![[Photograph]](rlt2010_1202_155406AA.JPG)
We went up for our regularly scheduled "first Thursday of the month" meeting on the first of December, and we were pleased by the progress, as shown in these pictures.
We're trying to organize this site so that the most recent stuff comes first, but these pictures are somewhat out of chronological order. All but the last few were taken while the house was being framed, before the trusses (see below) were installed. But we think they're interesting.
For those of you who want to get an idea of the layout of the house, you can look at a recent (October 14) floor plan. It's complicated because of all its detail. Frankly, it's not all the different from the July one below. The same for the (October 14) basement plan. If you want to look beyond the framing pictures to the plans, the east and west elevations and the north and south elevations are here, too.
Here are some pictures we took the day that the trusses were brought to the site, assembled, and installed. It was impressive to watch. The first one has lumber that came from our site, and since it was greener and thus wetter than the others, it weighed more: 1800 pounds to the 1600 pounds the others weighed (the crane has a built-in scale, accurate to 50 pounds).
We added very few pictures over the summer, but at the end of September I finally got around to adding some pictures -- each with a comment. Here's the link. Depending on your browser, you may have to hover over the picture to see the comment. These show progress from an empty hole to the beginning of the framing.
Amenities in the trailer have also improved. We no longer have to haul water from the lake. We can't yet drink it, but we use water from our new well for everything else.
The latest plan, as of the end of July -- actually, it's now somewhat out of date -- has rearranged the eastern side of the house (including shrinking the kitchen) and reduced the master suite area, which used to jut out to the north. Although the master suite is still subject to some rearrangement, this is the size and shape of the house. As of 1 August, the forms for the footings were being put in place. The foundation will be poured in a few days.
The major items that define our building site are the hole, the excavator that dug it, and the two piles of sand(!) that were the original contents of the hole. For now, one picture will have to suffice.
Our lives at White Birch Landing are based on the trailer we're living in, Toddy Pond, where we swim and occasionally kayak, and from which we haul non-drinking water, and the blueberries both on our property and near by. Things are improving: we expect to get a pump that is capable of pumping water up the hill -- still not drinking water -- and a company has agreed to empty "black water" from the trailer, so we will no longer have to use the port-a-potty.
We have more modern conveniences: power, telephone (207-664-1848), and reasonably good Internet service.
We've been given a street address for the house: it's
163 Trundy Lane
Surry, ME 04684
though we're not set up to receive any mail there. That we get
at
PO Box 170
Surry, ME 04684
We haven't yet become accustomed to collecting it every day.
The most recent developments -- as of 16 June -- are some refinements of the scheme we selected, Scheme A, described below. The floor plan is harder to read than the earlier versions, because it has more detail, but the east and west elevations give clear ideas of what the house will look like when you arrive (east elevation) and what it looks like from the lake (west elevation). The north south elevations show what the master bedroom side (north elevation) and the guest bedroom side (south elevation) will look like. I find these harder to interpret than the east and west, but there's lots of information in all of them.
All these plans are scaled at 3/32" per foot if you print the PDFs with Page Scaling set to "None".
Those of you who are interested in more details might like to look at the sections, especially, A, B, C, and D, which I find easier to understand than the E and F sections.
We've decided to consider putting rooms into the basement so we have a basement floor plan.
You'd have to be really interested in all the details to look at the roof plan and the foundation plan, but they're here, too!
Our pictures and previous versions of the plans follow.
Pictures from our trip to look at the property,
2 December 2010.
We went back in March 2011 with
Rick Malm who took most of these pictures.
To get started, we needed a topographic
survey, of the property, or at least that part between the lake
and the gravel road, because that's where the house will be sited.
We met with Rick Malm on 6 May 2011 to go over some initial plans. He
presented us with three designs for discussion:
