Today be Talk like a Pirate day. Many o' me buckos will be talkin' like this throughout t' day.
Last night my husband and I sat around discussing and working out some of the details to our new home. We are looking at 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, a very large kitchen, an open living room with fireplace, and a library/office. 2,400sf, plenty of room for the 6 of us. Add on's include a mud room that will also double as a canning room and a dirt root cellar with earth coolers. Everything will be underground, so we will have a sunken patio {yard}, that we can later convert into a greenhouse if we choose to. The whole "complex" will be water cooled {If that's even needed as the average temp is between 70f-75f in an underground home all year round, so we are not dead set on getting a water cooling system.} My mother has two wood burning stoves that she is giving to us. My parents-in-law are keeping their eyes out for barn shutters and other things that we can use for the home at the small town auctions they go to. We figured up the price if we had someone else do build it for us and place all new doors, nothing green into the house, and then we figured up what it would cost if we did most of the labor, went green and recycled, we will save 75% of the costs! Of course this is just preliminary, but still. . .
We also find a company up north that sells turbines and solar panels that we are going to visit. Maybe they are slightly cheaper {at least we will save on the cost of shipping it in}. Can you tell I am excited about this? Our current home is a 1984 trailer {mobile home} that is falling apart. It's one of those buyer beware stories. Many lies and truth's with held when we bought this place. It is 1,200 sq feet, so we will be doubling our space. The house we lived in, while playing the suburbanite, was 1,000 sq feet, and that was only if you included the front porch! 2,400 sq feet will be roomy for us indeed. Excavation of the site will begin after the rains next spring.
We also named the kitten that we are keeping, Tomato Paste. We discovered that he will stalk, kill and devoir tomatoes whenever he catches a whiff of them. He stole one off my husband's plate the other night, growling and hissing the whole time.
Bertha the Gold
What is YOUR pirate name?
6 comments:
The house sounds awesome!
It does look great on paper. I just wish we had some hills here. As it is, we were laughing last night about the fact that our home {sod roofed} will be the biggest hill out here and we expect the children of the area to be knocking at our door come the first snow fall.
I am so excited to find this blog. (via Get Rich Slowly) we to are starting to homestead and planning to build an earth sheltered home. Can't wait to see your progress!~
I too will be watching your progress with great interest. We're planning to build a green home eventually as well, and being underground so appeals to my strong hobbit tendencies!
Stephanie, welcome! It's great to meet another homesteading neophyte.
Cheryl, have you looked into Monolithic homes? They are very hobbitish. {don't know if they have them in your area though}
My aunt and uncle built their house into a hill, 80 percent underground, and really loved it! It was less expensive to operate, safer from storms, and very quiet. The only problem they had was moisture, and the molds/allergens and bugs (silverfish, beetles) that go along with it. But I'm sure some research would help address these issues...good luck with the project!
Post a Comment