Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Modesty Becometh

Rye Close...  closer: click image
Shocked by the current square foot construction costs, and determined to downsize anyway (with hopes of de-accessioning and dreams of a return to minimalism), we took another look at a Sonoma County house we liked (minus the vineyards). The house was a continuous roof, with two unequally-sized pavilions connected by an open, but covered, deck. But our climate is considerably less benign, so in order to consolidate all plumbing, and to reflect the fact that we will mainly use the house on weekends, we made a private pavilion with kitchen, bath, bedroom and dining/sitting area and a public pavilion that is essentially One. Big. Room. The small or public space will have a wood stove, the requisite views, and secondary heating via electrical units (yes, electrical). The roof will be again a shed or single-slope roof, sloping to the north (following the slope of the hillside immediately beyond). That troubling electricity will be supplied by roof or ridge-mounted wind turbines mounted like gargoyles. Check out the turbines here.

2 comments:

Tinky said...

I know this is probably NOT what you want to think about right now, but you can always add on later! I know you didn't like those propane thingees, but if you're going to be away a lot they do have advantages over electricity. Just my two (maybe four) cents' worth.......

flâneur du pays said...

Tinky: you're right in suggesting propane - I should have mentioned the main pavilion (the one with the plumbing) will be heated by propane-fired radiant heating. Only the "big room" will have the auxiliary electric heating. And you guessed correctly - the underlining motive here is to be able to easily add on to the house as our needs become apparent and our funds become more apparent. Ideally this will become the guest house, or perhaps Tinky's home away from home. Wait - there's no jetted bath tub!