On New Years day, I had a meeting/presentation with the deciders at Pickards Mountain. It went really well; they seemed genuinely excited about the look and feel of my cottage concept, and we walked the land and decided on a site (which was, thankfully, the site I had my heart set on). We also came to a conclusion about who the space should be designed for. Rather than having it serve as a home for transient visitors - as was the original intention - it will instead be the more permanent residence of the "garden caretaker." Right now, that is Margaret, and she intends to stay for a good while. I'm looking forward to this, because I'll be designing the space around a person that I know well and will be interacting with on a daily basis. We can throw ideas back and forth, and she can be my feedback oracle. It's always more satisfying to design something that is specific, as opposed to general.
I biked to the mountain this weekend, in order to start working the site.
This is what the site looks like from a bit of distance down the hill.
Starting to clear the site.
What it looks like when I left on Sunday. The evergreens around the cleared site are a dream come true: three on the West side (far right in the photo) to block hot evening sun; one on the north side to block wind; and one on the East side to keep the bed space (intended to be on this side of the house) cool during the hot summers. Of course, right now they won't do much because they're young and puny. But this works to my advantage, because if they were much bigger now, they'd just be in my way.
The next step is to figure out the dimensions of the building more clearly, and then stake out the shape of the walls, and do some earth-moving to level the appropriate surfaces.
This is what the site looks like from a bit of distance down the hill.
Starting to clear the site.
What it looks like when I left on Sunday. The evergreens around the cleared site are a dream come true: three on the West side (far right in the photo) to block hot evening sun; one on the north side to block wind; and one on the East side to keep the bed space (intended to be on this side of the house) cool during the hot summers. Of course, right now they won't do much because they're young and puny. But this works to my advantage, because if they were much bigger now, they'd just be in my way.
2 comments:
yay! I'm so glad your plans are working out!
brother is proud. my heart pines to lend you a hand..perhaps i will be there for project two: the artist's dwelling. keep me posted.
"if you can't throw big, throw home"
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