Computer Modelling the Cabin and the Design Evolution.  I have never designed a building from the ground up and this has taken considerable time.  Although it looks like many other cabins, it has many of our specific ideas incorporated which has taken many hours.  Like a bathroom in the loft. . . .  Was it worth it?  Financially no, but from a satisfaction standpoint it has been a lot of fun.  And, now that we've bought the land the computer model must be adapted to the terrain.  But in the end it will be so fulfilling.  View two is the kitchen, View three includes things like the wood burning stove and View four is what I call the Stick House.  This is what I use to create a Bill of Materials. (Construction Jargon)  Bye for now, Jim S.

Here are three photos taken last Saturday..  The first is our lot.  It's across the dirt road, so you can see the lot and the view.  If you click on the photo you can see the Canadian flag that is taped to the lot corner marker.  The second photo is looking east.  Yes, I took my chances standing in the middle of the road fearing I might get run over but while we were there on Saturday not a sole came down this road all day.  This is going to be so fantastic!  OK, back to the the third photo.  This is looking west down the road.  Once we build the cabin we should have the entire panoramic view of these three photos.  Bye for now, Jim S.

From a Utah perspective, the lot is in southern Utah about 5 miles off Hwy 89 between Bryce Canyon and Cedar City.  See the little blue thingie again?  I'll have to check to see if you click on the image if it gets bigger. . . . Don't try the zoom bar at the left, this image is just a screen shot from Google Satellite so it's not going to zoom!  Jim S.

OK, 24 hours later and Google Maps smarter, I have a few images to post defining where in the world Jim & Cheri are.  Can you see the little blue circle thingie in the middle of the image?  OK, now to zoom in a little closer. Jim S.

Why, Why, Why

Over the last couple of months, questions have been asked... Here's some answers:

1.  Why do we want to build a cabin?  I guess it's a little complicated answer.  Jim and I want a get away place, and I think this is far enough away from home that it is easily accessible, but still gives us a lot of privacy.  My number one reason is.. Family.  I want the family to have a place to get to and stay that is not expensive, but can give each of them an element of peace and relaxation.  I live for my husband and my family.  Look at the picture - this is the most amazing group of people I know....

2.  Why "Manzanita"?  We were thinking of what to call our cabin, and when we saw the cool manzanita trees on the property, we knew what it needed to be called.  I think Jim liked the name because Manzanita used to be a mud racing track in Arizona that he liked... It's closed now, but the name is still really cool.  I personally liked the name "For Play"....that was my suggestion - Jim used his powers of veto and nixed that one.

3.  Why go Green?  We don't want to owe anybody when this project is completed.  We have decided to use and reuse a lot of the items going into construction, and I know Jim is going to expound on this issue in a little bit.  But, we've come to know Deseret Industries, Habitat for Humanity and several other reuseable product companies well.  We are living in a very tight economy, and using and reusing what's available is environmentally as well as economically friendly.  It may take us a little longer to finish construction, but, it's the journey that's the most fun.

Cheri

Something Funny I Forgot to Mention

If you remember from one of my earlier posts, we had looked at property with Jon Twit... one piece of property, Jim really liked, but Cheri wanted more....  Um... the property that we actually purchased, was half the property that Jon Twit showed us.... he didn't tell us that the other half of the property was for sale. 

Do you see the importance of a good realtor?

Carrying On.....

So, we are a little disappointed that we weren't able to buy the property, and we went through the whole winter a little on the nervous side.  Jim is putting together his ideas for a cabin - found out that his ideas and my ideas had some differences.  I realized that guys really think differently than girls do, bless their little pea pickin' hearts....  Let me give you an example:  We both decide that a loft is a fun idea, so Jim is working away on this CAD model designing a loft.  When he gets it done, he calls me in and has me take a look, and the first words out of my mouth are, "Where's the bathroom?"... His response is: "There's no bathroom in the loft.  You have to go downstairs."  Um... I think the blank stare on my face was all he needed to realize that we needed a redesign.  So, now that there's a bathroom in the loft, life is pretty good!

