# 530 - Barn Improvements - Concrete Flooring!

The barn that we have had for about a year needed a concrete crust floor so badly.

Since we no longer live in the suburbs of Greater Houston, we no longer have a large garage to hold all of our tools and machinery. Anything we put inside the barn was subjected to the high humidity that came from the earth and the dirt...that came from the earth.

Needless to say, our tools our in the worst shape they have ever been in.

However, time is a commodity around here...between Sgt. Dave's long commute to and from work, five days per week with some double-shifts here and there, we aren't left with much time to do above-and-beyond chores. If we can keep up with the daily chores, that has been good enough for us.

But, we have to step things up a notch. Sgt. Dave has been taking a few days off over the past few weeks so that we can get on top of things.

One of the items he wanted to tackle was to put down that concrete crust in his barn. He pulled everything out of it and began laying a concrete floor upon the dirt he'd leveled. It is a much thicker and more sturdy concrete floor than I imagined would be in place.

Of course, Sgt. Dave grew up working construction for his dad's company in the Greater Houston area, doing commercial construction, so he does have some great skills. He was able, by hand, to level the ground, get the concrete poured and then leveled with a board.

He went through bags and bags of concrete.

This was the first section he tackled. The cement floor set up perfectly.

It will be so much nicer to step into the barn and not have to worry about mud puddles or worry about setting something down straight upon the dirt floor. From now on, the concrete will protect our tools and machinery from moisture, rust, and dirt.

Today, Sgt. Dave finished the entire floor of the barn...giving it a nice concrete base that will make being in there a delight.

The barn from a distance looks okay, but within the next couple of months, we will be painting it a barn-red color with white trim. I believe it will look fantastic.

Sgt. Dave is a hard working man.

I see him in the back! There he is, working to set up a new burn site for our trash.

# 513 - Country House Clarity

The great thing about waiting so long to build the seventh house we've lived in and hopefully the last house we will live in as our main homestead is that we are taking the time to make sure we do it right. Especially since our last home had a great floor-plan.

Location, location, location is everything --- this has been my major hold-up since I have been flip-flopping on the built site of our home on the acreage, until a few months ago, then I went back to our original site. Another full circle.

However, since that aspect of the build is SETTLED, I have been pouring over different floor-plans and house styles. In fact, this past year, I have reviewed no less than 1,000 floor-plans and home designs.

Recently, I came close to deciding upon a beautiful log cabin, but then I got the onslaught of information regarding the added upkeep with the expectation that the cabin will not be plumb, and I know that the lack of straight lines will eventually get to me.

At one point, going through house plans began to be an unpleasant task, so I avoided it. Then, I reminded myself that these frustrations are part of this wonderful process of moving to the country and that I should also embrace those moments too --- this is an American dream I am living. That attitude adjustment led me to a clear mind and to the floor-plan below that is one of my favorites; however, the upstairs will only have two bedrooms and a small loft with ONE bathroom, strictly for guests.

The great part of waiting all this time to build a house in the country is that I have had time to consider this house, full circle. At first, while living in a stylish home in the Greater Houston area, I had thought that I wanted to build a rustic-style home.

But, after living in an RV for nearly a year, I have come full circle, ALMOST, in that I can see that the rustic appearance would probably wear thin on me, but a CLASSIC farm-house style has stuck on me.

The elements I love are the white clapboard, the grey metal roof and painted grey porch floor decking. Of course, I can picture major landscaping around the house to bring the beauty home!

This is the kind of railing I like with the porch beams I prefer.
Also, this roof is my first choice with the grey accent and dark grey
painted porch decking. Any window shutters will be either black
or that same grey color. The house will be built on concrete
piers and wood beams.

One thing that I have changed lately follows severe storms that have been moving through the area. Now, I know that I don't want as many towering trees around the house. We will keep solid, oldies, but we will be removing more trees around the home-site than I originally intended.

That's because this past week, during a terrible storm, lightening struck a tree nearby and it made a deafening crack. I've been around many close lightening strikes in my life, more than is comfortable for me.

Living here for this past year has indeed been critical to this complicated process of moving from the city to the country, especially to acreage that is so raw and rural.

I cannot believe that in a few days it will be have been a year since the day came for us to leave our home in the city...

...and drive away with our RV...

and drive nearly two hours to literally drive up to our acreage, unload the chickens, set up the RV, and not have water connections and no electricity power connections to the land.

All the chickens made it safely to the acreage by riding in their special
cage alongside their coop in the trailer that I pulled as Sgt. Dave
pulled the RV with his truck.

 

Living with that generator noise for weeks on end was extremely challenging, but I am thankful to have had that generator to provide enough power to give us air-conditioning through the hot weeks of summer.

