Ready to sell some pine trees…

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I met with a timber guy today. He’s going to buy pretty much all my pine trees and get them out of my way. I’ll even make a little money off the deal — a few hundred dollars. I explained that I’m not trying to make money off the trees, that I only want to get the pines off the upper acre so that I can build there and so the young poplars and maples underneath the pines can have light and room to grow.

The aerial photo above is a winter shot. The lower end of the triangle is all hardwood. The green in the upper corner is pine. I’ll be getting rid of most of the pine in the upper corner.

The timber guy agreed to minimize the mess and to disturb the topsoil as little as possible. He’ll strip the limbs off the trees and leave the limbs in a single pile. I’ll need to get a chipper to come in and make a big pile of mulch out of the brush.

The tree work may start next week if we don’t get too much rain.

Temporary power, and a septic tank quote…

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The woods looked mighty fine in the snow this morning.

I met with an electrician from Madison and signed a contract for bringing in the temporary power. That was a tad over budget (by $100 — total cost, $750), but no big deal. I should have temporary power ready to use within the next two weeks.

I also met with a septic tank contractor this morning. His quote also was a tad over budget (by $100, total cost, $2600), but again, no big deal, and I probably won’t bother with any more quotes for the septic tank.

The septic tank guy did say, however, that he can’t get a backhoe in there for the septic tank until some trees are gone. All the trees that have to go are pines, and he said I can sell them for lumber. I liked the sound of that — revenue off the trees, which I don’t want anyway. I’d like to get rid of pretty much all the pines and give the entire five acres over to hardwood. The septic tank guy recommended a timber guy, and I’m hoping to meet with the timber guy tomorrow. I’m not expecting to get much for the trees — maybe a few hundred dollars. But at least I won’t have to pay somebody to take them away. Now the stumps, that’s a different story. Getting rid of the stumps will cost me, but if getting ridding of the trees is actually revenue rather than cost, I should still be well within budget for clearing trees for the house and septic tank.

Two new permits…

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I got quite a lot done in Stokes County on Thursday. The people in the building permits office in Danbury were delightful to work with. I explained my intentions and showed them the blueprints for the house and wellhouse. In no time at all I had permits for the wellhouse and for the temporary electrical hookup (the cost for the two permits was $90). It’s a little too early to get the permit for the house itself, but at this point that’s the only permit I still need. All the other permits — wellhouse, temporary power, the well, and the septic tank — are taken care of.

Then I went out to the land and put in some stakes (around here we call them “stobs”) and flags to mark approximate locations of the house, the wellhouse, and the driveway. On Sunday, I’ll go back with my brother and sister to let them have a look at the location of everything. Once that’s all settled, the next step will be to get the tree guy to come take a look. I’ll only need to take out pine trees — no need to take out any of the mature hardwood trees. Among the pines there are many young hardwoods, mainly poplar and maple, eager to have room to grow. I hope we can take out the pine trees with minimum damage to the young hardwoods. They should grow quickly once the pines are gone and they have light and space.

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The big rock is surprisingly difficult to photograph. But I tried.

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More about the roof line

The complete roofline, and the other dormer windows, are not apparent in the drawings of the gothic revival cottage that I have posted previously.

This angle clearly shows the gabled roof and the front dormer:

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And this angle shows the hipped roof and the side dormer:

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The front dormer lights the stairs and the upstairs hallway, and the side dormer lights the upstairs room that I will use as my office and radio room. The stairway and landing are to the left of the front door. The stairway and landing are so well lit, including a side window facing south and the front window facing east, that I need to figure out how to make the stairs double as a bit of greenhouse.

And the rear view:

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What are the ingredients of charm?

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“A Perfect Summer Day,” Thomas Kinkade

Katie Hutchison, an architect, has written on the subject of what elements add up to create a charming house. The language she uses is a bit vague (I suspect she was trying to make the subject sound more complicated than it really is, as though an architect’s expertise is needed to define charm), but she makes a good start on the subject. Another way to examine the ingredients of charm is to study the paintings of Thomas Kinkade. His cottages have charm in abundance.

Let’s look at a couple more of Thomas Kinkades cottages, then apply Katie Hutchison’s criteria.

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“Autumn at Ashley’s Cottage,” Thomas Kinkade

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“The Good Shepherd’s Cottage,” Thomas Kinkade

Katie Hutchison gives five criteria for a charming house:

1. Grounding roof lines. What she means by this is a little vague to me, but I think she means that, even though the roof may be tall, the eaves should come close to the ground to keep the house on a human scale.

2. Legible massing. Again, her terms are vague, but I think by this she means that the shapes of the cottage should be simple and easy to understand.

3. Engaged relationship with landscape. Yes. This is easy to understand.

4. Simple color palette and harmonious materials. Yes. Also easy to understand.

5. Thoughtful details. Yes. This makes sense too.

If we apply these criteria to Kinkade’s cottages, I think it’s clear enough that Hutchison’s criteria always seem to apply.

Now here’s the gothic revival cottage I plan to build:

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Keeping Hutchison’s criteria in mind, I propose some practical things to keep in mind if one is trying to build a house with storybook charm:

1. The house should be two stories tall, with a steep roof and low eaves.

2. The roof may make up half or more of the house’s façade, so it is critical that every element of the roof be as interesting as possible.

