Prep Monday—The Compound


Here’s our general plan for the layout of our new place (note the two arrows—switch the supplies and storage sheds; I haven’t had enough coffee yet to aim for perfection):

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It might be a little hard to read, since I’ve made a few changes—work in progress, you know—and we’ve gotten new and exciting information!

We’ve been having some issues with the house itself, particularly the size. It seemed to be, um, growing.

So I took a different tack. I wrote down the size of each room by the minimum needed. For example, our current bathroom (yes, we have only one) measures 5 x 10. That’s just 50 square feet (I can actually do SOME math!), so the only thing to add was room for the washer and dryer; our current utility closet is 4 x 7, or 28 square feet. Ergo, the new bathroom/laundry could easily be just 100 sq. ft., not 120.

I did this with the bedroom and office too—how much space do we really “need” in order to fit in the furniture we want to keep? Besides that, we’re thinking of heating and cooling costs as well as one of the reasons for the move: being outdoors.

And that means we’ll spend a lot of time on the deck and porch and garden and in the woods. So who needs a bigger house? Not us.

In the end, we had 640 square feet.

And THEN!

We found a local place that will deliver AND BUILD a 640 square foot house (on our concrete pad/subfloor) for just under $8000!

So our tent option/idea has changed—we’ll save at least $500 there—and the plan is to get that shell up in the spring/early summer. 2015. Then we’ll finish it out over the next year, or less.

Cool, huh?

 

 

Prep Monday—Lining up the Ducks


Okay, we’re not exactly lining up ducks, but we DID outline the new house: in our current back yard, just because we can.

IMG_4272 

It’s 24 by 32 feet, which comes to 768 square feet, which is the smallest house we’ve ever lived in. One house in Texas came close, 900, including the garage, but that was two adults, three kids, and a large dog. This one will be two adults, a small dog—and possibly a medium-sized one, along with a cat. And the cat will be thrilled, since he’ll be able to go outside! Finally!

So, bedroom, office, bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Oh, and the gun cabinet . . .

We’re cracking ourselves up here, going “through the walls” instead of doors—we haven’t marked all those. The main purpose here is to see the size, especially room size, in case we need to make adjustments.

I won’t lie, it’s pretty exciting. But the neighbors are probably wondering . . .