My dad stopping by to visit, even though he was in the middle
of his chemotherapy treatments, administered through a port in his
chest via a chemo pump attached to him. At this point, he'd lost
all that was left of his hair...along with his mustache. Thank God,
he is doing much better now, under close watch, a difficult battle.

We've come a long way. We have longer to go, but knowing we are narrowing down our home design and floor-plan means we are closer to breaking ground. Since I am figuring out our floor-plan with the perimeter measurements, this means we can go to the actual build site and mark it off, then begin removing the trees that must go. Since that area of our land is densely forested, this is an important and necessary step that we cannot avoid ANY LONGER! Haha.

Oh a hike along a back trail with a boundary marker. You can
see how thick the forest is in the entire area of our construction site.
And there are towering, massive trees there as well, which I am
going to do all I can do to keep. We will also be working carefully
through the area to retain the Oaks, Cypress, Cedars and to
keep the Wild Magnolias.

There are a lot of steps for us to take. I have to get official Floodplain maps and to certify that our build site is not in the 100-year floodplain through the Office of Emergency Management - Flood Planning Management for our area. I have to get a new appraisal of our land with the upgrades. We also have to get a new survey, which stinks because the one we currently have is too old to use, and we have built structures on our land since that survey was completed, which invalidates it.

Our first small barn. I still need to paint the outside of it, Barn Red.

Once all that is completed, then I must have copies of our architectural-construction drawings prepared and ready to submit to various venders for bids. Lots of bids.

This is a view of my favorite design, so far. However, I do prefer
the thinner clapboard that runs horizontal instead of this vertical version.
If the size is available in Hardy Plank, we will use the cement siding
to reduce maintenance on the house. I am hoping it will also
making the building process more affordable.

My head is spinning again. This week, I am simply happy to have gone through hundreds more floor-plans and designs to become more settled upon the direction we are taking. My old love of traditional colonial-time homes and Victorian homes is something that I can't escape. I hope that by honoring the type of home that has most appealed to me throughout my life, that we will indeed find ourselves living in a very beautiful home ready for new memories.

Here is an example of the house we will probably build. It's about
2,500 square feet, with most of the square footage downstairs as is
shown in the above floor-plans. I will be incorporating
pocket-doors into the plan, for sure!

Everything is happening in its right time. It will be worth the wait. Even so, I CANNOT WAIT!

# 479 - Guest Cottage a Priority!

The weather has changed and I am LOVING this crisp air. The Texas heat can be oppressive and we have had to enter the month of October before the edge of melting high temperatures made an exit.

This is one of my favorite times of year in the South! It's a time of year when we are able to get our forest growth under control and do chores that are almost unbearable during hot summer months.

Yesterday, I mowed the residential-zone of our acreage until I ran out of gas. I had a great time. The dogs relaxed under the sun as I mowed.

I did laundry in between mowing sections of land, so I had a great time multi-tasking, but that's what we women do...

And my chickens had a great time looking for juicy critters as I moved stepping stones from one spot to another. Moving a stepping stone is sort of like unwrapping a big Christmas gift for a chicken...usually there are delicious, slimy goodies under the stones.

However, we've hit the time of year when our hens are laying much less often. I can clearly see that come Springtime, it's definitely time to add quite a few chicks to our growing farm. In fact, I hope to have fencing in place to add chicks and perhaps for my husband to add a few pigs to our farm as well. And one day, I will get a few goats, mostly for the goat's milk. But, I'm not ready for those, not just yet.

However, we might need a rooster. Our chickens are free-ranging, so a rooster might be a good addition. Unlike our city backyard chicken experience, when we get a rooster by mistake, this time around we have the option to keep them.

And yesterday my husband went on a walk and came across these two bones. I hope they are related to the other deer bones we find on our land and are not of the human variety. Howdy took a big whiff, then walked away, uninterested.

Another chore that I am mostly responsible for handling is keeping the chicken coop cleaned of poop. Living in the country makes this job much easier because my backyard size has expanded, considerably.

I still don't have a house. Am living in the RV. It is cramped.

Since the main house will take a lot of time to build and I'd like to jump-start the process of moving out of the RV, we might go ahead and build the guest cottage that has a screened-in outdoor room with utility room. 

After that is built, we will have more room to spread out, can again use some of our own furniture, enjoy a bath-tub again, and savor a full-size refrigerator once again!

After it is built, we can also sell the RV and put money into more structures to improve land value.

The timing for all of this is critical. We need to have the guest cabin constructed before Spring hits because that is the prime-time to put the RV on the market.

I ADORE the front of this cabin with the big windows and double front doors.

