two upstairs bedrooms and a full bath downstairs. There is a spiral staircase connecting the floors. The exterior would have more of a traditional farmhouse look with a wrap around porch on all sides except the north. I'll try and post some updated plans and some pictures of the fencing in the next few days.

A couple of other house decisions that I've made recently are to abandon the idea of using a wood cookstove as a water heater and to hold off putting in a solar water heater. I'll just use a 28 gallon electric water heater. The reason for not using the stove for hot water came after much (much!) research and realizing that it was going to have a lot of maintenance and safety issues, not to mention being complicated to design and install (I still plan to use that wood cookstove for cooking and heating though!). I may put in a solar water heater eventually, but I'm leaving it out now to save on initial cost.

Well that's about all the news for now. Pictures to come soon!

Tree Cutting and Code Compliance

Once again I'm behind on reporting the local news. On October 21st, the Cookeville City Council gave us final approval for the rezoning of the land, but then it took two weeks to take effect. So by November 5th I was allowed to apply for a building permit. Unfortunately there have been some hang-ups.

First, we decided to have a bunch of top heavy, towering pines cut down because they tend to get blown over onto the fences, and I figured it would be a good idea to get them down before I put up any new fencing. Well, the guy we hired only works on the weekends and he's still working out there. Plus, we've had a lot of rain lately, which has slowed him down.

The second hang-up is with the design process and making sure everything I'm doing is up to code. You may remember that I mentioned the code book, which happens to be 1 1/2" thick and those 674 pages don't exactly read like a novel. My dad and I read one paragraph about six times, trying to decipher its meaning. Then there are the drawings. I am one of those types of people that probably came up with the Boy Scout motto, "Be Prepared." The code enforcement office doesn't need everything that I'm putting into these 'blueprints,' but I want them to be thorough so that I know what I'm doing and so that I can pass the 9 inspections that are coming down the pike. I also realized that even though my house is only 339 square feet, it has almost all the same components of a 3390 square foot house.

So, basically I'm trudging away with these drawings, and as soon as I can get them to a comfortable completion, I'll apply for a building permit and get back out on the site work. It'll get there eventually!

Oh - we did manage to get a culvert put into the ditch along the road, so now I have driveway access, which the logging trucks have been using extensively. By the way, the whole logging operation is so destructive to the woods -- it looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings where Saruman slashes and burns a big chunk of Fangorn Forest (and the Ents, outraged, retaliate and drown Saruman's estate). But I'm sure by next summer it will all be grown up again. I'm planning to plant some new trees wherever there are big gaps.

Till next time!
Barry

House Drawings, Cookstove, and Sorghum

Here are a few updated drawings of my house.  Hopefully they're self explanatory, but feel free to ask questions.

Floor Plan

West Elevation

South Elevation

East Elevation

North Elevation

Section - North Wall

This is the stove that I picked out at the Lehman's store in Ohio.  It's a Heartland Sweetheart model.

Here are a few pictures of the sorghum operation in Muddy Pond, TN.



Back in the Saddle (so to speak)

Well, it's been a while, obviously, since I've written anything, mainly because there wasn't much to report for a long time. My dad and I cleared out the last few logs along the driveway path back in September, a day or so after my last entry. Then I spent a couple weeks recuperating from the poison ivy and the mosquitoes. I also started back with my handyman gig, doing some work at our pastor's home (bathroom renovation, mainly).

Last Tuesday my parents and I drove up to Kidron, Ohio to check out the wood cookstoves and countless other wonderful things at the Lehman's store (lehmans.com). I've pretty much decided on getting the Heartland Sweetheart stove, which is UL listed and can be fitted with all the bells and whistles (e.g., a "water jacket" that allows me to use my stove as a water heater).

Upon our return to Cookeville on Thursday (Oct. 7), we had our second of three zoning meetings, this time with the City Council. Our zoning request was unanimously approved by the council, but we still have one more meeting in November for final approval.

This past Tuesday my parents and I drove up to Muddy Pond, a Mennonite community where several families raise and process sorghum cane into syrup. One place demonstrates the old-fashioned way of using a horse powered mill to squeeze the juice from the cane and cooking the juice over a wood fire. So we watched the operation and came away with a couple of cookbooks, a couple loaves of sorghum-sweetened bread, and lots of pictures.

