Thanks to our (still theoretical) wealth, my mind has been scurrying away into bright paths of, “What if we could build a house, instead of buying one?” I’m fairly sure it’s insane – $11,000 (even if we were able to sell the jewellery at its full price) is not going to make us the kind of people who can have any kind of house they want – but my capacity for logic is long gone.
Yesterday I was able to make a deposit into our bank account that means we’re slightly closer to being on track for our savings goal 2010 – without even allowing for the jewellery to make a profit. The remarkable thing is that I made that deposit from my income, rather than CJ’s. Generally once we buy groceries and petrol and pay our tithe, my income is gone. The power went to my head and I drew a house. I don’t mind saying that I love it.
The house faces North (very important in the Southern hemisphere), the laundry is close to the washing line (with a door outside), and both bathrooms have separate toilets (which will be handy when we have kids – and if/when either bathroom is used for food preparation). The kitchen, dining, and living are all open plan, but there’ll be an internal floor-to-ceiling curtain if we only want to heat one section. And an arched driveway, so almost no reversing, and plenty of room for friends’ cars.
The green section is (just) liveable while the rest of the house is getting built – and in the future it could be rented out (possibly to one of our children). There’s plans for future extension – a double garage linking to the laundry (so we don’t need to go outside to get to the car – what luxury!), and ultimately a two-storey hexagonal tower (the top room will be a sunroom – still North-facing, but with Western windows for sunsets – and basic kitchen plumbing below so that we can link it to the kids’ bathrooms and make it another flat in its own right).
I think bedsitters are the best thing ever – first you get to let your kids get used to independence without risk, and then once they’re long gone, you can use it as an ever-increasing retirement fund.
I have a completely plausible plan for making this happen, which I’ll express here with a simple picture (from hapfairy.co.uk):
In other news, Scott Westerfeld is an excellent author, and it turns out he’s also the kind of person I’d love to hang out with. Check out what he wrote in response to somebody whining about how unrealistic and shallow steampunk is. (I read the article he refers to, and that was precisely my reaction.)
http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/2010/11/genre-cooties/
“Leviathan” is great steampunk stuff, but very much the beginning of a series. The second book, “Behemoth” has just come out. CJ begged to buy it in hardcover, and as soon as our heads are financially above water, we will.
That costume is *terrible*.
Your house plan, however, is kind of awesome.
W: Thanks/sorry. My plan is either piracy, or beating up that too-clean fellow until he coughs up all his gold.
“if/when either bathroom is used for food preparation”.
I won’t ask…
I will however theorise that that picture is actually of Peter Pan after he grew up and finally accepted his destiny as Captain Hook’s successor.
Ben: For me, a sink and power points = a kitchen. I lived that way for years.
Loving the house! It’s MUCH more practical and plausible than ours 🙂 (designed by my wonderful husband, who has always wanted to live in a castle or a hobbit hole, so has gone for a sort of hybrid castle-hole).
Things are never as far-fetched as they appear once you actually sit down and think about them.
Steff: Someday I’ll write up plans for our underground lair (which I’ve always assumed looks like a castle above ground – what is the appeal of castle-holes, I wonder). We’ll need (among SO many other things) a staff member permanently on hand to re-tune the baby grand that comes up out of the floor at the press of a button.