Here’s August 2007…

50 Fresh & Juicy Slices of Offbeat Home Decor – this post is maybe the most popular post I’ve ever posted, at any blog, ever. What makes this post unique, is that along with my readers, I like it too. Usually I think a post should be popular, and it’s not, or my readers here LOVE a post that totally surprises me. This post makes everyone happy. And it’s cool.

HGTV Design Star Contestant Josh Johnson (”Sparkle Josh”) Chats with Offbeat Homes! – Josh was so nice; it really surprised me; I guess I misjudge people on TV, or, at least some of them. Plus I was way obsessed with Design Star season two, so this was a fun post to write.

10 Reasons Why Building Your Own House Sucks – I finally got this rant out of my system.

Treehouse Bling – if you don’t like treehouse bling, I wonder about you. Really. Treehouses rock. Even the overly expensive ones.

Which of these August finds was your favorite?

Post from: Blisstree

The Best of Offbeat Homes: August 2007

1. You feel extremely strong: Home building pushes you to the limits of what you can accomplish in a purely physical sense. I had no idea that I could shimmy around a roof three stories up while carrying wood or that I could walk around a lot with a bag of heavy tools hefted over my arm. No clue. Honestly, I’m not the strong type in a physical sense. I was a thin kid; never played sports, and although I like hiking and skating I’ve never pushed myself much physically. House building pushed me. If you’re not strong you can fall off a roof, drop items of importance and fail to hold up your end of the scaffolding. I held up against my partner who was a soccer player and very physically strong and that made me feel amazon-like. Go me!

2. You will learn from doing: I was always into design and building but you can read about building techniques all year long; it’s only when you actually have to put the techniques into action that you get a real feel for what can and should be accomplished in building practices. You also learn quickly which book-learned skills pan out and which were bogus to begin with.

3. You get to create something from scratch: This applies even more if you design and build. I did not design this house but my partner did so I had a lot of say in what went on and got to watch the blueprint portion of home building in action. Anyone can buy a house. A house you build will hopefully be uniquely you. A home you create from the ground up will reflect your decisions both good and bad and there will never be another one quite like it on the entire planet.

4. What you learn from mistakes is invaluable: Number 3 (above) brings up the decisions you make. Some of these decisions may be crazy stupid but the good part is you will never, ever make the same mistakes twice. I joke about hating house building but really I wouldn’t mind eventually building again. If and when I do build again you can bet that this house will rock because I’d never make the same mistakes that we did on the first house. These include things like making sure you work with someone who can plan well, actually hiring help as opposed to doing all the work yourself, and applying better green building techniques.

Our original plan was to use more eco-friendly building techniques but some of them got pushed aside because of time, money, and permits. If I build again I will line all this up before hand. I’ll know which time of year to rent machinery and how to get the best deal on roofing supplies. I’ll know how I want the layout to sit. This is stuff you can learn from research true; but you will learn it better by going through the actual process.

Below is the dining area with lots of windows looking out towards the trees and the master patio from the inside. I don’t like the white doors but I didn’t pick them so… 

5. You gain handy lifelong skills: I could barely hammer a nail when we started the house. Now you would not believe the things I can fix, the tools I can use, and the things I know about home building. Hands on will gain you skills you won’t forget and can use for other things. You can use your skills to volunteer, speak at schools, and help out with community projects. Of course I blog for a living but my partner was able to turn his gained skills from the house building experience into job offers — so home building could even land you work.

6. You can impress people: I’ve had people tell me that they loved aspects of the house which is cool but the best person I impressed was my son Cedar. For some reason he’s really confused about my work. Cedar usually tells people I fix computers, do homework for a living, or that I’m a scientist. I have a science degree and lots of science books — which may be where that last theory comes from. In any case Cedar is mildly excited with my science knowledge but could care less about my real job (writing / blogging). He’s very impressed that his dad builds houses and when I got involved with the house building he got a little impressed with me too; which is cool. House building also makes excellent dinner party conversation if you happen to hang with builder types.

7. House building is great for kids: Obviously if you don’t have kids you won’t care. If you do have kids they will love the whole process. Cedar spent long days at the house site. We let him nail boards, carry items, paint, and clear land. He always wanted to help. House building involves all kinds of topics; eco-topics, math, science, writing, art, colors, accounting and more. Cedar learned bits of all of these topics and he applies what he learned. He’ll discuss aspects of real building when using blocks and when drawing; which is so adorable but also really clever of him. It’s also a great experience because you get to spend lots of time with your kids if they go on site with you.

8. You can save and make money: This really depends. On the positive side we got our land super cheap, did most of the work ourselves or bartered for help, built in a choice area, and were able to choose cost effective materials. The negatives were that we went WAY over our original time line and failed to plan which ran costs up again. One issue that’s important to consider is typical size when you build. We built small because we don’t believe in taking a lot of space from the land. However, in order to sell we should have built a little bigger. We like small and can live with that –not all buyers are willing to give up space. Overall though building can be a cheaper option than buying assuming you do a lot of the work yourself.

9. You can make an eco-difference: You can renovate green or build green. I’m not sure which I think is the better eco-choice. Part of me thinks renovation because there’s often fewer materials used but building can be good too especially if you snag a good plot of land and build on very little of it. I like the idea of preserving space. The land we bought was being targeted for a few home plots which would have destroyed almost all the vegetation on it. Since we bought all the plots and built small we were able to transfer trees and conserve most of the area. Your choices of materials and energy solutions can make a difference in the long run as well.

