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!