Post 5- Prepping, Design, Septic, Water

Whew!  Ok, it's been a busy last couple of days.  I absolutely loved my original house design, but it wasn't really working with the lay of the land.  I've always said I wanted to sit on the land and get a good feel of the "flow" before building, and I had an opportunity to do that over the last few days, in addition to some extensive pricing at Lowe's/Home Depot and a ton of redesigning.

My septic guy started today installing us a new septic tank and drain field, the old one was "not up to standards", putting it nicely.  It helped a lot on monday that we were able to meet up and determine the best placement of the tank and drain field.  He also is going to redo my water line from the driveway up the the house site: it was formerly running right alongside the septic drain line (which is kind of gross...).  He's a super good guy, and has been a real blessing in every regard.  He contacted my water company for me and had them come out and mark the water hookup (it was overgrown), and also knows a concrete guy.

So, the biggest thing I need to shift was the placement of the house.  With the lay of the land, the rectangle house going in perpendicular (skinny side against the slope) just wasn't working: because of the slope we'd have had to either really dug in for the back half or went way overboard on footers on the front.  Because of this I decided to flip the house 180 degrees, to run horizontal with the slope generally speaking.  When I did this, it totally screwed up the flow of the house, so I had to completely redesign it.

I also, luckily, came across some amazing stuff on "rocket ovens" as being the most efficient wood burning heating alternative out there.  Spent all morning salivating over the potentialities and lower cost to install (and use!), then incorporated it into the design.  If you don't know what "rocket ovens" are, google it.  Fascinating and simple, and when incorporated with some clever ducting and thermal mass, it's a no-brainer as top contender for in-home heating.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the new design I've come up with, with details noted.  The loft areas are not detailed on this, but essentially, there's a 15' wide by 8'6" deep loft on either side of the great room, each of which will have a single window in the center against the outer wall and have a top ceiling center peak of (roughly) 6-8' tall.

I'm really liking this.  It's got a good flow, passive cooling and heating, with a supplemental central heating unit (with the rocket stove).  I've laid it on the ground and paced it off and it's a tiny house, but feels nice and big.  Should have very low utilities while I'm hooked up to the grid, but I'm designing ahead to be "off the grid" as well, and should be able to convert over fully for about $5000 for solar systems, marine batteries, and a cistern/pump.

Note the square footage: 525 sq ft total floor space, with an additional 255 loft space.  I think the average house nowadays has gotten upwards of about 2000 sq ft, so my energy bills will be significantly less, it'll be easier to keep clean, and I'm very pleased with the "functionality" of this layout.  All closets and shelving will be home-made "Ikea" style shelving.  Beds will flip up into walls (and flip down to rest on built in benches/storage), so both of those bedrooms are completely multi-functional/multi-purpose almost instantly upon demand.

More later, I really need to stop thinking about this for a little bit.  This is definitely the time to plan, before we start building, but I'm pretty happy with this design overall.  Oh, also, I'm planning on putting a 15' x 15' deck on both sides, so you can walk out the master bed room onto a deck (with firepit), or walk out the front door and around to the side and sit on the other one, each will probably have at least a 3-6' partial roof as well.