Home, home on the range

The New Place -
About 4 miles down the road from the old place.


Floor Plan for the New House
(north - and front of the
house - is at the bottom of
the diagram, by the way.)

The gray areas are ceramic tile ... 16" tiles throughout the high traffic areas. The front of the house is a northern exposure ... not shown in the plan but evident in the photograph is a roughly 3' high wall around a small courtyard at the front entry, adjacent to the driveway. there's room for a table and a couple chairs - a great place for morning coffee with the newspaper.

Built in grill on the back patio.

My office off the living room has French doors. It has a built in "partners" desk with room enough for two people to work across the desk from each other without getting in each other's way. Along with the built in desk are built in book cases that will certainly come in handy.

The pool table is slated for the living room along with a conversation area (in what's labeled the dining area) ... sans TV. The TV goes in the family room and one alter to pop culture is enough for us.

I've lobbied successfully to put book cases in the living room conversation area provided I don't totally jam them up with books. My compromise is to put our growing collection of Southwestern pottery in the upper shelves ... out of the reach of the cats.

Candy gets BRs 2 and 3 plus the casita (with bath) at the front of the house, basically the North wing. Normally, the casita is used as guest quarters and is separate from the house. This unit was the model for the site. The casita was used as the sales office and it was connected to the main house with a doorway - which explains the $300+ fire door with deadbolt between the casita and the house.

The fireplace in the family room of this 2,300+ s.f. home is one of several upgrades.

Not shown is a doorway from the second bath to the side yard. At one point, someone had the idea of putting a pool on the property (there's certainly room) and the door would have allowed for a shower and changing area. Candy and I are considering putting in a resistance pool ... one of those narrow thigees with a current that lets you swim upstream for great distances without going anywhere at all. My vote is for a wading pool .... but I think it's probably a battle I can't win. Also not shown in the diagram is a sliding glass door from the family room out to the back patio.

Candy and I are currently fighting over where things will go, what furniture needs to be replaced with new stuff and what to trash.

Closing is scheduled for August 20th. We're shooting to close on our current house (provided we can find a buyer) a week or two later. I don't mind owning two houses for a little while, but I don't want to make a habit of it.