Springtime comes and Jim starts talking about taking a drive back down south to look for property.  We decide that we are not going to call a realtor ahead of time, we are just going to kind of wing it.  We make the drive, and we see a couple of properties that are reasonably interesting, make a couple of calls, and I swear, I have called some of the strangest people on the face of the earth.  In a real estate market that is really struggling, the answers from some of the realtors was, "I'm really busy today, can you come back next week,"..... "I can get back to you tomorrow".. We were shocked.

So, we drive into Duck Creek Village and pull into this one realty office.  We go inside and we tell one guy what we were interested in, and he tell us that he's really not interested in our business (I mean, what is with these people?) but, we should try Trophy Real Estate which is about a half a block away.  He said to talk to Cathy because she really knows her stuff.  Jim and I walk away really in shock that again, we have a realtor that doesn't want to sell real estate.  Strange.

So, we walk about a half a block away, and see the Trophy Real Estate sign, and walk in.   There's this lady in there, soooo pleasant, and a young boy sitting there... both are chatting and giggling.  Such a nice atmosphere.  We ask for Cathy, and the lady tells us that Cathy is on her way in, just wait a little and we'll be good to go.  So, we wait.  We find out that this lady that we are talking to is from CANADA!!!!! This is the first plus!  The young man, who was probably 12/13 years old, was delightful.  I was sold on the kid before the realtor came in.  This is the type of young man that ANY mother would be proud of... he was articulate and polite and engaging.  If my daughter wasn't 28, I'd have been trying to set these two up.  It comes out, that this young man is the realtor's son.  Waaaay impressed.  Now, this has really got my attention.  I am really picky when it comes to kids, and rude and bratty kids get no respect from me - such a reflection on the parents.  I know it shouldn't, but it does.  This kid is amazing.

About 10 minutes later, the realtor/Mom walks in.  She's this little cute thing, no bigger 'n a minute - but talk about being a firecracker!!! OH MY GOODNESS!  This woman packs a punch and means business!  She understands immediately what we want, understand our time frame, and we're in off to the races.  The only thing that really concerned me was this hat she had on... kind of different - but, she explains that it's Kentucky Derby day, so I now understand the whole deal with the hat. 

She has a piece of property in mind and wants to show us.  Turns out, this property used to belong to a couple that wanted to build a cabin, changed their minds and each got half the property.  Go figure, but, they don't want to build next to each other... So, it's up for sale.... The property is gorgeous... beautiful mature pine trees, some oak, and this amazing looking plant called Manzanita.. There's deer tracks, and who knows what other kind of tracks... we are in love. 

Cathy tells us what the sales price is.... considerably more than we want to pay.. but, we continue to talk.  She suggests that put in a bid, and see what the owners counter with.  We have to write two contracts and write it that one sale is contingent on the other sale...we want both pieces of property.  We write the contract, sign the paperwork, hand over an earnest money cheque, all in shock!  This whole process has taken no more than 2 hours.  I am not feeling particularly hopeful,

Now, the bid that Jim suggested was really outrageous - less than 1/4 of the asking price.  I was embarrassed when he suggested it, and shocked when the contract was written... I wasn't feeling hopeful. 

And do you remember the issue I had the previous fall with the big assed truck that Jon Twit had me getting in and out of... Cathy has an equally large vehicle.... I mean, really?  Thank goodness I only had to get in and out of it ONCE!  Is it in realtor's code for southern Utah that you have to have a HUGE vehicle that fat, middle aged chicks can't get in an out of?

Jim and I leave the contract with Cathy and we head back home. We are so impressed with this woman, and we feel confident that we are finally working with the right person.  Within 30 minutes, we get this call - the owner of the one piece of property (the man) accepted our offer!  WHAT?????  We were shocked.  A day later, another call from Cathy - the woman accepted our offer also... No counter offer, no negotiations, nothing.  We are so excited!

My advice:  If you need/want to purchase property in Southern Utah - call Cathy at Trophy Real Estate..... cbarsness@att.net - this woman packs a punch.

Lesson learned:  Miracles still happen.

Our journey continues......

The Design Process

How does an engineer design a cabin before the land is even purchased?  Well we started with ideas of what we wanted in this new living space.  I wanted a deck, Cheri wanted a kitchen worthy of Wolfgang Puck.  Well, not really, but she had very specific ideas that I had no idea of.  So to say the least as we found the land and it had a grade due to being on the side of a mountain and our joint ideas came together the design changed a lot over the past nine months.

