Here's how it will work (or not)

I thought I'd take a moment to explain our plan for living in the new buildings on our property. You might have noticed that, during construction, we have referred to "the bodega/warehouse" and "the team house," but we never actually mention "the house." And there is a reason for this - we aren't actually building our own house yet.

For a number of reasons, we decided not to build our personal residence first. One reason was that we are dealing with new materials and working conditions, and we thought it would be good to get some practice in before starting on the building we would have to look at every day! We have chosen a site for the house, and have gone through numerous permutations of a floor plan, so when the time comes, we should be ready to press forward.

Meanwhile, we have the almost completed team house, the almost completed bodega, and a foundation for another building, which is slated for use as housing for interns. We will be moving into the two buildings (once they are mostly completed), and living in them, while additional buildings (including, eventually, our home) are constructed.

Now is where it gets interesting. The bodega is going to be our main living space, and the team house will be used for some bedrooms. The bodega is one large, giant space - no interior walls except (thank goodness!) around the bathroom. The picture below is a few months old, but I couldn't find any newer ones that would show the size and shape of the interior of the bodega:



Since there's nothing in that first picture to give a sense of the size of the building, here is another shot, with people. The big door is 12' tall.



Here's a view of the front door of the building. You may recall that we set the building into the ground, to make it appear smaller than it really is, from the front. We didn't want it to look like we had a big warehouse on the property. Also notice the bathroom walls, at the left of the picture.



So, that's the starting point for our floorplan - big rectangular room, with one corner cut out to be a bathroom. We intend to use one third of this building as warehouse space at first - we have the big Christmas gift shipment arriving in just a few months, and we'll need a place to store that, and room to work on organizing and such. The third that goes right up the middle, from the front door to the big sliding back door, will be used as the public rooms of the house. I want the kitchen and laundry area closest to the view (and the light) as that seems to be where I spend the majority of my time. The space along the side of the building with the bathroom will be cut up into bedrooms (as many as needed, when we decide who is sleeping in this building, and who is sleeping in the team house).

How will the space be cut up, you might ask. We'll be using our large quantity of bookcases (filled with our large quantity of books) to create room dividers. This may not be the most privacy we've ever had in a house, but we think we can make it work.

Considering how odd these living arrangements are, you might be surprised at how excited we are to be moving out there - but we're just kinda crazy that way.

I'll try to get some up-to-date pictures soon!