Dream House

[pasithea]

A couple nights ago, Stacey asked me what I'd want in a dream home. *sigh* I confess that it's such a distant dream that I've never really put a lot of thought into it. I don't have enough money for a home of my own and I'm not the sort of person that gets any kind of government help which would make it attainable and my family is also sort of worthless, so 'dream home' is up there with "What sort of rocket ship would I like to fly." It feels unattainable and unrealistic. Save that for the rocket ship, I can dream and imagine and with the home thing, it's just depressing and makes me feel resentful of most of the humans around me.

But. Here you go:
About 10 acres of land. Trees would be very nice but my hard requirements are: Room for a few animals and to grow stuff and access to a stable supply of water. I'd prefer to live somewhere with mild winters. I'm not a big fan of cold but I'd adapt if needed.

A few wooly milk goats (for milk and wool) They're easier to care for than sheep and more familiar to me than llamas.

A couple of small pigs (see below)

a small flock of guinea fowl.

So. Mostly I'd be practicing fallow-field crop rotation technique. I would pasture the goats in the fields where last year's crops had been, keeping the weeds from encroaching and providing fertilizer. And the pigs in the fields where next years crops will be. Their routing would keep cutworms and other unfriendly grubs out of the field plus till the soil for me. Both types of animals also produce fertilizer of course.

Guinea fowl are _slightly_ smarter than chickens and they don't generally wreck your garden the way chickens will. They eat seeds and undesirable insects. lice, ticks, ants, fleas, grasshoppers, etc and they lay fairly frequently and lay large clutches of eggs.

For crops, I'd have all the usual stuff you'd expect. Probably a couple of fruit trees. Definitely at least one quince tree. They produce lots of pectin and are very useful for canning.

The only other 'unusual' plant I'd probably chose to grow is bamboo. It's a quick-growing building material. I suppose if hemp were legal, I'd probably consider growing it as well though I confess I'm not partial to hemp oil.

I'm highly proficient at canning, drying, and pickling. When I lived by myself in Oklahoma, I had a huge garden and put back a lot of my vegetables then ate them during the winter. My monthly groceries were basically salt, flour, sugar, spices, oil, rice, beans. Stuff that was cheaper to buy in bulk than to grow and produce myself.

I'd have to research it but I might also want to keep bees. (Depending on how much work they are. I love bees. :)

But the house itself.... I seem to be skipping that part. I've thought about the sustainable farming a lot but not as much the house.

I guess my 'dream' house would be set into the south side of a hill (assuming Northern hemisphere) Lower part of the wall would be double-paned glass with a large atrium/greenhouse/conservatory/whatever you want to call it. Lots of light and plants and some places to sit for breakfast or meditate. The upper 'windows' could be solar panels or solar water heating or both. If that's too much, I'd settle for my studio space having some big windows and cold-frames for the garden. Some kind of semi-portable cold frame might be a better idea anyhow.

I like my studio that I have now. I'd definitely want a place like that. Art, books, plants and privacy if I desire it. I think I'd prefer wood or tile floors so I wouldn't worry about spilling stuff. I'm not a huge fan of wall-to-wall carpet really. I wouldn't mind a bit if this were combined with the atrium.

I'd also like some kind of concrete-floored workspace. Less cozy for reading a book with cats or painting, but better suited to work on an engine, weld, use power tools, etc. A standard garage would fit the bill.

On a related note: I'd like to set up a forge and a steamer box. Both would be really really useful for a huge variety of odds and ends projects. If I could, a pottery kiln and a glass furnace would also be awesome though I suspect they wouldn't get as much use and I can't think of a clever way to combine all of these into a single item so... Probably not very realistic. A forge is fairly small and portable though.

I need a real kitchen. The worst thing about apartments is their gawdawful small kitchens. I need at least 30 square feet of counter space and some freakin' cabinets. I don't have a lot of kitchen widgets but I like to cook and a cramped kitchen just sucks.

A real dining space would be nice but isn't a strict requirement. Helping a friend design a fold-up table for a small space and I like that idea for myself as well.

A living room would be darned nice. I'd like to have space to chat with people. I'd be fine without a TV and would be actively happier without cable. (Though I do need internet access)

A decent-sized bedroom would be nice (and by that, I mean a room that's actually larger than my bed and some freakin' closet space!!!!!)

