::little house - a farm tour::

Tiny house.  Super small.  I am not kidding around.  OK - maybe if it was an apartment in New York it would be huge.  I get it - it could be worse.  But now lets refocus on the daily situation of living in this little place.  


I ADORE this place.  The land is amazing and the little house has grown on me.  Link here to read the story.  

Here are some stats-

Our house is 1700 square feet of livable space

We have a 300 square foot basement that goes through one sump pump a year and floods with at least 1-3 FEET of water every year.  It is unusable in every sense of the word.  Except for the unusually large newts that breed down there - which I am not sure who would want.  I have been in there less than 5 times in the past five years.  It falls into the domain "100% Josh's problem".

The girls technically share a room that is 11/12 feet.

The "grand master" is 11/11 feet.  Barely room to walk around the bed.  And no walk in closet or attached bath.  So calling it a master is really a joke.  But it is comfy and very quiet.  A perfect cave to sleep in.    

Max's room is 9 (yes I said 9)/11 feet 

(This is a picture of it when it was Lily's room)
It is very small, but he is still very small too. 

The rest of the house is made up of a gutted to the walls bathroom that still has a functional toilet, (If you don't mind the insulation falling out of the wall)  Which I find a little bit funny. 

a decently sized playroom,

That finally has enough sitting space

and great toy storage.

A closed off and blocked in kitchen that is just old enough to be a problem (think a cheap 1990 remodel), but a nice size.  

A disproportionally large laundry room for such a small house.

A cool but oddly shaped room that I have no idea what it was supposed to be but we use it as a art room and as a dinning room.  It has had many jobs over the years, but its current job has worked the best.  It has a 3/4 bath that we currently all use.  It is so small that all of us using it is just a little bit hilarious.  

A very large family room that is the saving grace of the house.  It was a two car garage but we made it into a family room over the years.  Now that is a lie - Josh finished it off to be his Dude Room, but as shortie after shortie kept coming around we slowly overtook his dude room to make it into our family room.

(I love that otter!  He used to be in my Dad's office and he held a sucker.)

The land -

16 acres of pure heaven

The house sits among 60 year old pine trees and wonderful hardwoods.  It looks so tiny from the front.

From the side it is a little bigger.  You can see the main house on the left and then the addition is in the middle and to the right.  Sorry about the phone pole in the picture but there is no ideal angle to shoot from on this side of the house.  

2.5 acres are fenced in for animal pasture space.  It is rolling and full of shade for them.

Sometimes they wish they could escape.

Sometimes we use the pasture for other stuff too.

The back 10 acres is a hay field that we got married in.  It is so pretty.  Full of butterflies and smells like fresh hay.  I love it back there.  Makes a great driving range too.

A perfect field for a little boy to pick flowers in.

We mow 4 acres of "lawn" around the house and trees.  

Next year I want to cut down on the amount of wasted lawn space and grow something wonderful like sunflowers.

We have a small pond that is really more of a wetland.   It is about 24 inches deep and FULL of snapping turtles.  But it really is a great wetland environment.  I call it our environmental contribution.  Josh calls it a mess.  See that tiny white thing in the middle.  That is my old dog swimming in the green sludge.  

Of course we have my little cottage garden.  

And two huge barns.  The one of the left is the animal barn.  The one of the right is Josh's barn.  

So that shows you the palette I am working with.  Most people see the house and say gentle things like, you have plenty of room to build on.  Which is true.   But I do not have the budget.  And even when I do I don't want to put all the equity that we have built up in this house into a huge stressful addition.

Plus - I really have grown to love this house and all its silliness.  It feels like my home.

I have been thinking about this house and farm and how it will meet the growing needs of this family in the future.  There are going to have to be some changes to make it work, but the shorties are still little.  (Some are not even here yet.)  So we have time.  And I am full of ideas.