This past Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I staked off the corners of my roof and the corners of the yard, and then cleared out a path through the woods for a new barbed wire fence to keep my neighbor's cows out (he rents the land from my parents).

Next week I hope to get someone in to cut down some of the tall trees (mainly pines), instead of waiting for the next big storm to blow them down onto my new fence. Once that's done I'll commence with the fence. I noticed that along the new fence row are several dogwood trees, so I'm looking forward to seeing them in the spring.

I've also done some updates to my house drawings, so I'll post those next time, along with some other interesting pictures.

Goodnight!

Driveway Clearing: Part 2

We are just about finished clearing out a route for the driveway through the woods. Hopefully it will only take one or two more days to finish cutting up and clearing out the last few logs that are still blocking the way. Once we finish that, I'll need to clear another small path for a new barbed wire fence, because we'll be cutting through the current fence. I also need to get a drain pipe put in the ditch along the road so that vehicles can cross over onto the property. Then I'll hire someone to bulldoze the driveway, to make it level and smooth. After that will come the gravel.

We also measured the distance through the woods and it came to about 440 feet.

More wildlife observed: lizards, lots of song birds, and a flock of wild turkeys. Oh, and a bunch of cows, but they're domesticated, of course.

Rezoning from light manufacturing to residential.

View of the end of the driveway at the road.  Across the street are my closest neighbors.  The house was originally my grandparent's house, where my mom grew up.  The house isn't visible here, but you can see the log cabin behind their house, and the old barn beyond it.

This is the opposite end of the drive near where my house will be.  There's my dad with his truck.  He's been indispensable with his power tools, elbow grease, and wisdom.

This is a view looking the opposite direction into the woods.  I took some pictures of the path we cleared, but it just looks like a jumble of green right now.  Once we get a bulldozer in there, the road will be more obvious.

Till next time!

Driveway Clearing: Part 1

My dad and I have spent three days (Saturday, yesterday, and today) clearing a driveway path through the woods between the road and the field where my house will be. It's been difficult work, but we've made good progress. I think the woods are about 600 feet deep, and we've probably gone about 400 feet, with the help of a sickle bar mower, a chain saw, a scythe, and a couple of hand saws. The two power tools had some issues, so the hand tools came in handy at times.

It's been interesting to me to see all of the animal life that these woods and fields support. There are hawks, frogs, beetles, spiders, ants, bees, yellowjackets, butterflies, dragonflies, caterpillars, mosquitoes, and probably hundreds of other insects. We even saw a deer out there today. The plant life is also very diverse. I want to preserve as much of that life and diversity as I can during this project. We are cutting only small or dead trees when necessary. Although we are tearing out some of the plants, we are leaving them along the sides of the path to serve as food and shelter for the life that is there. We also feed the mosquitoes well every time we're there.

I've acquired a collection of yellowjacket stings, mosquito bites, and poison ivy rashes, so it'll be good to finish this phase of the project. Hopefully the hard part will be done by the end of the week. I'll try and post some pictures soon!

Tennessee Resident

I'm officially a Tennessee resident as of last Thursday. It feels great to be back among family, rolling hills, clean air, and wide open spaces. I've spent the past few days settling in, but plan to get started marking out a driveway route through a patch of woods along the road later this week.

This afternoon was the initial hearing before the city planning committee to rezone the property to residential status. Next it will be submitted to the city council with two more public hearings in late September and late October.

I still have plenty of work to do to make the house drawings worthy of submittal to the code department. I will, of course, post the updated drawings as I get to them. Till then!

Updated Model Exterior

Here are some updated views of the exterior of the house.  I'm still hoping to start construction in late October.  The rezoning process has begun, with the initial hearing on August 23rd.  Meetings for public comment are scheduled for September and October.  While I'm waiting for that, I'll start clearing a path for the driveway, fencing off a yard, and staking out the house.

Oh - and moving day for me (from Atlanta to Cookeville) is August 19th!

Interior Views

Here are some interior views of the framing phase of my virtual construction project.

Floor Plan / Elevations

Virtual Construction

I decided to "build" my house with Google's SketchUp program and here is the progress so far.  It's helping me to figure out all the connections and details.  I also plan to use this to tally the materials I'll be using so that I can get a pretty accurate cost for materials.

Floor plan and elevations to come soon, hopefully!

Beginnings

I've thought about starting a homestead for several years.  The idea has steadily, almost exponentially, gained steam over the past few months, and now it looks like it is about to happen.  This is my crude attempt to document my progress.

