Getting Back into the Swing of Things...Life in Our New Home

I've been a terrible blogger these past few months. Life has just been too busy and has gotten in the way. Very little time and energy for picture taking and none for writing. Between all that was going on building and finishing the house and moving in plus work being busy - creativity was tapped out.

I have a lot of things in my head that I want to write about...that I need to write about, and I think I am getting closer to being able to do that and do it regularly. Until then, here are some photos from some recent walks around our property and "the neighborhood."

We moved into our house on April 14th. I can't believe we've already been here a month. We still have a lot of work to do on the house but the big things are done. The rest is cosmetic things. The things I love most about living here?

The absolute silence and tranquility. It is like living in a national park but without the visitors. We hear nothing but the wind, the occasional bird or plane. The crazy, changing weather and the fact that there is usually a very nice breeze running through the house. Since we've moved it its been kind of chilly, way too hot and all the way back to very pleasant - which it is most of the time. We had our first heavy rain, which we missed because we were up in Utah visiting family and getting the last of our things out of storage. Last night we watched a huge dust devil pick up and move across the land. Those things are so wild. And loud.

The wildlife. We throw out bird seed and all veggie scraps go out for cottontails and others. So now we have a regular group of quail, bunnies, scrub jays, ground squirrels, antelope squirrels (they look like tiny chipmunks) and others that come around. Almost every day you spot something fun. A road runner running by the bedroom patio door while I was staring out the window. A mouse climbing up the outside screen wanting to get in. Bats in the evenings. Some kind of shrew like rodent digging a huge hole in the ground right outside the door. Most of the time you can stand right near a door or window and watch. They don't see that you are in there and they are not afraid.

With the windows and large sliding glass doors open, sometimes, especially at night, it feels like we are luxury camping - because you are just there in the middle of nature, but you are in a comfortable bed with all of your stuff around you, not just sleeping in a bag on the ground. I love it.

We call this one Whale Rock.

Baby bunny sitting in a bush just outside our kitchen window.

Bunny taking a break in the shade. 

Creosote bushes are blooming right now.

Up the road - someone else's land.

Roadrunner Rut Road in front of our house.

Our house is tucked back there in the left corner. Perspective with size is always wacky out here. Things look huge and small depending on what is in your view. Sometimes our house looks like a tiny model. 

View out our large door like kitchen window.

This is my view when I am doing dishes. I love doing dishes. 

Walking up RRR road yesterday, way back. 

Fireplace Rock Wall + Recycled Old Wood

One of my favorite things in the house we are building is the fireplace in the great room, which will sit into a rock wall.

The fireplace will have a wrap around hearth using large rocks. This will flow into a lower rock platform to the right of the fireplace for the wood stove. The whole wall, 16 feet high, will be embedded with smaller rocks. Best of all? All of the rock will come from our land - hand picked. That is what makes it feel so special. And a lot of work.

My husband estimates we will need approximately 1,500 rocks to do the fire place wall. That, my friends, is a lot of rocks. Oh, and we are doing one part of the outside house walls in rock and that may take about 3,000 rocks. I can't think about that one yet. Let's just get the inside fire place wall done first.

We have a lot of rocks on our 40 acres of land, but most of them are giant boulders. However there are spots of smaller rocks suitable for putting into a wall and hearth. Over the past two days I've managed to gather close to 80 of the smaller kinds of rocks we need. I have the day off tomorrow and my goal is to try to surpass 10% of the 1,500 we need...so if I can get it up to 150 rocks, I will be satisfied.

I can't handle the large ones we will need for the hearth. I can barely handle the smaller ones. It is not easy taking the the wheel barrow out on a zig zag path across our land, avoiding all the plants. It is even harder bringing it back weighted down with many pounds of rocks. Sometimes the wheel gets stuck in sunken sand. I have to stop and rest a lot. I am realizing just how out of shape my back muscles have become. But it is fun.

I've made up my own rules. Not too many rocks from any one area. If the earth won't give up the rock easily on the first try, then it stays - not because I can't work harder to get it out, but just because I feel the earth wants it to stay. Some rocks have lichen (apparently a good thing and a sign of good air quality) and I don't want to take those away. I feel they should stay outside and continue to sustain that life. I've pulled up a few rocks and discovered ant homes underneath - those stay too. There are plenty of rocks to go around. There is no need to be greedy. Oh, and last, but not least, I thank the desert for giving me the beautiful rocks I take. I am grateful we have this beautiful land and grateful for every inch of it and all of its beauty.

