I can’t wait for this to be my view every evening.
We knew we couldn’t have all the things we wanted on a small budget.
We had to let a few things go.
We also decided that some expenses were worth the extra cost.
Where we compromised:
The Office:
River is not getting a separate office. Sorry honey, it will be a table in the living area or a desk in the bedroom. It is possible that he may decide to use one of the rooms over the garage in the future.
Pretty Siding:
We really wanted to do a different siding. Vinyl was at the bottom of the list, but as the budget kept growing, something had to give. Vinyl is as low maintenance as it gets and low maintenance is very important to us.
I wanted board and batten siding. There were many options, all of them were expensive. We compromised with vinyl board and batten on the front of the house and vinyl clapboards on the sides and back of the house. The board and batten vinyl siding is twice as much as the clapboards, which is why we are only doing it on the front of the house.
Four Bedrooms:
Instead of four bedrooms in the house, we will have three. We expanded the living area above the garage so we have decided to eliminate the second floor of the house. The house just felt so huge and we don’t really want to pay taxes on all that extra space.
A separate space for creating:
When we eliminated the second floor on the house this space went away. We will have the space in the apartment, but I don’t think we will use it the same way we would have used the space upstairs in the house.
Number of Bathrooms:
The house will have one and a half bathrooms, not two. Since we expanded the living area over the garage, we reduced the sleeping area in the main house by eliminating the second floor and putting three bedrooms on the first floor instead, this eliminated the second full bathroom. The half bath will be in the laundry room by the front door. This does mean that I loose some pantry space, but a second toilet will be really nice to have IYKYK.
Where we chose to spend more money:
Metal Roofing:
We do not want to have to redo the roof in our lifetime. It is a time consuming job and it can be expensive if you have to hire someone. If we got an asphalt roof, the likelihood is that it would need replacing before we died. We did not want to compromise on this. Spending extra money now will save us more money and time in the future.
The Butcher Room:
The Butcher room in the garage is essential to me. River loves to hunt and we process the meat ourselves, however, butchering is a messy job and I don’t really want to have blood and fat all over my new kitchen (if you have ever processed your own meat, domestic or wild, you know what I mean). Having a space in the garage to hold all the butchering pots and bowls, grinder and packaging materials and a big sink to wash it all in is going to be awesome. We have had to make it a bit smaller to increase the size of the apartment entryway. This room will make River and I both happy as well as being available for friends and family to use. This dream was not something we wanted to compromise on.
The Apartment Over the Garage:
We made the apartment over the garage larger then we originally planned for.
Due to time constraints and wanting a livable space before September 2024, we have decided to build the house in phases.
We had not planned to finish the apartment right away, that was an expense we were going to save for a few years down the road. It has gone from a cozy one bedroom guest suite to a three bedroom apartment.
Increased the Size of the Apartment Entryway:
We made the entry way to the garage apartment larger in case we need to put in a stairway seat elevator for any reason.
Windows:
We went with the Marvin Essential Collection windows. This is definitely more expensive then other window options.
We decided to go with the Essential collection because they are fiberglass, which is 8 times stronger then vinyl. We are going with the ebony trim and have an ebony extension jam on the inside. One of our goals with this house is low maintenance. The fiberglass windows do not require any painting and the extension jams are waterproof so if a window gets left open a bit in the rain we will not get rot around the window nor will we have to climb ladders to paint trim, or ask anyone else to do it for us in the future.
The casement windows are designed so the outside can be washed from the inside. I could not do this on the casement windows at our old house. As we age we want the maintenance on the house to be as easy as possible AND take as little time as possible. Being able to wash the outside of the windows from inside the house means no ladders are needed outside to wash them, this is good for safety and it makes the task faster.
Radiant Floor Heat
We will be putting in radiant floor heat in the house and the apartment. Ease of cleaning came into play here. Cleaning baseboards is difficult, there are so many nooks and crannies, I didn’t like cleaning them at my old house and I don’t want to clean them here. The end goal here is to be able to just clean all the floors with a damp mop. We also had heat pumps at our old house and those require major cleaning every week to keep them dust free so mold doesn’t start to grow in them. This requires climbing on stools and I am not a fan of having to clean one of these for the long haul.
That being said, I don’t know what we are going to do about air conditioning here. I lived without air conditioning until about five years ago and it was fine. Now that I have had it, I think I will miss it a bit, the Maine summers have been getting hotter and wetter over the past several years and I am not a fan.
I’m sure there will be more compromises and more things we choose to spend extra money on as the journey continues, for now, this is where we are.
I am sad that we are using vinyl siding, I have also excepted that this is what our budget will allow AND be low maintenance.
What is something you have had to compromise about on in your building journey?
To read more about the first part of our house design process read this post.