Homestead mailing list

[keith bellinger <bartermn AT epix.net>]

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