Below is a photo of some of the rocks I found, all laid out on a table so we can get a better look at the size, color and shape. Paul took the photo from the roof deck of the house. I located more and created a few piles of them further away from the house that I need to pick up tomorrow via wheel barrow.

The other very cool aspect of this fireplace that I love so much is that we are using old wood we found at a salvage yard in LA (thank you E & K!). It came from a turn of the century (1900s) old mansion that was torn down. We already knew we wanted to use parts of it to create the fire place mantle, but our very talented uncle, who has overseen the construction of this house with my husband, came up with a design to use some of the other wood for the whole rock wall. I've shot a few photos below. It may be difficult to fully envision at this stage, but it is going to be incredible.

Starting the collection of rocks from our land that we will use to build a stone fireplace wall in the house.

A small sample of the diversity of rocks on the land. These smaller ones will make up the wall. Larger ones will make up the hearth.

You can start to see what it will look like. The wood needs to be stripped and finished. There will be more wood in here and then the entire wall will be rock. When we found the old wood, we knew we wanted to make those columns into our mantle. 

The stone wall will wrap around to the left of the fireplace as will the hearth.

The narrow area to the right of the fireplace will be used to store firewood. There will be a stone hearth wrapped all around the bottom. The wood stove will sit to the right of the fireplace on more stone. The entire wall will be covered in rocks. Ignore that light colored wood above the fireplace -  that won't be there - it will all be the darker old wood.

Starting to strip the old varnish off the gorgeous old wood. This wood is well over 100 years old as the house was build turn of the century. Its hard to find this kind of old growth type wood any more. We are very happy to recycle it in our home. 

Home

Viewed from the top of Black Lava Butte.

Sunset Views

Sunset, as viewed from our great room inside the house we are building

The Complexities of Home Building

Have you ever built a house? We are in the process and there is just so much stuff you have to think about that I never imagined. And rules. So many building rules you have to meet to get your permits. Some of them seem weird and a tad ridiculous to me. Like the fact that we have to have porch lights outside of every entrance. Ok, I understand that, but what if I don't want a light outside of every door? Tough. And you have to put electrical outlets so many feet from every door in the house and then every so many feet along a wall. We want a lot of electrical outlets but does it have to be so dictated? And then we have to have a lighted house number sign by the front gate (which is ok), but (always a but) we also have to have a lighted sign on the house that is supposedly visible from the road. The dirt road. Our house is set quite aways back from the dirt road, so ok we can put up a number sign, and we can light it, but I can't guarantee you are going to see it from there with the naked eye. Maybe some binoculars?

We were recently told we might not be able to build a wood-buring fireplace due to new California rules. Air quality concerns. Understandable, but we don't live in the city where air pollution is as much of a problem. We live in the desert. We want a wood burning fireplace in the desert! We looked into it and we are led to believe from our inspector that we can still build this fireplace as we had planned. Whew. I don't really understand it all - where the laws are at and when enforcement is happening. Let this be a warning to those of you thinking of building a home in California - you need to look into the ever changing building codes. You may not be able to build a wood burning fireplace and your plans for a wood burning stove may need to be changed to a pellet burning stove. Don't get me wrong - pellet burning stoves are a good idea, as are gas fireplaces. You just need to keep yourselves informed. The building codes are quite a process and always changing.

Right now we are working with the electrician to map out all of our lighting, electrical outlets and switches. Wow what a process! I have some serious admiration for electricians. Have you ever had to design the electrical plans for a new house? It is a lot of work and a lot of contemplation. What kinds of lights and where? Fixtures? Bulbs? Direction? What kinds of switches and where? How high do you want your switches? How high and where do you want your electrical outlets? You have to know measurements of what is to come. Where will things be placed in the kitchen so they can be lighted properly? Where will you place your bathroom sinks and how high and where will you place the mirrors around which lights will sit? Where will you place tvs? Recessed lighting? Facing directly down or angled at walls? It all has to be decided now!