This cabin does not have to be large, just big enough to allow for comfortable living and with great views of our beautiful wooded landscape. I would love this cottage combined with the photo above decking around the cottage.

Another great benefit of building a small guest cottage FIRST will be the opportunity the project will give us in learning about constructing a large home on our own. Ideas and building methods can be explored on a smaller scale. And if the guest cottage turns out to be a disaster, then we know to stick with a builder from start to finish for the main house.

Since our children are grown and our oldest daughter, Heather, has blessed us with our first grandchild, she and her husband and daughter will be cottage guests that have priority.

Heather and sweet baby Coraline as they appear in today's photo.
My beauties, my loves that make life a joy.

The guest cabin will provide an enjoyable, private space for the kids to know is theirs, plus we'll have space in the main house as well. I will be putting up a sign at the guest cottage in humor, yet as a serious warning, that the guest cabin provides PRIORITY HOUSING for our grown children and grand-children before anyone else, period.

Last minute call? The kids get the cottage.
Holidays? The kids get the cottage.
Weekend jaunt? The kids get the cabin.
Need a break to catch up on sleep?
The kids get it. They reserve it, they get it.
Period.

Our children have always been our priority, and this commitment will stay with us until we walk through Heaven's gates. However, this "in-between" phase of moving has been difficult. We've always found a fixer-upper or beautiful home to call our own within a short search, but this is an entirely new ball game --- raw land, rural acreage, all from scratch.

As for houses, here is one that I found on Pinterest that I fell in love with ---

--- so many decisions and options to make the deciding process in itself SO MUCH FUN!

As for an off-topic add-on to this post, I saw this interesting kitchen idea that I could not bypass and chance forgetting, so I share with you. The guest cottage kitchen will be small, yet organized. I loved this metallic peg-board idea, but I'll take it on the wall! It would also hold my metallic spice containers.

Well, this week, we will be focusing on the guest cottage plans and getting started. I know where it will be built. I am ready to get moving. The weather is great, the time is right and the issue is settled. We have a certain project and it will be our focus. I want to get the guest cottage built before February, so we can put the RV on the consignment lot in Houston by March 1st.

Here we go!

# 278 - Barn Site Selected - Red Heaven

Deputy Dave has decided where he wants to build the barn/workshop. Out of nearly ten acres of wooded land, it can be difficult to make this final decision, but it's done!

The picture below shows the area where the barn will be located. It's near our camping zone. There are a few perks with building our first structure in this spot. We have a septic system in place, there are electrical poles, a security pole is installed (just needs a new light fixture), and the area is partially cleared.

Now, that leaves us still needing water. On this side of the property, the only way to get water is to truck it in or dig a well. Looks like we'll be digging a well.

In the shot below, behind the electrical pole and behind the truck area is where the barn/workshop will be built...somewhere in that zone to be close to the septic and electric hook-ups that are currently in place. We are expecting to meet with our concrete guy someone over this next month to discuss this part of our land and the possibility of building the barn here. If he thinks there might be a problem with the soil, we want to know now, not later.

Of course, we want to get started on the foundation as soon as possible. One thing is for sure, this barn will have an awesome view. I'd love to build a barn with a small look-out deck on top with the weather-vane. From up there, we could see out over our cabin in the woods (once it's built) and all around us for a good distance, to include the lake.

The shot below is what it looks like as we drive up to the part of land that will have the barn. I have a feeling that after building the barn, then putting in the white fencing, we will have us a piece of property with a market value that has significantly increased. The improvements will be stark and fitting for this acreage.

Once we build the cabin in the woods on the other side of the creek, we will be able to walk out the front door and look over the land in the distance to see the barn sitting there looking completely picturesque. We're putting our "Master Construction Plan" to work with practicality and aesthetics.

No doubt, I will have the barn insured. We will keep the barn fairly near the animals, but not too close to bring in smells and flies because the barn will also serve as a workshop.

Animal shelters will be separate structures built within their specific area and designed to withstand the strengths of the particular animal...we haven't gotten that far yet. But, we think we know where the pigs will happily live. That's for another day.

For now, we need to find some kind of prints to purchase or have some drawn up. Deputy Dave needs to decide upon the size of his barn. I know he doesn't want anything scrawny because it's going to be a multi-purpose building.

It's a B-A-R-N folks! It can't be an itty-bitty thing!

That's where we are on this barn construction end of things. We're getting there. Deciding upon the spot was half the battle. It's all downhill from here on out.

Once the barn sitting on that land, you can only imagine all the photos I'll be taking of that big beauty!

I think it might be lovingly referred to as, "Deputy Dave's Red Heaven."

Till next time!