December 2007

The end of 2007 finds us ready and waiting. Site plan, well and septic field have been approved and the engineer is drawing up final official plans. 2008 should be exciting!

Summer 2007 Clearing

Throughout the summer Tuck did the hard dirty laborious work of clearing the house site -- many small trees, big vines and lots of underbrush. Several intrepid friends helped in this endeavor for which we will be ever thankful for it is truly a miserable job!

January 2007 Cutting Trees

Even though we were still determing the exact parameters of the place where we would locate the house, it was obvious there were one or two trees that needed to be cut and were big enough to call in a professional. In January was the first round of this -- a white oak and a hickory.

Dwelling Dreams

After considering and rejecting kit houses, Tuck decided to design his own. The inspiration came from a seredipitous meeting at Barnes & Noble one evening. We were poring over a pile of architecture and house books to get some ideas. When another couple sat down at the same table with a similar pile we started talking. That is how we met Ken and Sheila. Ken introduced Tuck to SiPS - Structural Insulated Panels - a new building material for walls, flooring and roofs. See: www.sips.org. He also described his son's recent experience of building a house of his own, which we found reassuring even though it had taken him years to complete it.

Tuck found a SIPS school in West Virginia for builders and attended a session. And began the process of designing. Through the course of several months poring over more books and goingn on various house tours our ideas evolved. First a 2 story, then a 1 story, then some changes in roof line.

September 2006 Beginning

After much searching we found this piece of property in August 2006 -- 3 acres in Orange County, a wooded hillside with a seasonal creek. It was love at first sight and we found ourselves land barons a mere month later.