Well, once again, this post was a long-time coming. An update on where we’re at with the property and house building…

Basically, no change.

Ok, that’s not true. The original plan was to build our “dream house”– a 2700 square foot 4 bedroom place with a large workshop for Michelle’s CM business classes. However, that has proved to be a massive expense, something we can’t reasonably swallow at this time.

So, the plan is to build a ‘barn’. Near the same area as the original site, we will build a ~1200 sq. ft. place. 2 stories, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and an open great room. We’ll live here for 3-8 years (or whatever it takes), then build our “real” house. The barn is so named because that’s what we’re building. A rectangular structure, painted barn red with white trim, and barn-style roof. To the eye, it is a barn.

After building the main house, the ‘barn’ will be converted to a non-residence. Non-residence means (in the eyes of the county) no long-term living, or, practically speaking, remove the kitchen or bathrooms. We’ll remove the kitchen. This will become Michelle’s workshop / retreat house (as well as a guest house *hint hint*).

The plans for the ‘barn’ are done, and we have several estimates back. Right now our main hold-up is site location. There are other things (final estimates, electricity connection information, etc), but those will fall into place. With 20 acres, there are few places we have considered for the homesite. Obviously, the site location affects costs and estimates. We have two locations in consideration. Michelle and I hope to have final decision on that in the next week or so.

On the existing house front, much of the mega-trash has been removed. Metal recycling is a good thing–they pay us for much of that old crap. However, significant items still have to be removed. Notably are 50-70 tires. Need any? That and a shed full of glass windows and window panes. We’re seeing what 1-800-GOT JUNK has to offer, but they’re shaping up as fairly expensive. We’ll see.

So, that’s about it. If you were to visit the place, all you’d probably notice is much of the visible crap removed. That and the grass surrounding the house was recently cut (thanks Jeff). So the place “looks” somewhat OK, but mostly no change. Behind the scenes tho, things are progressing. The current plan is to break ground this summer (July!?), and take residence sometime in the next 9 months.