The view. 

10. It’s fun: It took me a bit to think of a number 10. Sometimes it is fun. you can take a group of friends out and chat while you paint or go have a sleep over in the unfinished rooms. Depending on where you build you can see and enjoy wildlife like deer, birds, and snakes. (NOT spiders). We built high on a mountain and got to watch the fireworks on the fourth of July from the site. You get to have fun choosing paint and tiles. Sometimes I’d just lay on the unfinished patio; look at the view and relax. It can be a good time.

Now, have you built your own house? What were some of the positives and negatives. What would you do differently?

Post from: Blisstree

10 Reasons Why Building Your Own House Rocks

My then partner designed it and it’s nice but not entirely green built. If I build again I’ll be doing some things very differently.

My buddy Deb over at Simply Thrifty inspired me to write a list post (her posts were so clever, check them out): Post 1 and Post 2.

I was thinking that since I’m showing the house, I’d cover why you should never, ever, consider building your own house.

1. SPIDERS! Big ones, little ones, and all of them wicked scary. Not to mention we built up on a mountain in New Mexico so you just know there were tarantulas around. In fact, a friend of mine who lived on a plot of land down the road caught one. Shiver.

2. It’s the slowest process known to man. Does it have to be? Why, no and maybe someday I’ll tell you how to cut building time. But in this case it’s just going to stand alone as a negative.

3. Clearing and leveling: What you may not know if you’ve never built a house is that you have to move all the trees (obviously) but you also have to make sure your land is flat and free of rocks for the foundation. We had no idea going in that rocks the size of boulders hidden in the earth would be such a problem.

Here’s the house when we started.

This isn’t even entirely accurate because it was a plot of empty land for about half a year before this. I just don’t have a picture.

4. Hidden costs: There are maybe 618 hidden costs when you build your own house. Is that number accurate? I can’t say for sure but it does feel like I estimated a little low. We got the land (an amazing plot — on a mountain top, acres of land, tons of trees, and views) for a song. So in theory it may have been inexpensive. If however you fail to plan ahead, hidden costs will get you.

Which brings me to…

5. Unorganized people don’t know what they’re doing when. Is my ex good at designing and building? Yes quite. Is he good at planning ahead and organizing? Never. This is a reason that only applies to those who can’t organize. If you aren’t organized please, please hire someone who is to do all the planning for your house. We constantly fell behind schedule because something was forgotten or not taken care of when it should have been.

Here’s the house in 2006 (maybe 1/2 year after the first picture).

6. No bathroom: I do not want to pee outside with the scary spiders. Nope I don’t. The house isn’t out in the middle of nowhere but to get to a bathroom you do have to drive. If you can afford it you could rent a port-a-potty I suppose but that just means you’re in a small dark space with the spiders — also not appealing to me.

7. Your hands go to hell: You can wear gloves. In fact I hear that’s a popular choice among home builders. But I don’t like them. I always felt like I wasn’t sure where my hand was exactly and it feels slippery. When you’re three and four stories up on scaffolding the last thing you need is to slip. I like going bare handed. But my hands were a mess. Lotion doesn’t help, loofahs don’t help. You know what helps; the end of said house building.

8. Child labor: It’s against the law and sad to see! Just kidding. I felt like I’ve complained enough for a few minutes so here are some cute kid pictures. My son Cedar and his best friend Johanna.

First we made them pick that whole pile of wood up. Actually, you can’t tell but they’re building their own house. It was a lot worse than ours but they did finish in record time.

Then we made them paint the whole house. Later we realized that they weren’t very good painters and we had to let them go.

9. Weather extremes: It’s New Mexico. There’s no a gentle spring or a crisp fall. There are basically three weather patterns in Edgewood, NM. Boiling hot, freezing cold, or windy enough to blow a car away. The wind will occur in both hot or cold weather.

And now we’re at the two year marker. Yes, two years…

Here’s the front view.

Back view

10. You can almost go blind: On the roof! Remember the afore mentioned wind that will blow a car away. We were on a deadline and decided that even though we were having heavy winds we’d go ahead and get the roof papered. In retrospect; bad, bad idea. One, we were all alone that day — just me and the old partner. Two our ladder was sketchy so we were using the rafters of the second floor to climb up to the roof.

If one of would have fallen that would have sucked. However we manged between the two of us to get the roof mostly (80%) done. In the late afternoon our work came to a screeching halt when a huge gust of wind blows sand completely under my goggles (great safety goggles) and into my eyes.

Oh my gosh. The pain was insane. Plus, I’m on a flipping roof. I can see out of one eye so I manage to shimmy down the rafters and luckily I survived. But it was one of the least fun times ever.
A really poor picture of the finished product.

I can’t find the others end result or interior pictures right now. They are not in my personal collection because I got so tired of the house not getting done that I moved to Orgeon thus was not there to take the pictures.

When I do find them, I’ll be back with 10 reasons why building your own house rocks. Yup there are a few reasons. But it won’t have anything to do with spiders.

So, are you all geared up to build now or what!

Post from: Blisstree

10 Reasons Why Building Your Own House Sucks