I've known for several years that I wanted to have a house of my own.  I wanted to pay it off quickly and be as self-sufficient as possible.  I've lived in many different small apartments for many years and knew that I could be comfortable in a well-designed small house.  Over the years, I've worked on dozens of house plans, and have studied how people have crammed their lives into miniscule spaces.  About 3 years ago, I was finally ready to buy my first house, but soon discovered that it's nearly impossible to find a decent affordable small-ish house in a decent traditional neighborhood, so I settled for a charming 3 bedroom, 2 bath fixer-upper near Decatur.  Then the Great Recession hit America, and I lost my job in the fourth round of lay-offs.  Fortunately the house was a foreclosure when I bought it (so I didn't lose any equity), and it only needed some small repairs and a lot of TLC and elbow grease to make it shine.  Miraculously, I was able to sell it a few months later and come away with an even bigger nest egg.  I moved into a 400 square foot studio apartment, biding my time until things picked up again.  Pretty soon I got the impression that my life couldn't wait for the economy to turn around, so that's when I began looking for other options.  I knew my parents had some land in Tennessee, but I had never seriously considered living in such a small town as Cookeville.  But now it was starting to look like a great option.  I began looking for ways to fit into the smallest house I could comfortably bear, so that I could build something using only the money I'd saved and avoid a mortgage.  I sold or gave away about 80-90 percent of the furniture that filled my former home, and pared it down to the bare essentials.  I also invested in several household tools that I plan to implement into my new home operations, all of which are hand-powered (e.g., galvanized laundry tubs, and a hand-cranked ringer).  Eventually I settled on a floor plan that's just shy of 300 square feet, and I'm pretty comfortable with it.  It covers all the necessities of life and even allows a few luxuries.  Here are a few of the planned features:

House:

  -wood cookstove w/ hot water reservoir (7 gallons)

  -solar water heater (for warm weather)

  -electric water heater for back-up and storage (20-30 gallons)

  -ceiling fan
  -small heat pump for back-up heat and AC (hopefully only for dire need)

  -large covered patios on east and west

  -loft areas for storage and winter sleeping

  -large farmhouse kitchen sink

  -refrigerator (this will take some time to learn to live without)

  -large farmhouse utility sink for hand-laundering

  -clothesline (inside and outside)

  -shower and toilet

  -built-in wardrobe

  -metal roof w/ 3-foot overhangs

  -wood construction and "board and batten" style exterior

  -crawl space

  -fiberglass insulation

  -dual paned casement windows

  -septic tank
  -city electricity and water
  -(future) cistern to collect rainwater from roof

Furniture:

  -futon-style full bed

  -farmhouse table

  -bookshelves

  -pie safe

  -desk

Farm (all organic):

  -vegetable/flower garden

  -fruit trees/shrubs

  -chickens for eggs/meat

  -rabbits for meat

  -maybe dairy sheep or goats in the future

Some of the house features are required by the building codes, since the property is in the city limits.  I chose other features to save energy or to be more self-sufficient.  Most of the farming will have to wait until next spring.

A week ago I went up to visit my parents, and we talked through some of the design features of my house and my dad helped me with some problem solving.  My dad built their house a few years ago, so he has some hands-on experience that I lack.  He also built it before their land was annexed by the city, so he wasn't required to comply with all the regulations that are required for my house.  I bought the code book (2006 International Residential Code) and started learning (it's about an inch thick!).  We met with the code officials last week, and they okay'd the size of the house, but said that the land would need to be rezoned, since it's partly zoned residential and partly light-industrial.  The rezoning shouldn't be a problem, except that it will take until the end of October before it can be approved.  I still have plenty of planning and prep work that I can do until then, but I have a feeling I'll be sitting on my hands for a while with regard to building.

I plan to move up to Tennessee in late August and stay with my parents until I can move into the new house, but that may be late December or January (or even later) before the house is finished and receives its certificate of occupancy.  Right now I'm working on updating the house drawings and hope to have a complete set of construction drawings ready for a building permit before I move to Tennessee.  I'm also spending my days searching for sinks, showers, toilets, windows, doors, faucets, light fixtures, door hardware, etc.  Fortunately I designed my house to accommodate standard sized elements throughout, so that should keep it from being too much of a headache.

Anyway, that's the latest for now.  I'll try and post my drawings for the world to see and judge.  Till then!