Islander's "they made me do it" house pix

[MarkF]

That's a beautiful house Islander, one thing tho', it doesn't look as though you have a great deal of work surfaces in your kitchen, is that a problem or do you have plans to increase it?

Thanks for posting it, useful for inspiring ideas

[Islander]

Originally Posted by The Viceroy of Lost Umbrellas

What is the history of the house? How old is it? How long have you owned it? Did you build it?

I really love the wooden wall and the stonework. I think that your house has a lot of character and is really cool. Is the floor slate?

Originally Posted by MarkF

That's a beautiful house Islander, one thing tho', it doesn't look as though you have a great deal of work surfaces in your kitchen, is that a problem or do you have plans to increase it?

Thanks for posting it, useful for inspiring ideas

Ooooookay, this was a spinoff from the "Ask Islander" thread that someone posted on my behalf in the "Better Living through Posting" forum. All the backstory can be found there. To save you the grief of reading 2 pages of bob loblaw, I'll try to summarize real quick below.

First, the easy one: I have 8 feet of usable counter space plus 5 feet of butcher block in the kitchen. I could feed a small Laotian village if you supply the pig.

History etc: Our huge 1860 farmhouse-woodshed-barn-garage burned to the ground in 1982, killing all the stock on our diversified farm except for a modest flock of sheep in a separate barn. We were vastly underinsured and had $30k to rebuild with. I designed the core of a passive solar house with the intent to add on later when we saved up for it. Solar engineer tweaked the plans; south side is on an insulated slab topped with slate. That, plus the fieldstone chimneypiece, form a heat sink that radiates back at night. Later we added a study and garage on the north, a woodshed on the west, and a deck on the south end. We did all the stone and slate and much of the rest of the work; the $30k went to the contractor for stuff we couldn't do. We six lived in a tiny trailer on the front lawn that summer; the foster children were relocated. Two farm apprentices camped out behind the barn and helped with the rebuilding.

When I retired I sold all but 2 of my 50 acres, but I continue to raise a few meat birds and grow a garden which, with the orchard and berries, all of which I preserve, feeds me through the winter. I have 3 wells, I heat with wood, and if the infrastructure collapses, I will survive.

[Colonel Plink]

I love every cubic inch of it.

Well done.

[Zombies!]

Originally Posted by Islander

Ooooookay, this was a spinoff from the "Ask Islander" thread that someone posted on my behalf in the "Better Living through Posting" forum. All the backstory can be found there. To save you the grief of reading 2 pages of bob loblaw, I'll try to summarize real quick below.

First, the easy one: I have 8 feet of usable counter space plus 5 feet of butcher block in the kitchen. I could feed a small Laotian village if you supply the pig.

History etc: Our huge 1860 farmhouse-woodshed-barn-garage burned to the ground in 1982, killing all the stock on our diversified farm except for a modest flock of sheep in a separate barn. We were vastly underinsured and had $30k to rebuild with. I designed the core of a passive solar house with the intent to add on later when we saved up for it. Solar engineer tweaked the plans; south side is on an insulated slab topped with slate. That, plus the fieldstone chimneypiece, form a heat sink that radiates back at night. Later we added a study and garage on the north, a woodshed on the west, and a deck on the south end. We did all the stone and slate and much of the rest of the work; the $30k went to the contractor for stuff we couldn't do. We six lived in a tiny trailer on the front lawn that summer; the foster children were relocated. Two farm apprentices camped out behind the barn and helped with the rebuilding.

When I retired I sold all but 2 of my 50 acres, but I continue to raise a few meat birds and grow a garden which, with the orchard and berries, all of which I preserve, feeds me through the winter. I have 3 wells, I heat with wood, and if the infrastructure collapses, I will survive.

This. This is why you're a legend around here Islander. I know when tragedies happen most people just get on gettin' on, but the number of people who rebuilt a house by hand, after planning it themselves, with a budget of less than a quarter of the median house price, and then who continue keepin' on supporting themselves through subsistence farming, canning and self-sufficiency...

I am in awe of you. Seriously.

[Chacoguy]

Originally Posted by Zombies!

I am in awe of you. Seriously.

Seconded.

[Islander]

:: scuffs toe in dirt ::

Aww, thank you.
More than once, I've bumped up against a situation that I thought someone was supposed to fix. When it turned out that no one else was going to address it, I gritted my teeth and did it myself. We do the best we can with what we've got.

My second husband was a defrocked Irish Jesuit priest. Prior to coming to the U.S. he had led an extremely sheltered life. The fire was the worst thing that had ever happened to him; he never really got over it. It was not the worst thing that had ever happened to me, so I just got to work. Sometimes you have to be the take-charge person when no one else is stepping up. This was the life I had created for my children and by God! nothing was going to take that away from them.

I'm nobody special. Legend? There are indeed legends on this board, but I'm not one of them. We all do what we have to do. But thank you for the kind words. You guys make me wanna tear up. ~snif~

[The Viceroy of Lost Umbrellas]

Islander, you designed that yourself? And built it yourself? That's impressive. I like the way it all turned out. What kind of wood did you use on the walls?