What do you wish your home had, and what do you love in your home?

Travis Johnson wrote:

J Anders wrote:I wish people weren't so secretive about their income but they'll gladly hang their expenses out to dry. It just makes it hard for younger people to understand what's possible out there.

There is some truth to this for sure, but equally I wish people would understand that having large acreage does not automatically equate to large amounts of income. It take money to convert crops to cash. Just because someone might have 400 acres of hay, and hay is worth $40 a bale, UNTIL that hay ground is mown, teddied, raked and baled with fuel, time and equipment, that conversion from grass to valued product does not happen. And getting that grass to be of such quality that it has value at $40 a bale takes expense too. Buying manure or even moving my own sheep manure costs money, not to mention adding lime to get the PH right. A few acres? That is not so bad...now scale it up to a few hundred acres and its almost impossible to stay on top of.

For me, 3/4 of my land base is tied up in forestry, but yet that forest land only nets me $70 per acre per year sustainably. (Growth of 1 cord, per acre, per year). Property taxes chew into that profit per acre per year pretty deeply! That is just its value, actually harvesting the wood costs money that eats into the profit even more. Sure I can log off 70 acres and cash my check for $150,000, but a person must realize it took 35 years for those trees to grow. 35 years of taxes. 35 years of careful forest management. And it costs money to buy farm in the first place.

I can get more than $250 an acre of course raising sheep on the farmland, but to convert forest into farmland is a very laborious and costly endeavor. It can be done, and I do my share of it, but it is not easy to do. Equally, raising sheep takes work every day, barns, and end investment in livestock. Trees just grow, but the pay per acre is so much less. That is the trade off.

Why do farmers talk a lot about expenses? Because production costs, property taxes, paying the farm mortgage, and raising a family exceeds what the farm makes for income. That is why on average, new farms last three years.

Erica Colmenares wrote:

Jess Dee wrote:


I completely agree with you about bedrooms not needing to be big. Many stock house plans waste (in my opinion) so much space on bedrooms. Thanks for pointing out the stora

Good point! Our whole property is sloped, with a long lane down the middle (sloped to the east and west, away from the N/NW lane). The area we're thinking of building, near the old tobacco field, would allow for a south-facing long side of the house. If the plan is right.  

A root cellar, walk out basement where you take advantage of ground temperature without risking moisture would be amazing. I would make the walk out door of thick glass for soundproofong.

I moved to the woods for nature sounds but the sound of,jet planes showed up around 3 years ago and it would be great to have a quiet room. Also during real cold weather and power outage you could sleep in basement with just a little wood stove for heat.

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:Really it was for my Mum. She was going insane having Dad home all the time.

Charli Wilson wrote:If we're going for absolute dreams.. then I'll take an outside insulated workshop please (easier to leave the dust and mess in a workshop, in the house I feel compelled to clean it up!). And a natural swimming pool. And an attached greenhouse (heck, I'd like an attached garden too! I can't see my garden from my house as the two aren't actually next to each other).

More realistically I'd love a mudroom/porch. Our door goes straight into the kitchen and everyone treks mud in.

Erica Colmenares wrote:We're getting closer to figuring out our site plan. Here's the latest version  - sorry about all the overwriting on it. It's definitely a work in progress.  There is nothing at all at the site now. Well, actually there is a lot, but it's primarily trees.  (edited to update to most current working site plan)

M. Crex wrote:The basement includes a root cellar located next to the stairs with a vegetable drop hatch accessible from outside (I've seen similar setups for firewood).

Universal design is worth looking into and ties in well with permaculture.

Josephine Howland wrote:

Erica, a word of advice, very expensive experience: Don't have your driveway drive over your septic field. If you get frozen ground that is. When you drive over any of your septic lines, you drive the frost lower than normal. Your septic lines will then freeze, and possible break. Been there, done that. Just a caution. Truthfully with the lower cost compostable toilets out there, I would never use a septic again.

Erica Colmenares wrote:

Josephine Howland wrote:

Erica, a word of advice, very expensive experience: Don't have your driveway drive over your septic field. If you get frozen ground that is. When you drive over any of your septic lines, you drive the frost lower than normal. Your septic lines will then freeze, and possible break. Been there, done that. Just a caution. Truthfully with the lower cost compostable toilets out there, I would never use a septic again.

Thanks, Josephine. That sounds like a nightmare. So, for our design, are you talking about the perimeter path? There is one part of that that could potentially see a truck cross, between the garden and the house.

Erica Colmenares wrote:This is perhaps tangential, but if you were building from scratch on wooded land, and wanted passive solar, would you leave trees immediately east or west of the house? We are marking trees this week to save or keep.

Jay Angler wrote:put sound dampening material in the walls between the dining room and the master bedroom and in the upper floor bedroom wall that is against the "open to below.

Travis Johnson wrote:I wish our house had a master bedroom!
[snip]
Because I sleep on the couch, and Katie sleeps on the other couch, my whole world consists of Kitchen, Living Room and Bathroom.

Travis Johnson wrote:I wish our house had a master bedroom!