Work

In February of 2017, we acknowledged Landus needed a larger space than our dining room for his research. He had simply grown out of his “home office”
We leased a warehouse north of the loop in Athens, GA.  The new space had a huge impact on his ability to perform more tests on building products and his ability to indulge his curiosity and prove or disprove his theories more quickly. Landus’ productivity increased and the space boosted customer interest and participation.

The focus on Landus’ work increased for us as well. We spent more and more time at the warehouse and less time at home.  Within two months, we stumbled upon the land and realized it had the potential of holding both a home workshop/warehouse and our house for the same as we were paying to lease the warehouse. We purchased the land and began the process of improving it in order to build the barn which became our new focus.

1. The space is worth the expense. We would rather have that expense spent on our own property rather than paying rent.

2. It became obvious that having the warehouse as part of our home made the most sense since we spent a lot of time there. 

Home and family

Landus and I met in August of 2008 and moved into his home in November of 2009 after an extensive remodel.  The place was beautiful and had many wonderful qualities. At the time our Nephew and his family were living upstairs in what was a separate apartment on the third floor and the two bedrooms on the second floor. Our living space was on the first floor. I could go on and on about that house but I won’t. That is not what this project is about.

It did; however, impact our motivation to move on to this project.

Our niece had proudly graduated from UGA with a good job and our nephew had obtained his electrician’s license and had a good job and it became obvious they needed their own space. I’m sure they would have stayed in this beautiful home as long as possible, but they were ready for their own homeowner’s experience and we were starting to see our future… one with little desire to live in a house with three levels!

At ages 55 and 59, we have both seen our parents knees, minds, and general health slowly give out on them. Even though they have all lived to ripe old ages, we could see that the less damage you do to your joints the better.

2. We needed to downsize our house for our future. One level living was the order of the day. 

Land

We knew the day would come when we would leave our lovely home, but it had to be for the right place. In no rush, I browsed land – with water – as a hobby.

In July of 2017, I stumbled on a place not too far from where we currently lived. We knew the area since it was home to our good friends Roxanne and Keith and our builder/friend Hansel Bray. When we went to see the land, it was undeveloped. We hacked our way through a fairly level 5+ acres, through the greenbrier and undergrowth beneath tall pines until we found this view:

We looked stunned at each other and said: “I think this is it!?”

It was it.

I’ll talk more about the land a little later.

3. We had found the perfect piece of land for a house, a warehouse/barn for Landus to work out of and that level waterfront property we had hoped for. All was right with the world. 

The Plan

So we had the motivation, the justification, and the property. All we lacked was the ability to pull it all together.

The plan:

1. Clear the front portion of land for the barn. We cut down the pines using that wood for the exterior cladding on the barn. Landus milled it on site and sticker stacked it to dry for use during construction. This was a critical first step and this is how it looked right after the trees were cut. 
2. Establish building plans. (Our lease was up at the end of May and we had to move or sign up for another year)
3. Complete house plans
4. File for permits
5. Hope the construction could begin for the barn before our lease ran out.
6. Spiff up our current house and put it on the market
7. Our Nephew and Niece and their boys had to have a new place to live.
8. What is our plan once we sell the house???
9. Oh, and we need a loan for all of this – right?

I had quit my job over a year ago to help address an urgent need for help from my 90-year-old father who was the primary caregiver for my 88-year-old mother who suffers from dementia. As you might imagine, he was worn down and out. We arranged for help for part of the day which lasted a year, but it just was not enough. The nights were the worse and after my father suffered a few falls including one night spent on the floor, he was hospitalized with a bout of pneumonia. The doctors made it clear they both had to have 24-hour care. None of us had space for them to move in with us and their condition was such that none of us were capable of providing the care they needed.

My brothers and sister and I made the most difficult decision we’d ever made. We had to place them somewhere. Mom’s doing fine, but Dad is not so happy.

I worked on this from March through May, so we were delayed in tackling parts of the plan.

Plans for the Barn had to be slightly adapted for the size of the lot, for what we could afford and to accommodate the potential of our living there while the house is built. We had no idea how quickly our house would sell, but the loan officer encouraged us to sell before building. We created a full bath out of the half bath and connected the two 13′ x 16′ office areas through the 8′ x 8′ kitchenette and made room for a full-size refrigerator.

I can reflect on barn life in a future entry.

The house went on the market in May, we sold it to the first people who looked at it but who were moving from Washington state. We moved out of the warehouse by the end of June and feared we were looking at July 11 to be out of the house. Luckily, things were delayed for various reasons. The family upstairs were building in a neighborhood and their house was done in time as well. We all moved out on July 24, them into a large beautiful home and us into a 650 sq. ft. office space.  The rest of our belongings were stuffed into a 10′ x 25′ conditioned storage space.

I decided it was time to capture this via a blog. I have enough friends who wanted to know what was going on and I hope this is a way to keep them posted on their own time and to their own level of interest. I also believe we will be doing some things that may be of interest to the building science community and will likely interview my husband at various stages of the project.