Three Saplings Projects

We spent some time on the land today – just building a fire, playing in the snow, and imagining our life with the house there.  We will be moving back in to our trailer before May 1st as the rental cottage we are in will no longer be available.  That is only six weeks away and this is what the trailer looked like today…

We looked at hundreds of designs in books and online and found nothing that was close enough to what we wanted.  We were looking for something that we would want to live in as we watched our children and, hopefully, eventually our grandchildren grow up.

Finally, we decided to hire a designer to take the ideas we had and put them together in a plan that was perfect for us.  It would be expensive, but we figured it would be money well spent in the long run.

After making up a list (6 pages…) of things that we needed, wanted, and hoped for, we asked for quotes from a few designers and architects and then interviewed the ones we thought we could work with.  In the end, we decided to hire Michael from Riversong Designs and we have been very happy with the results.

I made a rough flow diagram of how I wanted our house to accommodate our activities.

It is important to me that the function and flow of the spaces in the house are efficient, flexible, and practical.  A large and accessible mud room was a requirement as well a bathroom that was close enough to the door not to have to worry about trekking across the house with muddy boots for a quick break indoors.  We wanted the kitchen to be the heart of our home and to have at least one bedroom on the main floor to accommodate anyone with limited mobility.  I also hoped to have an office/homework room as well as an entry that our guests could walk in without having to kick boots and mitts and backpacks aside…

Our goal this summer was to do as much as we could to set ourselves to focus on building the house as soon as we can this coming Spring – we don’t want to be renting again next winter!

Between getting organized after the move and caring for the children, we did manage to get quite a bit done on the property.  The best part is that we discovered that we were able to do much of the work ourselves.  We learned so much in the process and really feel that this project is ours – not to mention saving money that we can put towards the house!

To catch you up, here is a quick blurb on what we have done so far:

The Driveway. The driveway is over 200 metres long and took over 60 loads of gravel so far.  It is solid!  We love the path that we chose because it doesn’t come straight in from the road but has a few bends around some beautiful old trees which also helps a bit with privacy.    My husband connected to his inner-lumberjack and cleared all of the trees along the route – some of them over 80 ft tall!  We also hired a great operator with a rubber tire backhoe and a dump truck.  We didn’t think about it at the time but we are happy that we chose someone with smaller pieces of equipment because he can avoid tearing up more of the land than we have to.

The Well.  The well was something that we couldn’t do much ourselves other than cross our fingers and hope that they found water at a reasonable depth.  It was funny to discover that everyone around knows what depth their well is and there doesn’t seem to be any pattern.  We had the choice of paying a flat rate no matter how deep the water was or paying by the foot and we went with the later.  We lucked out and struck the good stuff at 82 feet with a rate of 15 gallons per minute which is good pressure apparently.  No more carting water buckets from the neighbours next summer!

The Septic.  We thought that we had to use a contractor for the septic but eventually learned that we could get the permit to do it ourselves.  The design was surprisingly simple because the application form came with a very clear guide to follow.  We got lucky here as well because we hit sand in the spot we had chosen for the septic field – otherwise we would have had to clear a lot more space and pay for a lot more sand to be trucked in. I also was a bit disappointed to find that shopping for a septic tank was a lot like the first time I was shopping for a car – ‘oh madame, why would you want to look under the car …  look at this pretty mirror…’

The Power.  We thought about going ‘off the grid’ and generating our own power from sun and/or wind but decided that bringing the power in from the road was a better option for us.  We thought that we were going to have to hire someone to do this because of the technical/permit requirements but eventually learned that we could do it which also saved quite a bit on labour costs.  We had the rubber tire backhoe dig the beautiful 680 ft trench (sure wish a had one of those about twenty years ago…), bought a transformer pad, and learned to wire a meter base and electrical panel successfully enough to earn our permit and now we have had power for about a week – even if it is just to one outlet…!

The Garage.  We are still working on the garage.  We were hoping to have it all closed in before the snow fell but the early onset of winter this year took us all by surprise.  The steel roof is almost all installed but we will wait until Spring to pour the floor and install the windows.  We decide to build it first so that we can use it for an office and storage of building supplies but it is looking so nice, it will be hard not to move in to it ourselves!

We have moved to our property and it already feels like home despite the lack of a few amenities.  We have a generator for power, buckets to bring water in and the trailer’s holding tank and a little honey wagon to bring our sewage out.  We are very comfortable and the children are having the time of their lives catching frogs and searching for slugs.  They barely look at the few toys I managed to pack in to the trailer.

We have also cleared the area that we have chosen for the house.  I was sad to see the bigger trees go but they were mostly Basswood which is apparently a tree that We shouldn’t be keeping anyway.  We have started looking to see if there is a market for them as the wood is supposed to be good for carving or making concrete forms.  If anyone knows more about this, please let us know!

The advantage to being on the property and having the site somewhat marked out is that we get to imagine the house at all times of the day.  This picture was taken in the morning and the sun is shining through the trees right on the spot that our screened in porch will be.  I could just picture myself curled up with a book sipping a cup of tea before everyone else wakes up.

It turns out that there is a lot of work to do before we actually get to start our home building project.  This is not a real surprise, but overwhelming nonetheless!  Although we have been dreaming about this move for some time, actually turning those ideas and rough plans in to actions is a daunting task.  Despite our desire to leave the rat race, we have had some great times here.  Now that we have come down to our last few weeks in the suburbs and in the careers that we have had since leaving high school, we are starting to say our goodbyes and hope that we don’t miss anyone.  It is so nice to hear the thoughtful and truly touching well-wishes from so many.  Thanks guys!

Well our house is officially off of the market and now I can stop the madness of keeping the house ready for any last minute showings – yippee!  Now I’ll have a bit of time to work on this blog!

Selling a house that I live in is very high on my list of least favourite things to do.  I am so glad that I won’t have to do it again for a very long time.

Here I go!  This is my first entry in to the blog that I will use to chronicle my transition from the rat race to life on the lake with my husband and three children.  Of course, I have more than a few projects in various stages in the works; the biggest one being the building of our efficient home on our 5 acre lake front lot.  I am really looking forward to sharing our adventures with you!