3. There must be dormers.

4. The windows must create some drama and make the interior seem intriguing.

5. The house should be set against woods, with trees behind or beside the house that are taller than the house itself. These trees should be of a variety of species.

6. There must be a profusion of blooming plants around the house, arranged in organic shapes, never in straight lines. Some climbing vines should be included. Lawns should be small and should fade back into the woods.

7. There should be meandering paths.

8. Chimneys, and chimney pots, are important.

9. Rustic fencing, either of stone or timber, is important.

I believe my house plan, and the land I’m building on, have all the basic ingredients. Landscaping will have to supply the rest.

Thoughts on exterior colors

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Notice the color scheme on the house in the background. The roof appears to be tile, the exterior appears to be brick — natural colors. But the windows are stark white. The house is in Germany. Love that steep, flared roof.

The stark white window frames gave me a new idea for the exterior of my gothic cottage. The roof will be metal shingles, the color of an old galvanized washtub. For the wooden siding, I plan to use a gray, weathered stain — tree trunk color. Andersen windows come in only four exterior colors — a light brown sand color, a darker brown, a dark green, and white. None of those colors seemed quite right, but I was thinking of going with dark green.

But I wonder, since the bay window on the first floor and the gothic window on the second floor are such an important part of the character of the house, if they wouldn’t look quite striking with white frames. If you’ve got a gothic window, flaunt it!

Use your imagination on the grayscale image:

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My neighborhood in San Francisco

Let’s take a little walk around my neighborhood in San Francisco — partly because it’s an interesting neighborhood, and partly because there are some architectural and landscaping elements that will work in the country.

I live at Park Hill on Buena Vista Avenue East, facing Buena Vista Park.

The house in the photo below is one block up the street from me. A friend and I call it “Fancy House” and use it as a rendezvous place when we’re out walking. The house seems to capture everyone’s imagination. At Halloween, Christmas, and Easter, its owners put up decorations that are WAY over the top. The house is noted for that, and people drive through just to see it.

Fancy House:

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It’s not gothic, but it has a lot of the same elements as the gothic revival cottage that I plan to build.

For example, the steep roof with flared eaves:

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Dormers and bay windows:

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But look what’s missing from the bay windows, a terrible omission!:

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There’s no corbelling under the bay windows!

But one block in the other direction, check out the fine corbelling and brackets on this Spanish mansion across the street from Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Luxembourg:

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Most bay windows would have an extremely unfinished look without some corbelling. The corbelling above is masonry, but something similar could be executed in wood and would make a good corbel for my gothic revival cottage.

Here’s one other neat detail for a house with a dramatic façade and steep roof. A finial at the peak of the roof. This house is nextdoor to Danny Glover’s house and the Crosby, Stills, and Nash house. In the Southeast, the finial could be executed in copper and double as a lightning rod:

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A couple of other things while we’re walking around. What a nice way to treat a stump — put some sod on it. The stump is in Buena Vista Park:

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Attaching climbing roses to tree trunks could never be a bad idea. The roses and the palm trees below are recently planted and don’t yet looked very established, but give them time:

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And if you can afford a fancy dog waterer, go for it!

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Here’s where I live. Park Hill. It used to be a hospital run by an order of nuns — St. Joseph’s Hospital. It appears in the Hitchcock film “Vertigo,” and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was converted to condos in the mid-1980s.

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The lions in the photo below are on the fourth floor. My apartment is just above the lions on the fifth floor. Note the four-story-tall magnolia grandiflora — always in good taste! And by the way, there’s even some honeysuckle across the street in Buena Vista Park.

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Some people might now be thinking, can I take the shock of moving from a fancy neighborhood in San Francisco to the end of a gravel road in Stokes County? Consider the French. There is Paris, and everything else is la province. The French esteem la province, love farms and farming, and les parisiens have a place in la province if they can possibly afford it. In France, there is no huge political and cultural gap between Paris and la province. We urban Americans look down on our provinces. That’s dumb. Or, en français, quel dommage — what a pity. If we Americans loved our provinces the way we ought to we’d stop paving over our remaining farmland. We’d have a great deal more respect for, and knowledge of, the people who grow our food. And most important, city people and country people would have some common cause, and would be more at home on each other’s turf. I say let the country people learn to love San Francisco, and let San Franciscans learn to love the country.

Periodic updates

I’ll have periodic updates as I continue to carry out my three year plan. As of July 2007, this has been done:

— Land search commenced, summer 2004

— Made offer on land, January 2005

— Closed on land, March 2005

— Bought blueprints for house, November 2005

— Bought trailer, October 2005

— Drilled well, May 2006

Here is the timeline for the remaining work:

— February 2008: rough-clear driveway and clear access to septic area. Install septic tank. Bring in temporary power. Build wellhouse. Install pump in well.

— March 2008: Bring trailer out to the land and hook it up to water and septic. Clear garden area and build garden fence for deer protection. Improve driveway and culvert.

— Spring of 2008: Negotiate contracts for foundation, framing, roofing, and exterior. Begin construction May or June of 2008.