Monday, February 1, 2010

Settling on a Place

In January of 2010, my daughter, Sarah Singer and her husband, John Kosinski moved to Brunswick, Maine from Los Angeles. They'd had a baby a year earlier and were eager to move to a place with a better quality of life for raising a family.

Over the years, they'd visited me in Maine many times and dreamed of moving here. Since their marriage in 2007, Sarah and John and I had many long talks about living in closer proximity and deepening our extended family and generational connections. My grandson, Casimir Kosinski, aka "Caz", who is perhaps the world's most adorable eighteen month old toddler, calls me Gammy and we have a pretty tight relationship, one which is being seriously fostered by my proximity. Having a place of my own right next door could only improve this.

I'd been living in Sorrento for many years and was ready for a change. So, when a great job for John opened up in Augusta, they decided on fairly short notice to take the plunge and head eastward. I proposed Brunswick as a location for them - what with its proximity to Boston, Portland, and area colleges, I thought it would offer them the resources and sense of community they'd need in making the switch from life in Los Angeles.

They found a place for rent on Craigslist which they bought from the owner 6 months later. It is perfect situation for them - a 20's bungalow in a great residential neighborhood, walking distance to town and the local elementary school, with a big enough yard for a garden, some chickens . . . and after a quick check of the zoning ordinance here, I ascertained that there would be room for a cottage for me, aka "The Gammy Coop" in the wooded back section of their property.

I immediately began looking at small house designs and plans, thinking I would tuck something small and unobtrusive in the woods. There is an entire movement of small houe building going on right now. Some, like FabCab, are prefab kits as are many of the highend architect buildings being promoted in Dwell Magazine, others are more in the DIY vein, such as the places you see on the TinyHouse blog. There are also myriad sites offering plans for small buildings. One example is Town and Country Plans, where where were a couple I liked at first, such as the ineptly named, Skagway :




This floorplan was a testament to the fact that one could actually fit in all mod cons and have a livable space in about 500 square feet:



I started to think how I could personalize a plan like this and began doodling with Google's SketchUp, dreaming about what sort of space I would want for myself. This comes easily and naturally to me. I'm a SketchUp power user, I love houses and floor plans, and I have years of remodelling and renovation experience as well as a studio degree in architecture from Smith College. My dream was beginning to take shape. Here are what a few of my preliminary drawings looked like:








Happily a couple of weeks later, during the building inspection, which was being done by the noted energy auditor, Dewitt Kimball, I inquired about who could help me put up a SIPS structure. SIPS are structural insulated panels in which two sides of plywood are laminated onto a foam core. It's a great technology and one that attracted me because these buildings go up fast, as in 1-2 days for a house of my dreams, and equally important, they're incredibly energy efficient and airtight.

Kimball immediately said "Call Josh Wojcik, of Upright Frameworks in Wilton." The next day I sent an email off to Josh asking if he had interest and availablity for a project such as mine. Not only did he have time, but we hit it off immediately and I was delighted to learn that this is a direction Josh wants to pursue: building small, energy efficient houses in Maine. Not only that, he and his staff love working with SketchUp. We agreed initially that he would at the least put up the shell of my building for me and that we'd use this project as a model for others to learn about living simply with a small footprint.

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