What you want in life... recorded in CFC history

The workshop will be my first structure built. It will be pre-planned to be incorporated into the main structure as it grows. But initially this will be where I live while I build. It will be a two story structure with work space below and living space above. Later the living space will revert to storage, work, guest space, adaptable space. It will be nice to justify a nice cozy warm shop by building this as a comfortable living space while construction on the main structure is taking place. And then I will have a faaaat doghouse for which to stay in times when my wife should throw me out with the dogs

As it develops it must have room for later expansion to house a few+ vehicle's and to provide a grease pit and the accompanying maintenance tools etc. The wood, metal, ceramic etc shops must have room to depart this shop and be expanded to new mini-shops along the crescent of the south face (east to west or west to east all depending on which side is best for the greenhouse).

A vital tool for the building of this homestead will be the Beast.. a 1950's flatbed farm truck rebuilt by me (so I can repair it myself with bubblegum and bailing wire ) and converted to diesel electric hybrid. It must be engineered to run off of both commercial diesel and my own homebrew of horticulture and harvasting wastes. This beast must also have a Power Take Off unit for which I can run the portable sawmill, excavators, well diggers, tree lugging winches, etc etc. This monster of a truck must act as a portable powerplant to run the machines that I will need to construct my homestead and to transport my materials. I also envision this truck to later be equipped with a backpack (a traveling home away from home with all the creature comforts contained within) which can be fitted to the beast, and then removed as desired without permanently altering its work horse role.... flat bed, dumptruck, motorhome, wilderness powerplant and more this beast must be.

Before the dream of the Beast can be borne the Beauty must first rise from the ashes. The beauty is my 1968 VW Squareback which at time of this writing I am researching how to convert her into a hybrid utilizing her existing pancake motor for the rear wheel drive while installing electric for the front axle. Similar projects have been done on different vehicle's and I have fallen in love with the Beauty and I know she will eventually meet her Beast. I am at this time considering selling her pancake and instead installing a diesel powerplant so I can enjoy a fuller freedom of movement (the times now make me suspect of gasoline availability and affordability ~ even in my near future). And it would be very nice to be able to grow my own fuel if shite ever does completely hit the fan. And in any case it makes sense to run both the Beauty and the Beast on the same fuel to simplify the needs of the homestead. One aspect I am looking to now as relates to the Beasts future, is to design the Beauty to be towed by the Beast and act as generator for some of the Beasts electricity needs when driving the duo across country to sell my art or just to explore my grand and spacious country. Just as both the Beauty and the Beast will be engineered to act as their own generators of electric power, so to can the duo act in tandem with the Beast towing the Beauty who in turn then gives the Beast a boost when he needs it.

I will live in a house which I build upon a land for which I love. The house is to be built 2/3 into the side of a hill with a 3 story window wall facing south to capture the path of the sun. (electronically retractable louvers on the outside and the same for curtains in the inside along with damn good windows.) This window wall will be concave and will naturally need to be 'paned'. On the ground floor of the main structure, but outside it, will be an attached workshop and then garage on one side and greenhouse and gardening center on the other side. Both east and west will be planned for unexpected expansion. The structure is to be built concave so as the outside structures are not visible from the house, yet are assessable from the house. It will resemble a crescent shape if looking from above.

Within my home there will be a recessed living area directly across from the center of the window wall. In the very center of the window wall will be the stone fireplace and chimney from which will hang a grand mantle below a large media screen. This will be the only obstruction to the view. On either side of the recessed living room, separated by half walls with greenery growing atop, will be a slightly raised morning and evening roost where I can enjoy the sunrise and sunset to the fullest.

In the center and at the back of the main floor will be the kitchen. Would be nice to have a window here but due to the earthen wall the ground floor may be too deep into the hill from the northern side to justify tunneling a window. But the light from the window wall and the extra storage space achieved will make up for this deviation from my childhood normalcy of having a window above the sink. Strategically placed fiber optics in the northern wall will illuminate all shadowy corners of the north wall. The north wall to be a combination of white and bright stucco, hand sawn lumber (portable mill), and stone depending on the room. Kitchen to be stucco and the rooms on other side to be local wood specifically sawn for interest in pattern. One side of the kitchen dedicated as large pantry and household storage. The other as laundry, bathroom, shower and bath. Both these rooms are to be fully enclosed and seperate from the kitchen with the pantry being accessible through the kitchen (east or west ~ same side as greenhouse ~ depends on the horticulture need) and the bath area door facing the south towards the living area. [ N0 SQUARE DOORS ~ doors to be vertically straight on sides and rounded at top.] The top couple of feet of the bathing room wall to be comprised of 'glass bricks' to allow in natural light (not the smooth ones but the rough shaped ones which resemble hewn stone). And the bathing rooms northern wall to made of local river stone with 'waterfall' for shower and with ample room for a sitting bench. Tub to be separate and exterior walls to be of stone with pockets created to hold living greenery. A urinal carved of marble (or cheaper look alike) is essential! And toilette will be of a greater height than the short arsed ones that are the norm.

