Buckle up and hang on, the roller coaster has left the gate….
Here is the latest house plan we are going with (about 1900 square feet) and the current site plan. The East side and 1/2 of the South side will have a wrap around covered porch (~8 feet wide) and the other portion of the South side by the kitchen/dining/great room will have a “patio area” of a slab or pavers of some sort about 10 feet wide. That side will also be 9 or 10 feet high rather than 8 to pick up additional solar through the windows.
The site plan has iterated from a road and 1/2 acre cleared to a road and 2++ acres cleared. We also will probably log an area of ~1/2 acre or so of mature alder trees and replant with alder, douglas fir or some other more desirable tree species than the predominate hemlocks. The extra clearing will hopefully allow enough sun in to make a PV array workable on the roof, getting us to a zero energy house that can produce more energy than it uses over a 12 month period.
We also plan to put the remaining +-9 acres into either open space or timber management to ensure it stays the same in the future, a house surrounded by natural NW coastal forest.
