The first news is that the closing for the land is officially behind us. I assumed that we’d only have a few papers to sign since there’s no bank involved, but we hit 58 pages! Most of the bulk surrounded the subdivision, but there were some additional clauses due to the riverfront. Those include the county’s permanent right of way that extends 30′ from the edge of the river, and the riparian rights paragraphs explaining that we’re not allowed to take all of the river water from our downstream neighbors.

We’re currently iterating the floor plan, but it’s mostly baked at this point. The general layout is set (for today), we’re just nailing down windows and the layout of the kitchen and bathrooms.

The house will be 36′ wide and 28′ deep. It will have a full basement with a bathroom, 1 bedroom and a full bath on the main floor, and 1 bedroom with a full bath on the second floor. There will also be a small (10’x9′) loft on the second floor. Excluding the basement and small attic space, we’re at 1,412 square feet.

You can see the general layout below. Both of the bedrooms are fairly large; 14’x16′ on the first floor and 14’x15′ on the second floor. The great room is about 18×18. The kitchen and the dining area are both about 10’x10′.

Outside, there’s a small front porch, and a large covered side porch with an outdoor fireplace that is accessible through french doors from inside and a deck from the outside.

The orange highlights below are changes I made on the latest version. Closet and bathroom configurations are causing the holdup now, particularly downstairs. Initially, we did not want access to the bathroom from outside of the bedroom (with a bathroom for each bedroom, not sure it’s necessary), but then we changed our mind, so we’re working on the best way to do that. The configuration below is definitely not the answer, but  it at least has the pieces we need. The first floor bathroom won’t have a tub, just a walk-in shower. There will be a tub/shower in the upstairs bath. The original plan had a jacuzzi tub downstairs, but that’s been axed. The majority (ok, the great majority, say 90%) of houses in the area have outdoor hut tubs, so I feel it would be redundant. That money would go farther elsewhere.

As you can see, we’re still at the rough pencil (+blue pen and orange highlighter) phase!