House Location

Well, the search for the best site to place the house has come to an end. My Fiance and I have chosen one particular spot on the forty acres that we like, but the driveway will be very long to get to it. Our thought though is leaning towards the idea that a good location and view is better than an little extra trouble to get to it. I think in the long run, we will be happier with this location than another that may be more convenient but does not offer views which are one thing I am not willing to sacrifice. We used surveyor ribbon to mark trees we felt would need to be removed from the building site should we choose this as the final definate location.

By chance while I was walking through Menards over my lunch break today I ran into my cousin Jim who is an electrician extraordinaire. I explained what I was doing and he came up with an ingenious and fairly efficient means of getting electricity out to the house on the back forty if we do end up building there. His methods calls for me getting a pedestal service and placing it along the road as far as the power company will bring in a line ont their coin and then us digging in our own line from that point. He is figuring that there will still be more than ample amps available for the end user (me) even with any drop that may occur over that distance. I am inclined to believe him when he says this is more than adequate, for like I said, the man is an electronic genius and rarely knows wrong with electricity. On the flip side though, is that I highly doubt the power company would appreciate such a move from us rather than paying their sixteen thousand they want to put power back to that point. I say to bad for them, I need to live and at this time that price is beyond my means. Perhaps in the future we will do it properly by the book, though the aforementioned way is just as correct and safe.

As for the trip to Menards, I have still been pricing out materials. Today I priced the PEX hose for the in-floor heating and am surprised at how relatively cheap it is. After much research on how to use the stuff, in floor heat is the way I am going to go. I also priced out some other various construction materials. So far the pricing of items looks like we will still be able to bring this project in under budget.

The building is planned to be 28x32 in size. It will be a 1 1/2 story in height with a loft bedroom over half of the floor dimension overlooking a great room. There will be a spiral staircase giving access to the master bedroom. The bathroom will also contain the utilities along a closet like wall and there will also be a large bedroom downstairs for the girls and a smaller bedroom for the lone boy.