So, we are in the midst of a lot of designing and planning and measuring and considering. I carry a note book with me most of the time. And a tape measure. The tape measure is my friend. We spend evenings like this researching images and sites on line. What kinds of lighting fixtures? What kinds of bulbs? What kinds of outlet covers? What about baseboards? How high so you know where to set the outlets? What kinds of railings for the stairs? What kind of lighting for the stairs? What is the typical size for kitchen cabinets and appliances and bathroom vanities? How much space is typical between a toilet and a vanity? How much space for bedside nightstands (so you can set outlets and lights properly)? How will the doors open in a room and will they interfere with furniture placement? You have to place the switches in places that won't be blocked by the doors. Where will you place the stereo? And speakers? Where and how many? How do you space the lights away from the ceiling fans so there will be no shadowing when the fans are running? Where do you want the switches to turn the lights on and off? Oh I could go on and on my friends. This is what it means to build a house.

It is a fun and exciting and stressful endeavor all rolled up in one, and we are so blessed to be able to venture on this crazy Byway adventure. Now, back to the internet research...

First Stained Glass Window is in!

Remember our stained glass windows we designed up in Salt Lake City for our new home? Check out the original posting here. The guys just put the first one in the house last week and it looks amazing! I am so in love with our stained glass windows!! The next one goes in next week. Here's a shot of the first window by the front door.

Juniper and Joshua

A recent shot of our home - Juniper and Joshua - and our little piece of paradise taken from atop Black Lava Butte. Construction progress is moving along. Can't wait to be living there. :)

Roadrunners

We are building a house on Roadrunner Rut Road. So isn't it appropriate to have the roadrunner as our mascot?

Some native American groups believe that the roadrunner protects against evil spirits. Since we started building I have been hoping we would get some roadrunners around our property because of our road name, and just because they are funny little birds.

Well, I am happy to report that we now have a resident roadrunner! He showed up a few weeks ago and he is now there most days running through the house and hanging out on the roof with our construction crew. Paul said he ran through the house the other day with a mouse in his mouth. They are meat eaters and I don't mind them helping out with the rodent control. I think mice are super cute, but they can wreak havoc in your stuff if you aren't careful. The roadrunner is not afraid of all the people or the loud construction noises, in fact he seems to enjoy checking things out. I did not know roadrunners were so curious.

I am not at our building site often (chained to my computer with my day job), so I haven't been able to witness many sitings, but yesterday we were at the house meeting with a solar company about our system and he came around to check us out.

Paul shot this video last week of our little friend.

Before our real live mascot came around we got ourselves a roadrunner sculpture - our first art purchase for our new home. We were visiting our favorite local shop Route 62 Arts and Antiques and found this piece from owner, artist and friend Dennis Blevins. He makes beautiful pieces from metal and this roadrunner was perfect! We can't wait to put him on our porch.

We hope to have many, many roadrunners in our lives at our new place on Roadrunner Rut.

Building a Home as an Owner-Builder

We are building a very unique house off-grid out in the California desert and I really love the way we are doing it. In home building terms we are doing this as an owner-builder. We already owned the land so we started with that big hurdle already crossed. We have a family member who is not an architect, but who has a lifetime experience building homes, who happened to live in the area, who happened to not have any other projects going on, and who happened to be making a life change that allowed him to take on leading and managing our project, and to reside temporarily up on our land to be right there at the construction site for convenience and security. Our wonderful families were able to step in and help us with financing the construction (when we are built we will secure a mortgage with a bank and pay them back). All the stars aligned.

We could afford hiring our family member to design our house - doing it all on our own, just the three of us. He did it old school. No computers and fancy software. He sat at a table and drew and drew and drew.

We worked on the house design and plans for many months last year. We started in the summer of 2011 and design work went on until January. Version after version, slowly morphing into what became our final design. We were still living in SLC until July so every month we would drive down here to the desert over a weekend and sit and meet with him in his little work room discussing the plans and making changes. When our design was final, he then drew all of the many plans you need to build a home  - elevation, electrical, plumbing, etc. - again all by hand. His skill is amazing. This is a man who never went to school for this, but he knows all of this from years and years and years of real life experience building homes. A true craftsman. When those plans went in for review (they have to be reviewed and signed off on by an official engineer before you get a building permit), they were in fantastic shape. A tweak here or there was all that was required.

We submitted our designs for permits in January. We broke ground in March. We poured the concrete slab in May. We moved here in July just after the framing started. Framing is almost done as is the plumbing. We are now designing our electrical plans. The roofing starts on Monday. Then windows and doors and drywalling inside and siding outside. We are about half way there and there is A LOT still remaining to do. We hope to move in by December. Fingers crossed.

