The house plan

With a well in and a baby on the way, we got busy with the house plans.

Jerry, Jobe and I spent a rainy Sunday around the kitchen table with pencils and graph paper drawing out our ideas. Jobe's design was very cool - several stories with slides and ropes from balconies. After playing with our ideas we came up with a basic concept and a site and went to our friend Charlie to put together some plans.

Charlie's usual gig is designing tree houses - yes, real houses in trees - and he has been nice enough to work with us. Check out his website for some cool pictures treehouseengineering.com/gallery.html.

The basic idea is that there will be 2 stories. The downstairs will be "partial earthberm" which basically means that it will be basement in the back with the front at ground level. This will help it to stay cool in summer and warm in the winter. We are putting 3 bedrooms and a bath downstairs and upstairs we'll have an open floor plan for the living room, dining room and kitchen, there will also be an office/guest room (hint hint). We put the bedrooms in the part of the house that will be coolest and the living space where it will be warm and has a great view of the mountains. We plan to mill up most of the lumber we need for the house right on the property from trees that have either blown down or had to come out to make room for the house.

Meanwhile, I was enduring the first challenge of being a mommy - morning (actually all day) sickness. Poor Jer had to pretty much take over all the cooking, cleaning and moving forward on the property, not to mention putting up with his weepy, crabby, nauseas, whiny wife. I have to say he was an absolute saint, taking it all on with out a complaint and taking time to consul and hold miserable me.