The day has finally come, I believe. We are taking full posession of our new house. Yesterday, I went down and had the electricity turned on, but it will be a week or two yet, I think, before we turn the water on. At this stage of the game, there's really no need for it. The pipes are already drained to keep them from freezing, so the longer we can wait, the better off we'll be. Of course, when the time comes to start scrubbing and painting, etc..we'll have to rethink that plan.
This past weekend, we made the long shlep up the driveway to survey our kingdom with a critical eye. Along the way, Keith and Irb made mental notes on problems with the existing driveway, and we decided that, rather than put new scars on the land, we'll just rework what's already there. Keith thinks we can do that with minimal headaches, and still have a functional driveway, and I'm all for that plan. The path the driveway is in is beautiful. It's just way too freaking steep for sane people to navigate. Not saying we're sane, mind you....but we don't even have a vehicle that can make it up at all, much less on a reliable, consistant basis. 
Fortunately, Keith has his handy-dandy backhoe already in place, and he knows how to use it. So functional, we will be. That, by necessity, will be the first order of business.Once we got to the house itself, we turned our attention to various layouts we'd been mulling over for adding a new master suite and expanding the existing galley kitchen into a gourmet chef's dream. What we decided on, though, was a compromise that we both feel is more in keeping with our goals, and far more in line with our virtually nonexistant budget.
You see....Keith and I are not planning on taking out any loans to do any of this work, just as we have not taken out any loans (yet) to build his shop. That day may be coming, but for now, it's strictly a pay-as-you-go arrangement, with Keith, his dad, and Irb doing all the work themselves. You'd be amazed how far you can go with very little money. The drawback is that it takes longer to complete....but if you're as determined as we are not to accrue any more bills, you make it happen. Of course it would be awesome to just have the money in hand to go ahead and get it all done yesterday, but when you're working as a temporary employee that is not guaranteed their job past the end of the fiscal year, it's just not worth losing everything from impatience. So....we make do with our little camper....and we thank God every day for providing a roof over our heads while we work diligently to realize our dream.
Back to our compromise...
As we stood in the living room, gazing up at our little loft (which we had planned to use as an office space), it occurred to us that it was the best spot in the house, view-wise. From a seat (or bed) in the loft, you almost have a complete 180-degree view of the Holston Mountain range. And by expanding the floor out to the wall above the existing kitchen, it would give us enough area to create a small bathroom, complete with shower, which will be pretty close to perfect for us. The trade-off? We will lose the exposed beams above the kitchen....but only in that spot, because once we knock out that wall, the existing kitchen area will become an island for food prep and seating, that will adjoin the living area nicely. We can still keep the roofline high enough above the new kitchen area to have exposed beams if we still want them...and honestly, I do, because it would really keep the cabin ambiance flowing. It also means we'd get to keep and even expand the existing decking outside the main entrance, which I love the idea of. And the living room is plenty large enough to handle a small desk, which is all we really need in the way of office space, anyway.
The existing bathroom, we will also keep intact, but remodel to update a wee bit. The existing bedroom, we will do the same. The laundry area will be moved downstairs, and the entry door reworked to give more wall space to the living room. We'll just move the door around the corner into the kitchen area, and rework the laundry to be a large linen closet area that you will have to walk through to access the bathroom...which you have to do anyway.
The living room wall will be bumped out to add a huge rock fireplace, which will be the focal point of the whole house. And the downstairs will be finished to accommodate all the mechanical stuff, the laundry area, and a den-type space for the guys to retreat to, when I shoo them out of the house to clean.
All in all, a better...more consolidated, and more realistic plan, that will still accomplish all our needs. We have never wanted a large house...we want a cozy one, with a large kitchen we can both get into without getting in each other's way. 
So the kitchen and the fireplace will be our main focuses, especially the kitchen, which will need to be completed first. No...I won't get all the bells and whistles right off the bat. But as things need replacing, I will get them. And that's ok with me. I'll just be happy to be able to open a cabinet without the entire contents of my current kitchen falling on my head. As we go through this process, I will take and post pics so that you can see the progress. As a start, I have taken quite a few of the house in its current condition...the 'before' pics, if you will. But since I can't post them all at once, I'll save some for another post. The ones I've posted here are of the outside, and a small part of the existing basement...the mechanical part.
I'm very excited to be documenting this, to have as a record for the future. And if you're reading this, then hopefully, you will join us for the journey. We're very excited to get started!