My husband is managing the overall project - its a full time job and now that we are down here he spends every week day up there from early in the morning until late in the afternoon. Our family member noted above is managing the construction and our small work crew is composed of friends and friends of friends.

We were going to hire a company to do the framing and at the very last minute they started talking about how they weren't sure they would be able to do the work for the price and the costs would go up and they weren't sure how much, blah, blah. We said forget it and hired our own crew of individuals. So now we have this group of local guys, friends and long-time acquaintances doing the framing. Actually it has been a crew like this since the beginning. It is probably taking a little longer than it would to just hire some company to do it, but we feel really good about the work that is being done. The cost will be the same, maybe a little more, but part of that is us having to buy all the scaffolding and tools, which isn't such a bad thing because now we own all of that stuff and we can use it again. And the other great thing about this situation? We are providing some good, steady work to people we know and care about. This whole arrangement feels so good and so right. It really feels like we are keeping this building process in the community and sharing the wealth so to speak. If we are going to spend money, I like spending it locally and with good people.

In addition to the beauty of engaging good people to build the house, we get to be intimately involved in every aspect of the construction process. We are renting a house only minutes away from our land. My husband is at the construction site every day, involved in every decision. I do my work at home as a telecommuter, following an east coast schedule which means I work from 6 am to 2 pm. That allows me time to go up to the construction site in the afternoons to see the progress and participate in some things. Unlike buying an already existing house, we get to make the decisions on every square inch of the house inside and out.

Building a house is a huge investment, but in terms of cost it can be the same or less cost as buying an already existing house. We figure the way we are doing it this will cost us less than what we would spend to go out and buy a similar type of existing home and it is costing us about half of what it would cost to go the more formal route with new construction of hiring an architect, construction company, etc. We've done an early appraisal and the planned house is valued at about double of what we are building it for. Plus, we are going to have a unique house, designed by us, the way we want it.

I feel so blessed by our good fortune.

Bath Tub Shopping

This is the kind of thing you end up doing when you are building a house.

Wild Fires

Fire is in the news a lot these days. And on my mind a lot too. This summer is giving us record breaking high temperatures, no rain, and a lot of really bad wild fires. Fires in Colorado and Arizona have been all over the news. Closer to home we had some smaller wild fires in Utah, including a big one that kicked up yesterday in the gorgeous Alpine Loop area of the Wasatch mountains near Sundance. I read this morning that a lot of Independence Day fireworks have been canceled, some due to the fire risks and concerns.

Just a few days ago, this past Saturday, we left Salt Lake City for our new Byway adventure and life here in the California desert. Paul drove the Penske truck and I drove my car. Heading south on I-15 in Utah the skies became cloudy and dark. Not the kind of cloudy and dark you see when a storm is brewing, but rather the kind of sky that you get from a lot of smoke or air pollution - in this case the culprit was wild fires off in the distance.

The skies were grey and everything else appeared grey as well. It was such a depressing sight. It was exactly like the skies you see in those apocalyptic movies where its the future and we've destroyed our environment and gangs of violent scavengers roam the lands fighting to survive. You know what I am talking about? I couldn't help but think about those films and the world they depict and what would life be like if everything was grey like this all the time. Climate change and all of these scary record high temperatures, along with the drought and the increased risk of wild fires - all of this is kind of scary in my book. All of us here and now are going to be ok, but a few generations ahead of us? Sorry. Those folks are screwed. I know, I know - people tend to be resilient and finally figure things out, so maybe it won't be that bad. I hope so. What do you think?

As we drove further south the skies finally cleared, but then, as we got just north of Scipio (yes, my favorite gas station petting zoo!), we saw a wild fire off in the distance. I have never seen anything like this before. I've never seen a wildfire up close. We couldn't see the flames as it was off in the distance and it seemed to be somewhat under control, but the smoke was unbelievable. Again the scenes looked apocalyptic. It was blowing my mind, so eventually I had to pull over to the side of the road and get my camera and take some shots.  Incredible sight, huh? Have you seen a wild fire up close?

Growing up and living on the east coast, I never thought much about wild fires. They exist out east of course, but it isn't like what you have in the western wilderness areas. As a child I lived in a heavily wooded mountain area, but we never had any fires (thankfully). Since then I have always lived in more developed areas, so while there is always that fear of a house fire, its not the same as the fear of a wild fire. Living out in Utah at the edge of the Wasatch mountains, I could start to appreciate more the fear of wild fires. When you are living in heavily wooded areas, they can just sweep through and grow so strong and large that they become tough or impossible to contain.