One bathroom is sufficient. I like a tub but could go without.

Finally, it'd be nice if Stacey had some private office space for herself to match my desired studio space. Our current apartment is cramped and the smaller-than-many-walk-in-closets living-room doubles as her space.

So I guess that's what... A studio for me, an office for Stacey, a workshop/garage, kitchen, living room, and bathroom we share, and atrium and dining area would be really really nice but I would let go of them if everything else was right.

3 bedrooms for 2 people. No. I'm not greedy. :/

I suppose if it were an attached garage and had decent windows, I could combine the workshop and studio. Heck. My dream space would be the workshop, studio, and atrium combined.

I suppose if we had high ceilings (12ft plus) The bedroom/office space could also be combined. Put the bed on a bunk over the desk area. I sleep so rarely that the space would be private for Stacey the vast majority of the time.

I guess that's everything. *sigh* So... Any philanthropist millionaires reading my LJ who'd care to help me out?

...

Yeah. Thought not.

Comments

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Home construction went on long into the collapse of the real estate market. I've heard that in the bay area builders and sellers are still acting like the market collapse never happened. Millions of new homeless live and die on the streets outside of millions more completely empty homes. Banks and real estate speculators own most of them now, they won't be occupied for years, maybe decades in some cases.

What I'm saying is, within the next five years, squatters rights are likely to become a big issue again. You could totally get in on the ground floor of this, by maintaining your apartment, but casing an empty house to go live in :D With a little research and some investment in solar panels you could supply your own utilities.

If you did this in Detroit you'd probably end up becoming the defacto mayor of some new satellite city, since they have entire urban neighborhoods and suburban subdivisions which were built to be ghost towns. Find any sort of similar blight in your own city of choice and you could still, with a little spin, come out of it being popularly viewed as an urban renewal pioneer, as opposed to some filthy squatter.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Yeah. On a rant-tangent, I confess, a lot of the current 'bail out' type things really burn me on some level.

People who jacked up the price of houses into the hundreds of thousands range, taking mortgage offers they could barely pay with balloon payment are getting bailed out on my tax dollar and will get to keep their shiny homes.

People who are poor but can't be bothered to use some fucking birth control can get low-income housing, again on my taxes because the wealthy never really pay taxes.

I'm classified as 'single' I'm responsible and don't get myself into speculative debt situations (A lot of the people buying houses figured if prices ever got too hot, they could just sell and make a tidy profit)

Now, though I've been good about my credit, the amount of available credit that I can get has gone down because the banks are backpedalling due to incompetent debtors, continuing to keep me from the housing market. (Not to mention the prices are still absurdly high because the banks got bailed out and can afford to hang onto stuff rather than normal people having a shot at getting it.

Then there's the Cash for Clunkers program. You bought a piece of shit SUV! I knew they were worthless pieces of crap, I drove and still drive an affordable car that gets good mileage. I acted responsible, but once again, my tax dollars are hard at work bailing out irresponsible assholes, in the vast majority of instances, paying them more for their crappy SUV than it's worth.

And the thing that REALLY REALLY REALLY burns me is that most of these fucks that are getting all the sweet deals are conservative assholes exploiting and gaming the system. Those of us who have a conscience and are responsible are the ones left picking up after them.

And here's the real problem: I know everything I just said sounds like a libertarian screed, but I'm not them either. Yeah, my vindictive side would love to see these fuckers burn and scream and suffer rather than having them live on my back BUT I can't fault or punish the children of these shitheels for their behavior. Children have no choice in the parents they have and I would not condemn them to a Hellish life for the arrogance of their parents and... Truth be told... For all my rants and rages and strong words, I don't want to see ANYONE suffer and I'm not about to kick anyone when they are down.

It really burns me. Part of the back of my mind has been reminding me that the vast majority of people who will benefit from nationalized healthcare will likely be people that would just as soon see people of my sexuality eradicated from the face of the Earth and yet, I cannot use such thoughts as an excuse to condemn them to a slow wasting death that might be prevented by basic medicine. It just isn't in me.

For all my contempt for mankind, I can't stand to see them suffer because I have experienced a lot of pain and fear in my life and I would not wish those experiences on anyone, no matter how selfish and ignorant they are.

