Something along the same lines as our fantasy of running a goat ranch (but much more likely to eventually occur) is the idea of buying some land, probably over by Hood Canal, and building a cabin. Not having it built for us, mind you, but Science Girl and I actually doing as much of the labor as we could ourselves.
Folly? Probably. Neither one of us has framed so much as a doghouse in our lives, for one thing. That’s the aspect that sorta gives me the willies, to be honest, but there are places to learn such things, or at least the basics thereof. And, y’know, we’re not talking about replicating Versailles or anything, just a modest cabin. 500 square feet, probably one and a half stories, tops. Smaller, if we can get away with it.
And, as it turns out, there’s a fair amount of land available in Mason County that’s pretty reasonably priced. Some of it is in what I think of as vacation home subdivisions, where you have a whole bunch of small lots very close to each other. The prices there are usually the best, but who the hell wants a cabin with next-door neighbors as close as they would be in town? Plus, a lot of those places have Codes, Covenants and Restrictions, which I refuse to even consider. If I want to paint the place purple with hot pink trim that’s what’s gonna happen, and no “homeowners association” is gonna tell me otherwise. (Not that I’d ever think that purple with hot pink was a good idea, of course. That example is strictly for illustration purposes.)
Then there are places that are 100% off the grid – no power, no water, no septic/sewer. A challenge, yes, but not one that’s insurmountable. Believe it or not, I’ve been reading up on cisterns today, just for fun. I also found out how composting toilets work. I’m still looking into the solar panel thing, but I think it could work for the sort of application we’d be thinking of – minimal power, used on weekends and maybe one or two full weeks out of the year.
All of this is still strictly academic, of course. We’ve got a couple of capital-intensive projects that need doing around Science Manor before any sort of real estate acquisition could take place. Still, it is fun to think about. And who knows? We could win the lottery this week.
That sounds wonderful. But build that compost toilet real good. I've heard some sad stories about those.
Posted by: Joolie | September 12, 2006 at 10:41 PM
Yeah, that would seem to be a real avenue for potential tragedy.
Let's not kid ourselves, though: the entire project would be so fraught with peril as to be scarcely creditable. I've watched enough Roadrunner cartoons over the years to know that no matter how thorough you blueprints are, you can still end up falling over the side of a cliff with an anvil and several lit sticks of TNT following close behind. Fortunately, most of the plans I've looked at don't call for much in the way of explosives, if any.
Posted by: bmarkey | September 12, 2006 at 10:58 PM