But I really started thinking about wild fires when we started building our house down here in Pioneertown. This is a very dry area and even though its desert, there is a lot of plant life. The desert is blanketed with a huge number and variety of small plants, bushes and Joshua trees - ready made kindling to help a wild fire spread fast and furious. This area did suffer a really bad fire back in 2006. It destroyed the plants on a lot of land and took some houses and structures and one life. It just missed my husband's old cabin. You can still see the scorched Joshua trees where the fire tore through. The land is slowly rejuvenating - nature always does - but it takes some time.

When we started designing our house plans and building our house we started to become acquainted with all the fire protection requirements, some probably standard for most new construction, but some specific to this remote and fire prone area. I was a little shocked.

We will be living in an area full of desert plants, and of course, dry. If a fire starts out there, depending on the winds, which are around a lot, you can imagine how quickly it could spread. We are probably about 20 minutes (best guess?) from the closest fire station and its all rough, dirt roads which means you are constrained in how fast you can drive to our house, especially a big fire truck. As a result, we are required to install a sprinkler system in our house, and to have a separate water tank specifically for fire fighting. There are other requirements for all of our doors and windows and the materials we use for the outside of our house. All of this costs a lot of extra money, especially the sprinkler system. However, in spite of my initial sticker shock, I've come to realize that it will be worth it if it can help us protect us, our house and our belongings in the event of a fire.

I've never had to think so seriously about fire before now with building a house and building it in this environment. Fire can be so terrifying and so devastating. I think I will need to, and I want to, read up about fires and learn more about what to do in the event of such a wild fire or home fire (obviously we also need to be concerned that we don't start a house fire that would turn into a wild fire). We obviously have to think about a fire plan for our house. Where do we go for safety? How do we get out of the area? People get trapped in wild fire areas and die all the time, including fire fighters. It is a legitimate and serious concern.

Down the road from our property people sometimes go out and shoot guns against the butte. Its illegal, but people have been doing it for many years and there really aren't many folks out here to stop them. However, living so close, we will try to stop this, mainly because that type of shooting is one cause of wild fires. I am not against shooting or guns (I actually love shooting!), but it is far too risky to be shooting out in this dry area. The fire risk is too high.

If you've got any fire prevention or safety planning tips and experience, please share.

Stained Glass Windows are Done!!!

And I am in love with them.

I encourage you to design your own stained glass windows if you get the opportunity. Its so much fun and not as expensive as you might think. Thanks to Beehive Glass in Salt Lake City for doing such a great job and turning around our order so quickly. If you want to check them out, ask for Kathleen and Brigetta and tell them the Hadleys sent you.

We picked them up today and got to take a peek before they were safely crated up so we can carry them down to California tomorrow. Here are a few photos of our two windows in the crates. One we chose to go square shapes and it will be by our front door. The other we chose angular -triangles - and this will go at the top of our stairs leading to our roof deck.

Stained Glass Window is Coming Together!

In my last post I told you about our stained glass window project for our new house. Today I got to go down to Beehive Glass and look at all the glass that has been cut and laid out before they finish it. I am so in love with these windows. They are going to be awesome.

The colors won't be as bright as you see here because in these images they are laid out against a white background. When they are up and you are looking through them into the air and light, the colors are much more muted and you see all the different textures. In addition to using different colors, we have used different types of textured glass. Stained glass is just so cool. I can see why someone would want to work with this material. I don't think this will be our last stained glass project.

Designing a Stained Glass Window

When we started thinking about building our desert house we looked through numerous design books from the local library and all over the internet for images and ideas to help guide us. One image we really loved was this one using colored glass in a kitchen.

As we drew up our plans we added something like this in the kitchen, then elsewhere throughout the house. By the time we were finalizing our window order and getting ready to start framing (just within the past few weeks), we changed our minds. The idea was becoming very expensive as it required so many small individual windows; we didn't need the extra glass in the kitchen/great room; and we worried about so much color clashing with other planned colors in the room. However we did not give up on the idea of having some stained glass in the house. We felt that we needed something to add some uniqueness to the Pella windows, which although really great windows, are still just your usual kinds of windows.

