I had one of those mornings where I am kicking myself for going out without a camera!
Charles took me out this morning to look at old graineries, fir-framed buildings that litter the landscape here and have been replaced with more modern round metal graineries. Fir doesn’t rot, so many of these graineries can be moved to another location, reclad with new walls and roofs, and be used as outbuildings. The two graineries we were going to look at belong to a friend of his who said they were free for the taking.
The first one was quite large compared to the ones Charles has, about 16′ by 12′ and quite tall. It is in excellent shape and would be an ideal guest cottage (taking care of the exterior and insulating and finishing the interior, etc.) with plenty of room for a storage loft.
The other one is smaller, about 14′ by 12′, and while the frame is solid, it’s in rougher shape with a plywood rather than fir floor. It would make an awesome shed, workshop, and laundry room.
Charles is going to tell his farmer friend that I want them and assures me that they’ll be there when I can afford to move them to Haven, even if it’s in a year. A friend of his (the one who provided the horse on the wagon train) hauls these for about $300 a pop, but Charles is sure that I will be able to work out a deal, even if it’s only a payment schedule.
I’m trying not to get too excited or to start planning what I’ll do with them until they’re actually here, but it’s hard. 🙂 I do want to remove a couple of trees before I haul them here. Next summer, C&C are removing the cedar shingles from their house and they have promised them to me. There should be enough shingles to clad both buildings and I will let them weather to a silvery finish. They will also eventually get sky-blue tin roofs. Charles has a lot of experience refinishing the graineries and says that I’m looking at about $1,800 a piece to get them here and weather tight (including the tin). I couldn’t *build* anything for that price!
But moving the graineries here isn’t my first priority by far. It’s getting cold and I need to determine just how I’m going to arrange myself for the winter. Option one, getting hooked to the grid, is turning into a surprising nightmare (I wish I was as busy as the local electricians and able to pick and choose jobs!). So I’m exploring other avenues. I would ideally like to remain in Miranda for the bulk of the winter, and if I can get enough power, that will be very doable. I will post when I’m settled in for the winter, and give updates as the cold sets in, as I’m sure that information will be of interest.
Guest cottage? Is that prompted by a desire to get your mother out there to help McGuyver things? 🙂
LOL Well, I know my mother will want to come out one day. But I’d also like to host Donna and Ken, Jody and Gary, and anybody else who’d care to come out here. I’m also thinking that I could rent out the cottage during the summer when it’s done.
Sounds like a great deal on the out buildings. Will you have a septic system put in for Miranda and the cottage and laundry? Not sure what restrictions you have up there but years ago one family member had a 3 foot wide very deep hole dug with a concrete lid over it. That was the septic system the drain line went to.
Sewage here works like for RVs, with grey and black tanks. The grey tanks overflow into a sewer line that goes to a lagoon. Black gets pumped out once a year and taken to the lagoon.
Considering how very little grey water I generate, I water my lawn with it. Black goes into a blue boy tote and hauled to the local lagoon. Since I don’t want the buildings to look like permanent structures, I will do the same with the outbuildings. I do plan to have a garden at some point and grey water is good for plants, so all that water will get reclaimed.
I might eventually get a holding tank put in for the black, but that seems like a frivolous expense at this time.
When I lived on a farm all our grey water went to water a row of lilac bushes behind our home. That worked out very well because the annual rainfall was 12 inches.
Great idea about renting out the cottage. We have a spot of land on the river outside of Nashville, wanting to turn it into a 6 month out of the year campground, and I am thinking of turning the storage shed into a cabin
maybe have two. I read about multiple sources of income as the way to go.
So I am working on that idea. Working on Air Bed and breakfast basement apt idea right now. Good luck Rae!
Sounds like you have a well thought out plan just waiting to implement.
Indeed. I know that my behaviour might seem haphazard to some, but I really am working a plan. What’s making me a little skittish is that it took five years, not 10, to get where I am right now, so I’m rather discombobulated!