Clay Bird (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} bkleber) wrote,@ 2008-07-14 18:09:00 |
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I want to build a house. Know anyone that needs one?
So if you've been keeping up, you'll know the long version of my Log Home saga. The short version is this: Maureen and I had been planning on making a log home for mer mom, and that project has been canceled. As a result, I have a large number of pine logs taking up Maureen's mom's front yard.
I want to build this house. If remotely possible, I'd like to do this with the logs that I have already, since I have devoted a good amount of energy and time to working on them. In order for that to happen, I need to have somewhere to move the logs to ASAP. Preferably, that new home for the logs would be where I'll be building.
The house that I have been planning is 30'x30', three stories tall. Preliminary plans had sections of the upper stories cut out so that from each floor there were places you could stand and see all the way up to the cathedral ceilings. Those plans, however, were mainly for a one-person house, where there wasn't going to be a shortage of space. If I turn each story into a full 30'x30' floor, and include a full basement, then I am looking at building up to a ~3500 square foot home. The original plans, on the other hand, had no basement and lots of open space, and yielded a 2025-square-foot house.
What it comes down to is this: I have a project that I not only put a huge amount of time and effort into and want to see through to completion, but that I see as possibly playing a pivotal role in how my career plays out. Not only do I want to finish this project because of how much I've already done, but I have always had a passion for devoting myself to working with my hands. All of my most satisfying hobbies and projects - my home improvement work, all of the instruments I play, the different kinds of jewelry I make - and I believe that log home building may be a serious step in the direction of figuring out what I want to do with the rest of my life. It combines engineering, physics, hands-on work and creativity, and at the end of the project, I would have accomplished something of great beneficial value to whomever is going to live in it, as well as of great satisfaction for myself*.
If I continue to love this project as much as I have so far, and still feel the same way once I have built one house, I don't plan to stop there. I plan to build another house and sell it. And if after making two of these I still want to keep on going, I'll look at quitting my day job and going at it full-time. (Yes, the current plans involve devoting all of my weekends to working on building the house, while working a normal 40-hour job too. If I want to devote more time to it, I'll compress to a 4-day work week, and work 3 days out of 7 on the log home.)
What I need is a place to build. Preferably, someone that owns land and wants a house on it in about 8 months to a year. Given that this is a fairly unconventional construction method, I can build *extremely* cheaply, especially since the logs are already acquired. In every housing market I've looked at, since my only costs are my time and my materials, I can build for a good bit less than any other new home will sell for.
So, I ask that any of you that have friends that, for some reason, these days are looking for a new beautiful place to live within a few hours of Washington, DC, and are enough off the beaten path that the idea of living in a log home appeals to them, please get them in touch with me. I want to build this house, in one form or another.
Work I've done so far: http://claybirdjewelry.com/loghome
Where I learned Log Home Builders Association of North America (Be sure to look at their Student Home Galleries
*And aside from stain/finish work, there isn't a single project that I've ever done that I couldn't replicate in a single 3-day weekend.
So if you've been keeping up, you'll know the long version of my Log Home saga. The short version is this: Maureen and I had been planning on making a log home for mer mom, and that project has been canceled. As a result, I have a large number of pine logs taking up Maureen's mom's front yard.
I want to build this house. If remotely possible, I'd like to do this with the logs that I have already, since I have devoted a good amount of energy and time to working on them. In order for that to happen, I need to have somewhere to move the logs to ASAP. Preferably, that new home for the logs would be where I'll be building.
The house that I have been planning is 30'x30', three stories tall. Preliminary plans had sections of the upper stories cut out so that from each floor there were places you could stand and see all the way up to the cathedral ceilings. Those plans, however, were mainly for a one-person house, where there wasn't going to be a shortage of space. If I turn each story into a full 30'x30' floor, and include a full basement, then I am looking at building up to a ~3500 square foot home. The original plans, on the other hand, had no basement and lots of open space, and yielded a 2025-square-foot house.
What it comes down to is this: I have a project that I not only put a huge amount of time and effort into and want to see through to completion, but that I see as possibly playing a pivotal role in how my career plays out. Not only do I want to finish this project because of how much I've already done, but I have always had a passion for devoting myself to working with my hands. All of my most satisfying hobbies and projects - my home improvement work, all of the instruments I play, the different kinds of jewelry I make - and I believe that log home building may be a serious step in the direction of figuring out what I want to do with the rest of my life. It combines engineering, physics, hands-on work and creativity, and at the end of the project, I would have accomplished something of great beneficial value to whomever is going to live in it, as well as of great satisfaction for myself*.
If I continue to love this project as much as I have so far, and still feel the same way once I have built one house, I don't plan to stop there. I plan to build another house and sell it. And if after making two of these I still want to keep on going, I'll look at quitting my day job and going at it full-time. (Yes, the current plans involve devoting all of my weekends to working on building the house, while working a normal 40-hour job too. If I want to devote more time to it, I'll compress to a 4-day work week, and work 3 days out of 7 on the log home.)
What I need is a place to build. Preferably, someone that owns land and wants a house on it in about 8 months to a year. Given that this is a fairly unconventional construction method, I can build *extremely* cheaply, especially since the logs are already acquired. In every housing market I've looked at, since my only costs are my time and my materials, I can build for a good bit less than any other new home will sell for.
So, I ask that any of you that have friends that, for some reason, these days are looking for a new beautiful place to live within a few hours of Washington, DC, and are enough off the beaten path that the idea of living in a log home appeals to them, please get them in touch with me. I want to build this house, in one form or another.
Work I've done so far: http://claybirdjewelry.com/loghome
Where I learned Log Home Builders Association of North America (Be sure to look at their Student Home Galleries
*And aside from stain/finish work, there isn't a single project that I've ever done that I couldn't replicate in a single 3-day weekend.