Here is where we are; 9 Crestline Ave @37.530734,-112.420972

OK, OK so a map would be better than longitude and latitude.  That's next when I can figure out how to take a Google Map and paste it into a Blog entry.  Jim S.

A Year Ago.....

Jim and I started looking for property about a year ago.  We decided that we wanted to have a place in Southern Utah, but really didn't know where.  Jim contacted a Realtor - his name was Jon C.... let's leave it at that.  This guy talks repeatedly with Jim and we make the decision to drive down on a Saturday (it's about 2.5 hours away), meet with this guy and look at property.  He drives us all over Hell's Half Acre and shows us the most proposterous properties on the face of the earth...  Not to mention, we were in his truck - this big massive, lift kitted, red neck outfit - this fat chick all but had to pole vault to get into it.  It's when Jim asked me if he could help hoist me into the truck, I knew it was bad!  The only properties this twit would show us, was properties he had listed.  Get this, one of the properties, had a stream running through it - and it was only a 1/2 acre lot.  I guess we could have built a cabin with a mote, but, that's not quite what I had in mind.  He shows us one property that was really quite nice, but it wasn't really big enough.  Jim really liked it, Cheri wanted MORE. Then there was this other piece of property - Jim wasn't really keen on it, Cheri really liked it!  We discussed it over the drive home and decide to give Jon Twit a call and write up a contract.  Getting a hold of this guy was like pulling teeth.  When we finally get a hold of him, we tell him what we wanted and then wait, and wait, and wait.  He finally sends us the contract, and I don't know why I expected it to be correct, because it wasn't.  We call the guy, tell him what the problem is, and he "fixes" the problem and resends..  Now, exactly why did we call this guy in the first place....? Still wrong.  He finally gets the contract right, sends it to the owner, and the owner doesn't like the terms.  We wanted to put 50% of the cash down NOW, have the survey done, and the perc test done, and then pay the remaining 50%.  I turns out that the realtor doesn't tell the owner the whole story.  When the owner finally gets the whole story, he agrees, BUT, something interesting has happened..... it snowed.  Because it snowed, the perc test can't be done until springtime.  BUT, the realtor thinks that we should just buy the property and take out chances with the perc test.  This man is truly insane.....  If it doesn't pass the perc test, we are stuck with a piece of property that we can't put a septic system in....  Sorry, but my idea of roughing it is the Marriot with the window open, not a cabin with an outhouse in the back yard!  We walk away from the deal, convinced that we will wait until spring, and NOT use Jon Twit again...  Soooo disappointing.

In the Beginning.....

I started a new phase in my life, and it's turned out very differently than I anticipated.  My mother, Annie, was put in an assisted living center several months ago.  Her health was failing, and she needed the extra attention that only a trained professional could offer.  I started calling her a couple of times a week, but soon realized that I needed to make the calls, shorter, and considerably more frequent.  So, I now call her every evening at about 9:00 pm her time (7:00 pm my time) and we do a little tucking in.  My calls are short and sweet, but we both remember what we did during the day, and it seems to work for both of us! 

Several weeks ago, I was telling her about our newest project, which is building a cabin in Bryce Woodlands, in southern Utah.  And her comment was, "YOU HAVE THE MOST INTERESTING LIFE!" 

I didn't think I had the most interesting life, but she has so enjoyed hearing about all the things that we are doing.  Took her back many years ago, when she and my dad were building their first home in Port Credit, Ontario, Canada and then their 2nd home in Brampton.  She advised me to keep a record of everything that we were doing, that some day, we would look back and enjoy reliving those memories.   She reminded me about an incident, several years ago when we went to revisit the different houses that we had lived in.  The first house my dad built is still standing. We visited briefly with the owners and the gentleman said that the original building permit is still stapled to a 2 x 4 in the basement.  He said the name was "Kenneth Sprickerhoff" which was my father.  Made us smile just to know that this little part of our family history was still intact.

So, here goes with our blog.  I'm going to have to go back and recreate some of the events of the past several months, and then update when something new happens.

So, this is the beginning of our story... Jim's and my story...

Cheri