Update July 2008 - We're Building!

written July 22, 2008

First, appologies to all those of you who have been checking for updates only to be disappointed. Things have been moving ahead at a crazy pace over the past few months.

Although the original plan was to build a cottage about 5 years after buying the land, that plan was buried deep in the snow over the winter. And this was the winter for burying plans in the snow if you wanted to be sure you would never find them. Now we're building THIS YEAR! It's true. Crazy, but true. After doing some research, we decided on the easiest approach - a manufactured home. It will be built in a factory and delivered to our site in sections in a convoy of trucks. We looked into three companies and Guildcrest Homes is the winner. Of the three companies we spoke to, they offered the most comprehensive service, and were more receptive than the competition when it came to special requests. I'll admit too, that they were a little bit less expensive, at least until we added on the screened in porch, cathedral ceilings and the crystal ceiling fans. Check out their site: http://www.guildcrest.com/homes/trailhead.aspx

I looked over dozens, if not hundreds of cottage plans over the winter, but I didn't find anything that fully matched what I wanted. So I designed the cottage myself. Drawing and re-drawing plans kept me busy during the breaks from shovelling snow. Check out the results:

Front elevation: extension on the side is the screened porch with weatherwall windows.

Here's their site:http://www.weatherwall.com/

So we will wake up on September 23rd cottageless and go to sleep fully cottaged. Even though it is a relatively simple path to build a cottage, there will still be lots of work for us to do. We've decided to finish the drywall, install the flooring and paint ourselves. Then there will be power and water supply needs to address. It's all very exciting.