exploring the options....

We met with John from Shelter Architecture earlier this week. He explained his proposal in a little more detail. The whole idea seems quite intriguing. Tim and I would get a house in a box AT COST in exchange for being the guinea pigs for the product. The "house in the box" part means the entire home would arrive in a shipping container. Basically, when it arrives we would just need to "unpack" and then move in. Everything could be included, down to the LED lights, composting toilet, potato-ware (you know, instead of silverware), linens, the works. Tim and I would need to prepare the site, ideally just the foundation and driveway, and that's it. Unfortunately, since the property is in Olmsted county, we may also need to install septic, well and hook up to utilities; but the house itself wouldn't require to be on any of these grids. After speaking with John, the homework Tim and I will be working on over the next several months is financing (not many banks will be willing to risk something so unique) and learn more about applying for variances from the county so we can avoid putting in a well, septic, and hooking up to utilities. John's homework (along with his team of ~25 people currently on this project) is to continue designing and researching. Several weeks ago Tim and I received these pictures from John, not quite what we'll end up with but you get the idea.

spring? Or summer?

WOW! This weather is fantastic! So nice, I had to leave work early. What's the opposite of a snow day? The weekend was nice too, Tim and I took Conrad out to our land. He's been there before of course, but this was the first time he really got to look around (not bundled up under the papoose coat) We're looking forward to many sunny afternoons, picnics, camping, and bonfires out there this summer.

Tim and I hope to be meeting with John (our architect) tomorrow afternoon. The last meeting didn't take place due to a trip to New Orleans (John, not us!) so tomorrow we're expecting to learn more about his 350 sf house prototype that we MAY be guinea pigs for. No matter the direction we take for housing (our original floor plan ideas or this little home idea) we figure it will be spring of 2008 or later before we truly break ground. In the meantime, we may decide to do some work such as putting in the driveway, building another "storage shed", etc so that we can use the land more than we do now. We see a lot of "camping" out there in the future!

The property picture shows the northwest corner of our 17 acres. This is where we took out the two acres from the CRP contract for our future building site. If you look carefully, you may see the metal post near Tim that marks one corner of the 2 acres. Then up to the right (east as the land lays) the picnic area/campfire ring is included in the 2 acreas. It's so exciting to think of what we can do on just two acres....house, garage, HUGE garden, chickens, goats...