So we decided to create a stained glass window to go by the front door and then one at the top of the stairs that will lead up to our roof deck and cabana type room on the roof (which will be a second guest bedroom and bath). Both windows will be 7.5 feet high and just under 2 feet wide. We will have the glass all in one window instead of separated windows as we had originally envisioned, to keep costs down.

Near our house in Salt Lake City we had seen a glass company called Beehive Glass. So we checked it out, liked what we saw, and proceeded to work with them to create our windows. Its a small shop with friendly staff and they seem to be very busy. During our first meeting we told them what we wanted to do, talked about colors, and mapped out some sizes and costs. They gave us about 15 samples (they cut off a small shard of large glass panels) to take home and work on the colors and to finalize the design.

My husband and I decided this would be my project to finalize the design and the colors. So I spent about 2 weeks playing around with it. Its hard to imagine how colors will look next to each other when you are looking at tiny shards. Plus each glass looks different in direct light vs diffused light or when placed on a piece of white paper. It was a challenge, but a very fun one. I never thought I would get to design my own stained glass window!

Last week we submitted the final design and color selection and then the Beehive Glass crew got to work drawing a large mock up of what we wanted. We went in again on Friday to see the final results, made some last minute color changes and....here you have our final design! I can't wait to see the final product - to see the colors in full size. Stay tuned...we hope to have them done in two weeks to take with us on our move. It has been good working with Beehive Glass and I would recommend them to anyone in the area wanting some glass work done.

Me and my creation :)

The one on the left will be by the front door - the one on the right at the top of the stairs.

An Ode to a Home

Its an anniversary of sorts for me. Right around this time two years ago, we set off on an adventure together. In May 2010 we sold my house in Maryland, packed everything up in a Penske truck, drove across America with my car in tow and my two cats, and arrived in Salt Lake City to find a place to settle for awhile. It is that trip across the country, and starting a new life, that inspired me to start this blog. I came up with the name My Scenic Byway on that drive.

After staying a week at a La Quinta Inn (they take pets) and hunting for a place to rent, we were just about to give up and consider putting our things in storage and shacking up with family out here for awhile, then the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, we found our dream rental house. It was perfect. We couldn't believe how lucky we were to find this place. So we moved in that Memorial Day weekend, two years ago.

Two years have flown by. Living in this house at the foot of a beautiful canyon in the Wasatch Mountains, looking down over Salt Lake City, our relationship and love has grown. We arrived and starting planning a wedding which took place just months after arriving here. We also experienced great loss and heartache here, unexpectedly losing a very important family member - making it feel like the timing of our decisions and arrival here to this place was all the more important.

Family and friends have shared this house with us. Because I work from home, I have spent an enormous amount of my time over the past two years physically in this house. All day, every day during the week, I am here in this house. This house has always felt safe, a refuge. Open and full of light. Many large windows looking out onto trees and mountains. The best kitchen I've ever had. The sounds and feel of the evening breezes that roll down the canyon rustling the aspen leaves on the trees in the front yard. The sounds of the quail who frequent our yard. The cherry trees in our front and back yard. I have loved this house.

And this is the house where we started our vision and dream to build our own house in California, in the high desert near Joshua Tree. My husband has owned land there for many years and has always had a dream to build there. His dream became our dream. We've spent much time in this house huddled over house plans on the dining room table or the back patio. Many nights sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, tv on, but not really watching as we were searching the internet for websites and photos to give us ideas about various aspects of home design. Our living/dining room is covered in house plans, models, design boards with photos, catalogues, etc. And now that room is also filling up with boxes because the vision has been realized and the house is being built, and we are moving. This is to be our last month in this wonderful house, this place of love and fond memories.

I become very attached to places. I love to travel, yet I also can find it tough to leave a place. Not so much a place as a space. The space we reside in and make our own - I love those spaces. It isn't that I don't want to leave them, I just find it to be an emotional and bittersweet experience. I am excited about our new home, and sad too to leave this home that has served us so wonderfully for two years. We knew we would only be here temporarily, but somehow the time flies by too fast, like it always does, and suddenly you find yourself packing boxes, saying goodbyes to neighbors, and staring at the birds and the trees and the kitchen and the walls and saying to this space "I will miss you." And sometimes shedding a few tears as you say it.

