Beginnings
It all started in the middle of 2000, when I began looking for available lots to build upon. Initially, I was looking for a pristine lot - one that had no existing structures on it - to place a solar powered house. The lots I found were either too small for what I had in mind, too large (so the taxes would be prohibitive), in a terrible location, or could not be easily built up. So, it was time to change tactics and start looking at lots that had pre-existing buildings on them. Eventually, I found a suitable lot. It would take some work to get it to appear the way I imagined it, but it would get there in time. By then, I had already located an architectural firm, and we were starting to design the residence in earnest. I had purchased a great book called " Your New House: The Alert Consumer's Guide to Buying and Building a Quality Home " by Alan & Denise Fields. This book can scare the proverbial crap out of you as it prepares you for some of the disasters that may be lying in wait. Having studied this tome, I felt I was ready to shoot the dice, and get my head examined.

Close Your Eyes And Roll The Dice
The property is part of a former dairy farm covering 15 acres (the original farm covered well over 90 acres). Most of the farm had been sold off to a non-profit organization as conservation land, so the lot I was purchasing was essentially in the midst of protected land. There were quite a few buildings on the property: a two story house , a large cow barn, a metal storage building, a dilapidated garage, three equally distressed chicken coops (barely visible in the background here ), a stone barn with a rickety lean-to attached, and several large metal trailers with lots of scattered junk . Some of the buildings were about 100 years old, but all were in a really sorry state or only held up by force of habit - or in the case of one of the chicken coops - by the overgrown brush . Surprisingly, I must have been one of the few people who could look past the overgrowth and mounds of debris, and see the place for what it could really be. It was time to take a chance. Too many lots had disappeared into developer's hands, and if I waited it would be hard to find anything else like this. I made an offer and it was accepted. I would officially become a landowner (with all of the associated headaches) in February of 2001.

"It'd Be Easier To Use Napalm"
The next part - the clean-up and salvage - then began. Upon seeing photos of just how much debris was on the site and how much brush would have to be cleared, a co-worker commented that instead of hauling everything off, I should call the National Guard and have them use the place for target practice. That off-the-cuff comment coincided with a news story in a local newspaper about the local fire department's training program. The story went on about how difficult it was for the departments to locate buildings to train in, as no one wants to burn down their house - well, almost no one. Quicker than you can say "accelerant," I was on the phone to the local fire chief. Since I was going to knock the buildings down anyway, would the department be interested in using them for training purposes? I received a very emphatic "yes!" This would be a win-win situation; the department would be able to get some buildings to train on, and in return they'd be burning the place down - thereby reducing the weight of the material I was going to haul off. At least, that was the plan. If I got the buildings taken down quickly enough, I'd even save a little money on the property taxes. Everybody was happy. Well, not quite everyone.

Burn, Baby, Burn
In order to get the town involved, I also had to contact the state DEM (Department of Environmental Management), who insisted that a few things be done - namely the removal of the asbestos siding, and the asphalt roof shingles - before things went up in a fireball. In the meantime, I had stripped the house of anything useful (like cabinets, molding, some original doors) while the fire department was conducting fairly regular training sessions utilizing some really neat tools . Some of the exercises involved repelling out of a window in full gear safely (easier said then done), installing holes in the roof of the barn , and practicing in a smoke filled house. Things got a little more interesting than intended one day when a "small" fire that had been set got away from the firefighters. It got into the wall and quickly raced into the attic. The Chief was not amused, and ordered it doused immediately. Luckily, I had already removed everything from the house that I had wanted to salvage. The aftermath was amazing. I did not think that so much damage could be done by water and smoke alone. That's soot on the walls - they weren't always that black (proof of this is a soot-coated spider web )! Anyway, by this point, most of the loose debris had been hauled off the property. While all this was going on, I was busy refining the house design and starting to play lumberjack. Eventually, all the buildings had been leveled , and the piles from the coops, garage, and barn were either torched, or buried. The debris from the house was either hauled off or buried as well.