*sigh*

I just wish there were still a wilderness. I wish there were a place where I could disappear and make my way by my own means. I wish there weren't greedy speculators sitting on every inch of property so that they can squeeze the last nickel from the world to give themselves another boat or car. I feel like my own desires are luxurious in the extreme. If I had a place that was 'mine' without any debts, I would almost certainly be happy with a lot less than my 'dream home' I don't understand the people who believe they need mansions and servants and a fleet of cars. They seem mentally ill to me. :/

[lisanys.livejournal.com]

Nice to read your dream house - and nice rant too. :)

[centauress.livejournal.com]

I want a home that doesn't take maintenance. I like fixing things, I don't mind something seasonally, but... I don't like how our home has become a messy boxxle puzzle.

I want a place where I can lay down in the open air. A place for my plants to grow. A place to enjoy the sunshine away from prying eyes. (a rooftop garden would be perfect for this).

I want a warm, sunny, wet place inside where I can breathe clean air in the winter, and still enjoy the sky - even if insulated by layers of windows. Someplace with lots of light and stable temperatures.

I'd like somewhere rural, because I love to walk and hike. But somewhere urban would be okay - it's the exurban, suburban sprawl I hate. I need space to walk, not just a tiny sidewalk on the edge of hot or windy barren tracks of pavement or fenced off whatevers.

I always thought my bream home would be akin to a hill, with a solid solar-mass in the middle, like conctrete supports and a solarium on the south side and a drive and garage on the north with bedrooms and living areas on opposite sides of this, using the strongbox of the garage to hold in air and give space when it is cold or hot outside and keep toys clean, and the long, multi-story windows of the south side to give in varied light by the angle of the seasons' sun. It would share its space with the trees that it would alternatingly shelter and stand side by side with them, with the bedrooms up high above the ground with the trees and the sun (or if in the desert, it would be above an artificial canyon carved so the trees could live there with the house and provide good clean air). The house shouldn't merely stand on the land, but in it, connected to the flowing earth.

But mostly I wanted to know, what shapes and orientations do you want in a house? If we built a house out of dome panels, what would you want? If we built piecemeal, what would you like? Should it be tall or squat, many separate structures, eves or one monolithic dome or roof? Should the kiln and forge be in an open yard or cloistered in a court or garage?

Anyhow, also I sorta wondered if you dream any images in your head.

[equusmaximus.livejournal.com]

When I was dreaming up a "Dream Home", I was seriously thinking of making pretty much the whole thing underground. I had pictured minimal "invasion" of space above-ground, something like a small garage, and perhaps a gazebo a small distance away. But underground...

Underground, there'd be a huge living-space. You can go pretty much anywhere you want underground, provided you don't hit the water-level or some such. I had imagined it sort of like underground domes or bubbles, with daylight brought down using those "sun tubes" to provide natural light, and power generated from solar and/or wind.

Out here on the prairies, building into a hillside isn't really an option, and the "rabbit-warren" idea could make a person incredibly claustrophobic in time. But if one had the financial resources to do it, it would be possible to live almost entirely off-grid. There's plenty of sunshine here for solar systems, and a near-constant wind makes windmills ideal as well. It's just that initial cost to put all that stuff in that's the problem. What I'd settle for these days, would be to upgrade the siding and insulation on the house, and add a nice big solarium to the south side. Next year, we're putting in a large garden and getting some chickens. Eventually, I'd like to have a couple of cows (or bison!) and maybe a couple of pigs. :)

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I think I'd avoid bison. They're crazy vicious wild animals that can't be tamed.

Philanthropist millionaires

[krdbuni.livejournal.com]

Not specifically, but... at some point we should talk. If only because my crazy plans need a little grounding.

Kristy

Re: Philanthropist millionaires

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

What sort of crazy plans?

Re: Philanthropist millionaires

[krdbuni.livejournal.com]

My ten-year plan, started officially on March 16 of this year (coincidentally 0004-01-01 of the Lapinian Calendar), is to start an intentional community in Seattle, either by buying or renovating a small hotel or apartment building in the area. Acquiring land enough to do rotation farming and the knowledge to work it properly is a "kicker goal" of the project.

Kristy