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  • From: keith bellinger <bartermn AT epix.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Got a plan?
  • Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:52:25 -0400

Funny you should ask, Gene.

I drew our master plan at a picnic table in the front yard while living in a tent. No, we hadn't been here a full year yet. In general the plan hasn't changed much even with the added acre a few years ago. Maybe it's time to revise though; the pasture hasn't been used in three years and is returning slowly to the brushlot it was. I could take down the fences and finally plant the orchard...

Specifics have changed though; barn will become woodshop and the small addition that was shop will turn into a pigpen perhaps...

I just dug out our original house blueprints, drawn by a sixteen year old aspiring architect cousin who indeed became one. That was in 1986, years after we got the land. I wanted to see what kind of greenhouse we dreamed of and am trying to redesign it to match the log walls which were simply board and batten on paper. I am leaning toward a stone (cultured stone probably) kneewall the height of our crawlspace--two feet, recycled sliding glass doors as windows above--angled at a fifty-degree or so pitch, and steel roofing to match the existing cabin but with a couple skylights rather than dormers. Any non-glass wall area will be sided with pine lap to match the gable ends and dormers of the house.

I desperately want a concrete slab at grade for the floor, eventually tiled. You will step down into it from my office. The ceiling height where it joins the house will be eleven feet.

But I'm leaning toward a pole-type structure for now with gravel floor only. The reason being the frost; about a foot and a half is as deep as I can dig without a good backhoe and you live too far away. The septic installer used a huge excavator to dig the hole for the tank through solid rock. Here in Pennsylvania the frost line averages three and a half feet. The holes for the posts will be a problem but I'll dig them as deep as I can and call it good. Then maybe next year pour a floating slab over the gravel, inside the posts. Any heaving shouldn't crack the windows.

Then again, revision could be my middle name.

How about yourself, gene? Did you have a master plan?

Gene GeRue wrote:
How many of you have a drawn master plan for your homestead? Did you live there for a year or more before drawing the plan? How often do you revise it?

--
For by your words you will be justified Keith Bellinger
And by your words you will be condemned bartermn AT epix.net






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