2008

"I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society."
--Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau lived two years and two months in a 150 square foot cabin.

We had now spent more time building than Thoreau even lived at Walden Pond and 150 square feet would just not work. We had more needs and different aims.

First of all, we plan to live in this house for more than an experiment and the space needed for a lone man just doesn't work for a family of four.
Also, Greg is an artist. This house is not just a shelter, it is a piece of art, a sculpture. It is not a box, but a form of curves, angles, and slopes that blend with, show case, or imitate nature.

The house covers 1200 square feet of ground in a "L" shape with a 400 square foot basement and a 200 square foot attic, and one and a half baths.

The house has been designed for winter solar gain with only one window in the workshop/utility room on the North side, French doors that open onto a porch on the West side, small windows that will catch the breeze and the morning light and a door that will open onto a patio on the East side, and large windows and a recycled sunroom on the South side.

All our windows and doors were salvaged, recycled, purchased on clearance or as misorders; the beauty of building yourself. We used salvaged triple pane sliding glass doors, turned on their side for the South facing windows in the basement bedrooms, then created tiered window wells. The rooms are full of natural light. I love having a basement that is not dark and gloomy... electric lights will not be needed as long as the sun shines.

The kitchen and dinning room both have large South facing windows, the living room has the South facing sunroom glass with a 12 foot ceiling. The North walls will be bookcases, a library that leads to the basement.

The attic has one East and one West window and will hold a bedroom and a sewing/studio room. We got a great deal on the trusses because they were a misorder. The room has a low ceiling and required a change in the house plan, but it worked out perfectly for what we needed.

The basement is storage, a media room, and two 10x12 ft bedrooms. My daughter thinks this space is too small. I ask her, "Too small compared to what?" Thoreau's entire cabin wasn't much bigger than the space assigned to her room. She is comparing to her best friend's room. A friend that lives in a mini mansion in a gated community. Every time I pick her up or drop her off, I feel trapped as I wait for that gate to open to release me. Give me large spaces outside and small spaces with large windows inside. The dining room window is a 6x6 foot square that looks out on rolling pasture and the distant Wellsville Mountains. It is like a landscape painting the changes with the seasons. It will be interesting to see how many years pass before this view is gone by the progress of man.

This year we built stairs, put in the windows and doors, and got the plumbing and most of the wiring done.

Greg has friends who are fellow artisans working for themselves, they share their muscles and knowledge when needed, but most of the work (except for the roof raising)is completed solely by Greg with my weekend assistance.

2008 was for the most part a year of health and happiness.

I acquired a new boss, who brought many changes to our school. Charter schools are generally founded by a visionary, out-of-the-box thinking individual, who wants to create a dynamically different approach to education. Many times, these type of individuals have no clue about finances. A principal of a charter school is a CEO of a business as well as a director of education. It is a huge job, and our founding principal, like many other charter school principals, wasn't good with numbers. When the Board of Governors realized our school was quickly approaching bankruptcy, our founding principal "retired", and a teacher stepped up to act as principal until a qualified replacement could be found.

We lucked out and hired a guy who had a MBA and three years experience as a charter high school principal in Salt Lake City. He studied the finances and made major changes, the only way to save the school. We had a big beautiful expensive building. With same changes, we could function in half the space, sublease the other half, and save thousands of dollars in rent each month. One things that had to go was the school library, the Ameri VISTA positions, and all support staff but the special ed aides and one secretary who would need to take over the assignments of the four positions that were not being replaced. The school secretary had just had her first child, and decided to quit working and stay home. I then became the full time secretary, and even though the job I was going to school to become qualified for was gone, decided to continue with the program that I completely enjoyed and was half finished with. I managed to save the library in a greatly reduced state by moving it into a large corridor like hallway, which quickly became known as "Library Hall". Students would bring books to the office where I would check them out and use USU's library for research. This honor system library was better than nothing, it was used frequently, and we lost fewer books than I anticipated.