House Plans

We've been steadily peeling logs, and I'll take some pics when we're out there this weekend and talk about that.

But now, I wanted to share a few kind of big steps that have happened.

Thing 1: We talked to Rob Pichelmann about doing our professional house plans/drawings for us that we can use to get the building permits and use with any trades we need to have in.  He's very reasonable, and he KNOWS cordwood - plus he's in Wisconsin and has dealt with Wisconsin codes both from building his own home, and from several other Wisconsin based ones he's worked on.  This also really gives us an edge with the building inspector.

Thing 2:  We FINALLY agreed on a floor plan.  We've been going around quite a bit on some issues, such as overall dimensions, how the bathroom would be laid out and how the pantry and laundry rooms would work.  We had some base disagreement in the beginning just coming up with a size because I wanted to make sure we where choosing something that would be right size for us and do everything we needed it to, and he kept dramatically complaining that I pushing out bigger and BIGGER, like I was trying to build a cordwood McMansion. I finally had to remind him that while he was blithely carrying on about how we really don't need that much space, he also has a giant building already on the property just waiting to become his workshop.  I need space like that, too, and mine will be INSIDE the house. I get a workshop, dude.

So, we mowed the area where we want to build, and staked out the largest of the possible dimensions we came up with.  We have a max of 36' wide in order to preserve the two large trees that are on the hill (I HOPE) - that's as wide as it can be and fit between them nicely. What we settled on is 34' x 52'

Scott's so cute rumbling around on the mower.  But then, I have the benefit of being able to SEE, just from his posture there, and knowing how utterly obsessed he was with mowing out that space that day. We couldn't get to that part fast enough.

In the end, this is what we came up with for a floor plan:

The bottom edge is the front of the house.  There are two bedrooms (one is really going to be my workshop, but we'll have a way to set it up as a quick guest room when needed), one bathroom, a walk-in closet for us (because I am now spoiled and hang up nearly everything I own), pantry, large and small storage closets (because that's all the storage we get - no basement, no attic), laundry/utility room and a great room with kitchen as part of it.

It'll have a double shed/saltbox roof with a row of windows to let light into the great room, and catch the southern sun.

The sliding doors on the left are the master bedroom, and the windows on the right are nearly all in the great room, so the windows up in the roof there will shine down into it.

Thing 3:  We just signed up for (and nabbed) the final two spots in Richard Flateau's Coordwood Construction workshop in early September.  I'm very excited for this - we did a workshop several years before, and I really loved it - and could use a refresher, plus this is with Wisconsin based people again, which is really reassuring when it comes to the building inspectors. (I bear deep scars after working with the City of Duluth on our urban apartment, and know the kind of hell we might be courting).  PLUS - we get to stay with friends who live down in that area, and they believe they can score us all some tickets to the Packers/Bears game!!  It would be AMAZING to see a game at Lambeau in which I wasn't fully encased in Carhart. (It would also almost certainly mean that Aaron will injure something and be out for another season - we've gone to games twice before, and BOTH times Rogers got injured and was out, so we never got to see him play in person.)

Whether we do or don't get to see any football, it will be an awesome weekend!  And if we work very very hard, we will have all the logs peeled by then.....