Grouse Point Blank
Not quite realizing just how much work was going to be involved in getting the new house site ready, I thought I could just buy a chain saw and wood chipper, and start clearing. Silly me. First I had to cut down all the briar bushes before I could even get to the trees. Granted, when I had soils and perc tests conducted, a path was essentially made for me courtesy of a backhoe, but I still had a lot of picky bushes to get through. By this point, I had started to see quite a bit of the local wildlife. It would have been so much easier if I could enlist their aid, but they seemed uninterested - for the most part. My most shocking moment came when I went up to the site, with chain saw in hand, and encountered a grouse . I thought "as soon as I fire this thing up, that bird is gone!" Much to my surprise, it actually started to follow me around, keeping within a few feet of me. I cut down a cedar tree, and as I trimmed the branches off of it, the grouse jumped up on the log and followed. I cut down a few more trees, and the grouse followed. As I cut down one cedar, it got tangled in the branches of a nearby oak. I climbed the oak to cut the branch which was preventing the cedar from dropping, and lo and behold, I had company on the limb. The bird then jumped onto the branch I was attempting to cut. "Bad choice," said I. But then, with a loud flutter, I felt something land on my hand which was keeping me steady in the tree - it was my avian friend standing nonchalantly on my fingers. I finished cutting the cedar free and continued to work with my buddy in close proximity. The following day, I was cutting some saplings, and the grouse was back. As I stacked the saplings in a pile, the grouse leapt off the ground and landed on the branch I was holding. Trying not to spook the bird, I slowly leaned over to gently lay the branch down. There was an explosion of feathers in my face, and before I knew it, I had a bird perched upon my shoulder - pirate style. For several more days the bird would find me and follow me around, often hopping onto my knee when I sat down for a break. Once the heavy equipment began to arrive, the bird appeared less and less. Before long the bird disappeared, not to be seen until the following fall.  By then construction was well underway, and the work crews found it highly amusing to see my little friend following me around the site.  A little research has indicated that this behavior, while certainly strange, is not unheard of.  There have actually been documented cases of birds being perched on top of tractors while the farmers operate them!

Nearly There
It had taken a while -  the better part of a year in fact - to get the site for the new house cleared.  A good friend provided assistance with a chainsaw, and my father helped with chipping the numerous brush piles.   By the time we were finished, it was hard to believe that this was the same place that looked like this four months earlier!

While all of the little details were being readied to commence construction, and before demolition of the original buildings took place in earnest, I took on another project.  I had wanted to reuse the front door from the original house in the new construction.  It was a 100 year old mahogany door with the old style of beveled glass - you could see small bubbles and imperfections in the glass.  The door had a lot of paint that had accumulated on it over the years, and it was going to take a lot of work to strip it down by hand.  Unfortunately, before I could remove the door to begin work on it, some uninvited individuals appeared one night and broke every window in the old house - including the front door.  So, trying to make the best out of a given situation, I tracked down a local artist who specializes in stained glass, and commissioned her to create a replacement window.  After the better part of two months of scraping, sanding, patching, sealing, and painting, the door was ready for use in the new house.

The Final Junk Tally
Once the last of the debris was hauled off, I made a quick mental list of what was now missing:
- nine 45 foot trash dumpsters - literally packed so tightly the sides were visibly bulging
- one dumpster full of nasty asbestos siding
- nine large metal trailers
- two very large propane tanks
- eight commercial type propane tanks
- several truck loads of used, bald tires
- several large non-functional appliances (Philco refrigerators?!)
- several truck loads of scrap metal
- one replacement tire for the wood chipper
- three bottles of poison ivy treatment
- an undetermined quantity of charcoal and ash from the fires was interred at the site along with numerous tree stumps which were cleared from the new house site

A House is Born
Finally, by the spring of 2003, I had all the paperwork in order and the contractors lined up. The plans are complete, and construction can now start! Here are smaller versions of the plans, rather than providing the enormously detailed package:

The basement - this includes all the mechanical space; the large water tank, batteries, main board, etc.
The 1st floor plan - the primary living space; kitchen, dining room, family room, great room, laundry room, etc.
The 2nd floor plan - the "private" areas; the bedrooms, library, and control room for the observatory
North and east elevations
South and west elevations

Click on the Construction History icon below to see how the house came together.