FUTURE DREAMING

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't look out our big front windows and think of how blessed we are to live in such a place. We're situated on a mountainside above a river with amazing views of the mountains all around.

That's us under the arrow!

These 2 pics were taken on a hike across the valley-this is the view of the end of the valley.

Our little house is warm, cozy, eclectic, inviting -a real "lived in" place full of the treasures that symbolize each of us and our lives together. But this house aint practical!!!! There's NO storage space -we got stuff stuffed in places you wouldn't imagine! I'm the type that hates to see stuff like food and other sundries lying around sticking out on shelves, cds and dvds stacked all over....I just want to see furniture, plants, and art. Our treasures! And we have no dinning room. We gave that to Lo. It's a cute tiny room..for NOW, but when she gets older? How are we gonna cram a twin sized bed in there? There's no closet or shelves! We have a big island in our kitchen where we eat, but as far as entertaining? That's a real pain in the ass. We LOVE havin friends over and can't wait to finally have a big dinning room and table to seat a bunch of folks in for feasts!

Believe me, I stand here knowing how fortunate we are to have this place...and I lOVE it! But it also drives me nuts!

We are planning to build an addition next summer. Two new floors above the garage. A dinning room/sitting room/pantry on the first and the second floor will be the new master bedroom (Walk-in closet here I come!!!!!!!!)-Dea will get our old one and Lo will move on up to Dea's old room. A little more space, less clutter, more of an opportunity to live eco friendly. We plan to design with passive solar heating and cooling in mind and add a wind turbine for power. Room to breathe....

I had always envisioned designing my own home one day and was looking forward to putting together some sketches of my ideas for this future addition. Here's a very basic idea I came up with for the addition:

(HA! I'm so embarrassed!)

Hello! NOT to scale!

However, I have no clue about the technicalities of architecture, engineering, and the like. All I can do is put down on paper what flows out of my right brain. So unfortunately, my sketches are completely specious. There are so many variables to take into consideration when building. Mainly, where is all the snow on the roof going to go? While I enjoyed expressing myself with the sketches, the guys looked at them and were like,"uhhhhhhh. No." Red faced and nose out of joint I took my damn base sketch and tucked it away. "The guys" meaning Huz and our neighbors, Darren and his son Levi. Levi had known about our plans for the addition and in March asked if he could help develop some blueprints for a CAD/mentorship class he was taking. We said "sure"! So he and Huz did some exploring and measurement taking and a few weeks later Levi presents his plans. Right after I sketched mine. They weren't like mine. At all. My sketches sucked but, oh, what was floating there in my head! But as Levis plans were explained I realized mine just weren't practical or logical. Those pesky variables and all.

Levi's plans have grown on me since then. Here is our humble abode(2 pics stuck together. DAMN I can't wait to get a wide angle lens. I could have backed up more but I'd have been in the brush and, well, you know, the bear and all...) and Levis plans underneath. Compare and contrast:

And I was kidding about the bear. Really, I didn't want to get my jammie bottoms wet.

front and back of new addition

side views

To clarify, there will be a breezeway connecting the house to the addition.

Now that I understand his plans more and have come to terms with the fact the our existing house is already wacky enough, there just aren't that many ways we can build this addition! Levi's plans look..weird. But then again, this is ALASKA! The place of houses covered in ty-vec that go unfinished for decades. The land of the zainiest and most esthetically incorrect homes. The bastion of houses that had no place to go but UP so... the existing home is literally jacked up and the new first floor -and sometimes a second as well- is built underneath it. We call that architecture the "milk carton" look. So.. we'll have a madcap home- Levi's plans being the base of it all. Mind you , Levi is 17 and a junior in high school. As much as I always wanted to be the Ultimate Creator of my home, I also think it would be seriously cool and just..special... to use the plans developed by our 17 year old neighbor who we think is just such an awesome young man. And we're proud of his work.

The inside of the addition? I'M claiming that territory, man! I've already begun peeing on the deck, from which those two new floors will be erected!