So.. the ground floor as split from north to south consists of roughly half livingroom with its center point being the apex of a concave centered by a massive stone fireplace with plume rising three stories; bordered on each side by breakfast and dinner nooks with table surfaces and storage for multi-purpose needs. Above the living room half(ish) of the ground floor there is nothing but sky. The window wall of the south side, above the living room has no floors to cut the brilliance of the sun. On the northside the kitchen is roofed by the floor of the master bedroom. Designs for the rooms to each side of that will vary upon bathroom placement etc balanced by the needs of those outer rooms (and projected needs) at time of building. The main thing on this second floor is that the massive master bed be centered in an alcove in the northern wall, and the facing south all the sleeper needs do is raise a head to view the beauty and openeness which is the southern window wall. This bed alcove will sit back many feet from the balcony and so the ground floor just outside the window wall will not be visible but most of the view will be. The ceiling of the second floor will be concave and rising to near the center point of the structure. There will be a starlight window towards the southern edge of the northern side of the second floor. The house is about to rise above the northen side of the hill here (but not quite, 'cept for the bubbled star light).

So.. looking from upon the structure from the northern side one can now see a hill of earth broken by a bubbled starlight and a hobbit door (which leads to the second floor). On the southern side one sees two stories of concave windows receding from the center (crescent like). Above all that is a circular stone tower which rises 1-2 stories from the northern (hill side), and which rises 3-4 (or more?) stories as viewed from the southern (window wall side). This observation, reading, praying, chilling tower will be encircled with windows for a 360 degree view. Initially this will be accessed by a spiral staircase directly in the center of the structure rising to meet the sleeping floor and the viewing floor. This staircase (and tower) will be supported by four main steel supports rising the height. They will be encircled with stone leaving an open space between the supports creating walk through space with an open center (ground floor). The stair case landings to the sleeping floor and the viewing floor will be accessed off the side of the stair case and not from the center. This must be designed and pre-planned so that as I and my still to be found wife grow old, we can install an elevator to access the upper floors. This will reduce the space of the viewing tower and so this space must be designed to allow for ample 'outer edge' space once the elevator is installed. Until that time this center space can be utilized as library, craft, etc space.

If I have children and we outgrow this space, then my young teenaged young'uns will build their own structures under my direction, but ideally with mostly their own creative design and definitely with them providing most of the labor. I very much look forward to this stage of my life. The sharing of my knowledge and the applied application of it with my children. But I may have aged to the point where finding a life mate to create children with may be passed by the time this even homestead begins.

I will live in a quite natural local where I can not view my neighbors from my home for the entirety of my life. I will have neighbors for whom I will rely on and they on me and for whom we can empower each other. But my land purchase must see to it that my land as viewed from from my viewing room, and for a good walking distance is managed by me as I see fit. Which is to say that I am free to live the balance of man and nature for which I so desperately seek. There is no comfort for me beyond this balance. And I have no trust in my fellows to throw my lot in with theirs on promises and expectations. Been there done that and don't think I will ever rely on that community reliant dream again. I seek to be a trade partner with my backcountry community. The tools I must have to build my home will be tools which others will need. The renting or sharing of my tools or my labor and experiance will be my asset to my fellow pioneers. And they most definitely will have things for which I can barter for from time to time (also been there done that). From this I can trade or simply share for the good of the whole. For the outside world, my art work will provide that which they can provide which I cannot provide for myself. I seek a balance with nature with no terms. And I must seek a balance with modern mankind but on my own terms. I seek to escape the grid yet pay my land and sales and business taxes and then trade as any sovereign citizen would. I seek the means to seek my existence with my own hands and seek to use my art to obtain that which my own hands cannot craft for me (land tax, medical and vehicle insurance, ground wheat, steel blanks, batteries, etc etc). I seek to be free. To be as free as I possibly can be.

Wish us luck Dave!