Our First House...Finished (24x32 Two-Story)

[sjdehner]

Hello!

If anyone's interested in seeing some interior pictures of our 24x32 house in Maine they can be viewed here:

http://finehomebuilding.taunton.com/item/7584/our-first-housefinished

Jamie & Shawn

[Bishopknight]

The closet and bookshelf is my favorite. I'd like to do something like that as well. The stained wood panel ceilings look beautiful too. 

[germangirl]

What issue of Fine Home Building is your home in?  Did you make up the cabinet plans yourself? We love them and thought that may be a soulution to our cramped bathroom that our three sons share , (building our own cabinet). Beautiful home!
-Liesl

[Sassy]

   Super nice!  Isn't it a bit hard to give it up after all that work?

[sjdehner]

Hello There.

Our house was featured in Fine Homebuilding online back in February of this year and we were added to the website's "pro" e-Letter. The editor took a liking to us which was neat. The magazine was generous enough to give us front page status for about six weeks.

It was truly exciting to see our house in pictures after so much hard work!

The plan we built was inspired by the Universal Cottage created by John Raabe. Granted the plan was altered substantially. But his plans are designed for easy modification and were definitely what allowed us to visualize just how a house of this type could be built properly.

The floor plan itself is actually based on a traditional New England design, which is typically a ballooned (or post & beam) 1 1/2-story house called, appropriately, a "New Englander."

Sassy: As for selling off the hard work, well, the idea did take some getting used to at first. We miss our home in the Pacific Northwest, the geography, our family and friends, the climate (the gardening season is PAINFULLY short in Maine) so that eventually sunk in well enough to keep us motivated.

At this point, we have few (if any) regrets and we are thrilled about the prospect of returning home and building again - this time on a smaller scale. If we can do it once we can do it again - and this next time we'll have some experience as a tool.

I say smaller...perhaps 1000 SF or less. This house here in Maine has roughly 1675 SF of heated "living space" (plus nearly 400 SF of finished attic AND 750 SF of partially finished/insulated daylight basement), This to us is extremely spacious. Too big in fact for people who have virtually no furniture (a dining table, two chairs and a bed). But here on the East coast this is considered a rather small house.

While one finds absurdities and wisdom in all places, the East and West coasts in general have a deeply different consciousness. And we'll be delighted to move back to the West coast as soon as reasonably possible.

In fact, our house went on the market yesterday!

Thanks for the kind comments, it's been an education and a great deal of fun these past 21 months.

Shawn & Jamie

P.S. Yes, we designed and built all the cabinetry in the house. They were actually easy to build using a Kreg pocket-hole jig and they take up space that would not otherwise be used for the most part (like the little corner closets). Also, building them with solid wood was nice since we could avoid the formaldehyde in plywood. We think plywood has its use (structurally for sure) but not as furniture.

Good luck with your own designs.

[Bishopknight]

Best of luck selling. 

[John Raabe]

Shawn & Jamie:

Thanks for sharing your project and letting us go long for the ride! Your work will inspire others.