I am grateful to the universe that led us to this beautiful house, and for how it became such a wonderful first home for us to share together. I have memories and images that I will cherish from it always. It was a good, good house. I am excited for the next people who will rent this house and make their own memories here, just as I am excited for our new house and our new journey on the Scenic Byway.

June 3, 2012

House Building Obsessions

Things I never thought I would spend enormous amounts of time thinking about (but I am because we are building an off-grid house in the desert):

• Window heights. And shapes and sizes and styles. How high off the ground should you place a window? Seriously I bet most of you have never spent time thinking about this, or as much as I have. Its a big pain, and once they are in, they are in. Have you ever noticed that all of the windows in all houses (at least all the ones I've seen) all have the same top height? I never noticed this before. We spent an enormous amount of time deciding the number of windows, their sizes and styles, and placement, and of course how high off the ground they sit. And be prepared, because windows will be one of the biggest chunks of your home building budget.
• Placement of absolutely every little thing. Where do you place doors? Which way do you want your doors to open? Where do you place everything else? Electric sockets? Lighting? Ceiling fans?
• Colors, colors, colors. For the outside wood, outside windows, shutters, porch beams, doors, inside walls, inside window frames and trim, baseboards, floors, bathroom fixtures, kitchen counters, cupboards, and on and on and on and on. Never have I had to make so many color choices! Its exciting and overwhelming all rolled into one.
• Kitchen Design. Probably my biggest obsession with this house building adventure has been the kitchen. The layout of every square inch. How to place appliances and shelving and cupboards and everything so that the kitchen makes sense - so its user friendly and happy. Having an open slate to design your kitchen is like a dream come too, but it involves a lot of decision making (not exactly my strong point, but boy building a house will sure cure you of this). What can I say? I dream of a bitchin' kitchen. I know I make my husband nuts with all of my kitchen ideas and freak outs about how things have to be just so.
• Cement. I've learned more about cement and concrete than I ever thought I would know or care to know. We had to make a color decision there too. We had six huge cement trucks and like 20 guys to pour our foundation and I was there to watch the whole exciting and stressful thing. Cement is actually pretty cool.
• Water. Will the water from our well be drinkable? We haven't had it tested yet.
• Communications. What do you do when you don't have a cell signal on your property? We are hoping a satellite service is going to handle our computer and tv needs. And I am praying the internet will be fast enough so that I don't lose my mind as my job requires fast internet services all the time. What does one need to do to get a land telephone line installed at your home when the phone company won't do it for you? They will hook up a number, but its up to us to trench and lay line from the nearest connection up to our house which is about 800+ feet away. They advise, but we do all the work. Bet you never had to think about digging your own telephone line trench. :)
• Heating and Cooling. How do you properly design a house, in the high desert, for heating and cooling, so it can handle a lot of sun and high temperatures in the summer, and cold temperatures (even snow) in the winter - powered only by solar. We hope we've got it right, but we'll just have to live in it to really know.
• Balancing energy supply and use. How will we ensure energy use balances with supply? Is it going to be a problem running various kitchen appliances, an iron, hair dryers, etc off of our solar system? We are going to have a large solar system, but I imagine it will still take time to figure out how to balance out energy use so we don't ever drain the system. I've never lived in a solar powered home. Its very exciting but full of unknowns.
• Snakes and scorpions oh my! We are going to need a snake bite kit and to know what to do and where to go in the event of. We are, after all, building in rattlesnake country. We also need to buy one of those poles you use to capture snakes and move them away from your property.

Its one big exciting adventure full of endless choices and decisions. If you get the chance to do it, I recommend it. Just be prepared to spend a lot of time thinking about things you never thought you would, and to be a little crazy during the process.

The $11,000+ Kitchen Sink

What happened in my life to give me such expensive tastes? Seriously. I am looking at kitchen sinks and of course the one I think is THE one is $11,000. Well scratch that.

We are building a house - the first home construction I've ever been involved with - and I could write for days on stories and observations and tips from this experience. I do intend to write more around this subject in the future, but at the moment I want to lament about how I have discovered that I suffer from very expensive tastes. In this house building process, whether shopping for windows, looking at doors or types of wood for our exterior, browsing through endless catalogues and websites on bathtubs, appliances, bathroom and cabinet hardware, counters, couches, etc. - you name it, I will inevitably be drawn to the item that is one of the most expensive. It is my fate. Thankfully my husband is managing the home building budget and is able to exercise some control over me. Some.

