making your house your own

One of the reasons why I think we're so interested in building our own place in the woods is that we will have free reign to do whatever we like with it. From building materials and style, to energy and utility choices, to landscaping and other site considerations, removing ourselves from restrictive covenants and historic district guidelines will allow us to build a home that best reflects our lifestyle. I won't have to ask permission from some government agency to make our lives more comfortable. Where we live now, I can't even change the color of our exterior shutters without filing a request and paying a fee.

I have to admit that I am having trouble balancing my desire for seclusion with the necessity of easy access. We don't want to be in another standard neighborhood. We'd rather live on a large piece of land, where our nearest neighbors are several acres away. But most of these areas are difficult to get to, unless they are in super-expensive resort acreage communities. Those don't fit into our budget, so we are instead looking at middle-of-nowhere but still close-to town-acreage. I just worry that any money we save by purchasing remote land would be offset by the cost of road maintenance and an upgrade to 4x4 vehicles.

There is one piece of land that we are very interested in right now. It is only 10 minutes away from local grocery, bank, gas, medical center, hardware, and post office, but it is 2.5 miles of winding gravel and dirt road to get to it. It's not very far, but it feels very remote and secluded and there aren't too many neighbors nearby. We'd be very separated from everything, which may or may not be a good thing. We've looked at dozens of other pieces of land, but this is the first one that I truly enjoyed walking. There was something about it that just felt right. I think that part of its appeal is its mix of deciduous and evergreen trees, but with an overwhelming stand of evergreens right near the spot that would be the home site. Where we live now, the oaks drop so many leaves around our home that it is difficult to maintain, and they tend to serve as snake, tick and chigger refuges.

Another concern that I have is that I am not sure that a standard well drilling rig could make it to the property. The county road may be too curved and narrow in places, and I don't know if it could hold the weight. There are foundations from an old home nearby that has a well, but it is a very old house and the well was probably dug by hand (or however they dug wells a hundred years ago). Several books that I have read say to walk away from a piece of land if you can't drill a well, tap a creek, or get municipal water. A few others mention rainwater collection as a viable alternative, though, so that is something that we're going to look into. The price on this land is very reasonable and it seem like it would be perfect for us.

I also think that we are seeing the seclusion of this site as an excuse to really try to live off the grid and much more simply. We'll design and build our own home, and implement techniques such as passive solar to try and assist with heating and cooling. As for design, if we end up purchasing this lot, I believe that the sky will be the limit. There is lots of stone and native timber on the property that could be used, and I have been reading up on natural building techniques such as strawbale and cob. Best of all, regardless of how "experimental" we decide to make it, the neighbors can't complain because there are no restrictions against it.