#148 - A Farm Honeymoon Starting in 2012

Sometimes, it's difficult for our friends and family to understand that Deputy Dave and I are looking forward to living in the county and to building a country style home.

Country style with a rustic edge. We want a cabin with personality.

We want nothing like the houses scattered around Houston, mostly in cookie-cutter fashion, we want an old-style, unique country home built with high-grade materials and while using excellent standards, but not a copy cat house that is similar to the one built around the block. We live in a neighborhood like that right now.

The picture below is almost exactly what I am looking for in our country cabin design as it relates to the front porch and to the construction materials. I can imagine Deputy Dave and I lying together in a double hammock at the end of the porch as the dogs snooze nearby.



I am actually looking forward to having a metal roof. That will be a first for us, we've never owned a home with a metal roof, but I hear that people usually love their metal roof.

I imagine we'll have some extra seating here and there on the property, made from trees that came off our land.

Since we've had chickens for a few months, we've learned how destructive they can be with your gardens, so we will be enforcing a few limitations on their free-ranging. The chickens will still have a specific area available for them to enjoy nature's good stuff, but not anywhere near our gardens.

But, the picture below shows something similar to what I am expecting to enjoy on the land for our veggie gardens, partially raised, easy to walk through and fenced off nicely --- just in case a farm animal gets loose, they won't be able to trample our gardens so easily. I'm hoping to have a nice view of our gardens from the house. Planning the layout of everything on our land has been a challenge, the hills, the creek, the forested areas...we must consider everything carefully in our design.

I'm sure we will learn more as we begin living on the land full-time. Experience can be the best teacher. I've definitely learned that chickens will attack your garden and it will end up looking as if a massacre had occurred. So, the gardens below look like a good fenced off design suitable for a small farm. On our land, the chickens won't get a chance to mutilate our gardens.




I must say, this old-fashioned sink and old-style wood counters make me smile.

I'm not really digging this kitchen, but the part of the kitchen I like in the picture below is the natural tree beams incorporated into the island's design. Awesome.

Okay, the kitchen below is intriguing. I love the large windows that give a gorgeous view of the outdoors; I love the natural stonework: I might have some heavy breathing over the the stripped tree running through the center of the room and I definitely am in love with the natural stone countertop around the stove. This kitchen seems to be a true one-of-a-kind.

This rustic kitchen with the Shaker-Style cabinetry is nice. The added cabinetry at top adds space for your kitchen items to be stored when not needed.

Here is another front porch with the architectural design that I am expecting for our house --- this is the kind of cedar siding that I am looking forward to coming home to. However, I don't want a narrow front porch...I know our front porch will be a main area for huge gatherings in the years to come, so it has to accommodate plenty of people. Plus, it must be long enough and wide enough to hold a hammock or two, a couple of swinging benches and a couple of table sets.

I love the bathroom below....definitely not installed by Lowe's or Home Depot!

Here is another version of my house --- the kind of siding that I like and the country cabin appearance that I'm shooting for us to build. I actually love the red trim around these windows. Oh la la.

This house I've included in the picture below is because of the changing elevation beneath the house --- this will be similar to what we will have to deal with when building our own cabin. But, the cabin built below has been constructed to adapt to the differences in the ground.

 

And, barn doors are a beautiful thing! I'd love to have my pantry shelving covered by sliding barn doors.

Deputy Dave and I have been taking more steps, every week, to prepare our house for the market. We expect to get it listed in January sometime.

Meanwhile, we are looking at metal buildings to have constructed on our property --- this building will have a concrete foundation and it will eventually be Deputy Dave's large workshop. He will need this space since he will be doing most of the home construction himself.

We will also start looking at RV's again. We've owned several RV's through the years, but this next one will be Home-Sweet-Home for a few months as we're building our cabin. We must stay at the property during the construction phase because our land is so rural...we cannot leave any construction materials on the property by itself...we must be there to make it known that residents are on the premises at all times.

So, we've got to get that metal building built and start thinking about what kind of RV we'd like to purchase this time around. I'm hoping we can find an RV at at auction for a price much reduced from the regular market price. Deputy Dave and I purchased our last RV in this manner, by auction, and it was the best purchase we've made. Hopefully, it will work out for us again.

I hope the RV will be roomy enough to meet our immediate needs, yet cozy so that the two of us can enjoy lots of cuddle time. After being married for more than 25 years, we've definitely had our ups and downs...and getting married very young will also bring in a lot of acts of immaturity, but we've made it so far and we've already been through such horrendous hurdles that most people don't confront until their end years together...we did our horrendous hurdles up front.

At this time in our lives, we've worked our way through some hard things and now I realize that we're just now hitting the most wonderful phase of our marriage --- a phase of fun and excitement and enjoyment ---- it's a big adventure for us at this time in our lives. Besides, my mother always told me that people who are married a long time don't get there by it being an easy road...they get there by firm determination, by sticking together through the worst and then basking in the beautiful moments together.

So, Deputy Dave and I are about ready for a second honeymoon right now. I think we're about to start our Farm Honeymoon and it will surely be a fascinating time in our life.