Matt has posted some pictures of the property and some of our early floor plan thoughts on his blog. I thought I would offer a few comments of my own on the plans. :-)

We haven’t placed any windows yet on the plan, but we’re planning on including lots of them. I know it is just a box, but boxes are cheaper and easier to build so we’re sticking with that general shape and planning on making it as nice of a box as we can. :-) With some dormer windows and a porch on the front I think it will look less box-ish, and we’ll do something to the back as well (at some point, that is!). The mudroom is really less of a mudroom and more of a walk-in closet for the entry (or a cloakroom, as Matt called it this morning, although I like my name better). It really isn’t there so much to contain mud as it is to contain all the stuff that gets dumped in the entry when we enter the house. We’ll have a long bench with shoe storage underneath, pegs at different heights for jackets, cubbies for keys and other pocket detritus, and a shelf for purses and bags. We’re talking about having a dutch door to this area, and a pocket door between the cloakroom and the laundry room.

Let’s see, what other comments did I want to make. The big rectangle near the kitchen is actually the table, but we’re (err… I’m) not entirely sure that’s where I want it to reside. The size of the house has changed a bit and Matt drew some new plans this morning taking into account the lost space from the SIPs so the kitchen island is now a little funky… but we picked up a pantry next to the bathroom, so that’s a big plus. The fireplace (which will probably actually be some sort of propane stove for heat) will be probably on the south wall under the landing/loft area, so that area will turn into a nice cozy hearth room. I want to have a laundry shoot from the kid’s upstairs bathroom to the laundry room, since they are lined up so nicely. My step-grandparents had that at their old house and I just thought that was the coolest thing as a kid. And now as a Mom, I think it would be really nice to at least not have to carry all the dirty clothes downstairs. I fully expect that this will also be used for toys, cats, shoes, etc at times as well… just hopefully not for small children. :-D

This is all very exciting, and definitely daunting! (ahem, excuse me while I fish a little boy out from under my desk. What is it with babies and cords??) Anyways… we’re still trying to figure out living arrangements while we’re building - I think at this point we’re leaning towards living in a trailer again, hopefully from next April or May until August or September. We hope to move into a signed-off but largely unfinished house next fall. It sounds like we can get an occupancy permit so long as the stairs and balcony areas are safe and the kitchen and bathrooms are done enough to be usable and safe. We’ll do a lot of finish work over the winter (and following summer and following winter and… I’m not sure we’ll ever be done, but I hope we’ll at least reach good stopping points occasionally!)

Hmm… the baby is back under the desk. For someone who doesn’t crawl or walk, he sure does get around!