I've looked at enough stuff for the home now to realize that cheap stuff just looks crappy. Plain and simple. You see it a mile away. However, I think I also have unusual tastes. I tend not to be interested in the standard stuff because it does not appeal to me. For example, so many fixtures out there (bathroom, kitchen, windows, cabinets) are shiny, shiny gold or silver. Hear me now, there will be no shiny silver or gold stuff anywhere in our house. I forbid it.

Sometimes I wish we were living 10 or 20 years ago, before people got all knowledgeable and crazy about antiques, resulting in a world where one can no longer find anything cool and old without breaking the bank. I love old barn wood. If we could have it our way, we would do our entire house inside and out with old barn wood...but those days are gone, unless you have tons and tons of money. These days barn wood is a hot commodity. Just check out the companies around LA that specialize in the stuff, and you will get the picture. I found a website where you can actually buy an entire barn! They have photos of the barns and then I guess you buy it and do what you want with it, mainly tear it down and ship the wood. But it's not cheap. Where I grew up in the country in Pennsylvania, there were antiques and old barn wood everywhere and they weren't a big deal. That was 30 years ago and sadly those days are gone. I blame the PBS Antique Road Show that later launched the HGTV empire and others. I am not quite sure who to blame for the fact that I am drawn to $11,000 sinks...

The $11,000+ kitchen sink I certainly won't be buying...

Desert House is Taking Shape

The house is taking shape! Next steps - more fill work and other preparations to lay the concrete slab...stay tuned.

Temporary gate and the road, that we created, into the property.

Front of the house - the front door will be there to the right.

Closer view of what will be the front of the house - front door will be to the right.

The main views from the west side of the house.

The water well we had dug a few weeks ago. The well was dug 300 feet down (we found water sooner, but they typically dig down that far. We get about 10 gallons a minute.

Building a House Off-Grid

You want to talk about adventure on the Byway? We are building a house in the desert. Completely off-grid.

That means we will have no utility services. We will pay fees and taxes for services, but we won't get any of them. Instead we will drag and maintain our own dirt roads around and into our property. We will drill a well and set up storage tanks for our water supply and we will dig and set up a septic system for our sewage. We will install a large solar system for our power (plus gas that we will have delivered to the house regularly). We will have to set up a really good satellite system for telephone, internet and television. There is no cell phone service anywhere on our land. No one will collect our garbage; instead we will have to drive it out to a dump and recycling site, which means more careful use and planning than most households probably do. We will have to install a sprinkler system and emergency water tank for fire protection because it is unlikely that the local fire department would make it there in time to save the house or the land around us. Building codes require this fire protection set-up. It is a good idea to protect ourselves, our house and the land, but it comes at a price. I feel a twinge of bitterness about the amount of local fees we will have to pay compared to the services we will receive...but it is what it is. That is the price you pay if you choose to live in this country and choose to live off the grid.

All of this stuff is so freaky and new to me...and exciting. To build a new house? Off grid? Really? Lots of people think about living off-grid, but most people don't ever do it. I never thought I would be involved with building a new house from the ground up or that it would end up being off grid. I certainly never thought I would be learning about surveying and county building laws and permits and construction phases and well drilling and septic systems. I work with solar, but I never thought I'd be spending time figuring out what kind and size of system we will need to run a modern home. We aren't building a little cabin with hardly any power. We are building a proper, "live in all year round" house that will need solar power (and gas) to run most modern appliances. 

I never gave much thought to building materials for ceilings and walls and floors and wrap around porches; or to the many sizes, shapes, styles and placement of doors and windows; or to how wide should the outside porch area be; what kinds and colors of cement will we want to use for the flooring indoor and out; will we dye or stain the concrete and what kinds of materials and how much grinding; how will we mix wood and stone and metal on the outside to look attractive and blend into the landscape? I sure think about it a lot now! Staring at ceilings and floors everywhere I go. Visiting home shows and cement trade shows. And the number and complexity of questions that require serious contemplation and committed answers is growing.

Last Friday we started the process that will lead to the drilling of our water well. We had a water dowsing or "witching" session to find the most likely spots for water and thus the best place to drill. Drilling is not cheap, so you want to do everything possible to find the right spot the first time. Dowsing works. It was  my first time seeing someone dowse for water. It was very, very cool and I got to try it. Stay tuned for a blog entry all about the water witching...