The Framing Begins

Finally! The framing has started. This is the first step in the process that we are doing ourselves. Here is Alex screwing in the first board!

Framing the porches...

Now for the walls...

Footings/Brick

Alex and I hired someone to pour the footings and build the block foundation- that was something we didn’t want to risk messing up. We also selected brick and had a brick layer come to brick over the block. We are getting somewhere! 

Current Accomodations

The land we are building on is part of my mom and dad’s ten acres of land. While we are building, they have been kind enough to let us live with them. This makes it easy and convenient to get to the construction site- haha! We are living in an upstairs bedroom with an attached bath. It’s giving us a taste of small living and we LOVE it!

My parents are letting us store the rest of the house stuff in the basement. As you can see, I definitely have more downsizing to do!

Here is the beautiful view from my parent’s front yard, back yard, and on my morning commute:

Breaking Ground

The land is clear! The land is clear! … and a lot more sloped than we thought… 

Septic Update

We were able to hire an engineer to draw a septic system that will pump out to field lines about 100 yards away. This will allow the lines to be at the proper depth. We resubmitted our septic tank application and it was approved! 

Moving Out

The day has arrived- MOVING DAY. We are moving out of our first house *tear*. There have been a few times where I have been sad or unsure of the decision we are making, and Alex tells me, “You know you are about to do something awesome when you are uncomfortable. We are moving out of our comfort zone.” (Almost seven years later and I’m not sure what I did to deserve him…) My parents were an integral part of making the moving process run smoothly- Dad rounded up some trailers and Mom helped me pack without having a panic attack. We packed everything up and headed to our new land!

(They say you always lose something when you move... I lost the pictures of us moving. Ironic?)

I have decided to make a small memory frame for our first house. It will hang somewhere in our new house. I have the materials (below), but I haven’t put it together yet. Stay tuned! 

Wading Through Septic Tank Red Tape

    UGH!!! Septic tank applications are the PITS! (You see what I did there?) We've been working on being approved for a septic tank since May. There is a lot of shallow rock on our home site, so it's hard to get down to the required depth. We looked at several different options, including an engineered system (which was going to cost upwards of $10,000). After embarrassing myself by telling the engineer that I'd rather dig a hole in the back yard than spend that much on a septic system, we finally came up with a solution. We are going to install a pump that will pump the sewage to a leech field several hundred yards away. I am submitting the paperwork tomorrow, so we should know if we have been approved soon! I feel like this darned septic tank mess has held up the building of the cottage for SO long. I'll update you soon.
    A bit of good news- Alex said he was going to start clearing the land next weekend! Pictures to come!

Ideas and Inspiration- Looks I Love!

   Here are some pictures that have inspired the future design elements of the cottage. :) 

Exterior Inspiration

Exterior Inspiration- LOVE this brick color!

Possible exterior colors?

   

Kitchen counters and sink

Downstairs ceiling

Bathroom

                                                   
                                               
                                   

The Final Plan!

    We tweaked and tinkered with our plans until we had them just right. Here it is! Our final cottage plan! It is 2 stories and 740 square feet. That's almost double what we originally wanted, but we think this house will be one we stay in for a LONG time. We even have a section where we can add a bedroom on (did you hear my mom and dad just take a collective sigh of relief?). I feel like we have the perfect plans for us! All of the important areas are there and are the right size. Yay!

The front!

Downstairs (front porch is at the top, carport at the left)

Upstairs

Alex is working on converting these to ACTUAL plans...

To the Drawing Board...

    When the time came to select "Tiny" plans, I had a hard time finding exactly what I wanted. If the bedroom was the right size, the living room was too small. If the bathroom was perfect, the kitchen was awful. I finally realized that I wouldn't be able to find plans that would work for us, so I pulled out some graph paper and my handy green ruler and started drawing.
     I took elements that I loved in all of the plans I had studied and tried to mesh them together. I had to think about what I was and wasn't willing to sacrifice. In the end, I drew several houses and none of them were just right.

We worked with these plans for a while. They included a loft over the closet area on the left that would be our bedroom. 

This house was more square-ish. I stopped in the middle of these plans because I didn't like them. 

Another squarish house...

These were the plans we were ready to go with. I even drew the front of the house! 

I didn't like the bathroom in the middle of everything. Privacy please! 

Also, Alex and I realized we were adding this loft, but we really didn't need it. On to new plans! 

Project #1- DVD's and Board Games

    Okay, Alex and I have a shameful fair amount of DVD's in our TV unit. There is NO WAY these will fit in the cottage, so I went searching for ideas about downsizing a DVD collection. I saw this amazing post over at Eat, Sleep, Decorate, and I headed to the store to buy the supplies! I spent about $30, and our DVD collection is now tiny-fied! 

DVD's before

Supplies! 

Finished!

I cut the DVD covers to fit the new cases. 

    Little House Living posted a great article about downsizing board games. Alex and I have A LOT of board games. I made 4 piles- keep, donate to school, send to my parent's beach house, and donate to good will. After all was said and done, our board games went from filling 3 cabinets to filling one drawer. SUCCESS!

These cabinets were FULL of games. The ones remaining are going to my parents' beach house.

Finished product- small drawer of board games