emerson.farm
overview
Were one to own a wood, one might need a cabin. Feel free to steal my design if you’d like.
concept
The site is a ridgetop on a tree farm in a very remote location. This will be sporadically occupied, so a lot of the design is dedicated to low maintenance and low probability of damage from the elements when unattended.
details
- Metal frame construction, metal exterior and roof. This is essentially a steel farm building.
- 8-inch exterior walls to interior drywall, lots of insulation space.
- Large garage connected by concrete walkway.
- Bathroom accessible from outside, so your muddy self can get thee clean.
- 3-foot eaves and walkway (extension of slab) all around the structure. This allows landscaping to be natural without concern that one might arrive to an impossibly overgrown and inaccessible or damaged property.
- Wood stove for heat, geothermal heat pump for air conditioning, hot water, and backup heat (floor radiant).
- (not pictured) I cut a driveway which goes up to the build site. It has a switchback radius intended for second-gear tail-out slides when going up hill. It should be a blast.
- Skylights where necessary are the sealed light-tube kind, so they don’t present as large a leak hazard.
work
acquisition
The site was purchased in September 2021.
old house (demolition)
In 2021-2022 a small home on the site was demolished and the materials reused for livestock enclosures by a neighbor. The home was built in 1971, but it was not in good condition, and was visible from the public road, which is unsuitable.
stone
Stone for the surround of a wood heating system was purchased in January 2022. The stone came from the deconstruction of the Weatherford-Lane House, built in 1814.
driveway & trails
In December 2023, a driveway was cut to the build site, and trails cut and improved on the propoerty. The driveway has a switchback intended to be the correct radius for a second-gear fishtail on the way up.
bridge
In December 2024, a large polymer culvert (and gravel) was installed in the creek at the build side to bridge the creek for vehicular traffic.
notes for the future
There are a few things I still need to resolve:
- The center is labyrinthine. I need to perhaps scale things modestly to get elbow room.
- I’m violating my own requirement for at least two walls of each room having natural light. This is an easy fix where it’s an issue, but it needs to be done because it drastically improves the experience of light in a room.
- Small stuff, like insetting the thresholds on the office doors in the slab, so I don’t trip.
- Medium stuff, like building a plan for an accessible raceway in the slab to make maintenance of the plumbing and electrical easier. I don’t want to pour this stuff straight into the concrete, I’d rather have it be in conduit so it can be redone as needed without trenching.
soil survey
- You have a soil survey book which features this build site
- On the ridge, you have “CpD” or Colyer-Trappist complex, at 12-20% slope.
- Nearer the road, you have “FfE2” (Faywood-Fairmount-Rock outcrop complex, 20-30% slope) and “FdD2” (Faywood silt loam, 12-20% slope)
Colyer Series
(p. 69 in Soil Survey)
“The Colyer series consists of shallow, well drained, slowly permeable doils. These soils formed in material weathered from black, fissile shale. They are on narrow ridgetops and side slopes in the uplands, mainly in the northern part of the county. Slopes range from 12% to 50%. The soils are clayey-skeletal, mixed, mesic Lithic Dystrochrepts.”
Faywood Series
(p. 72 in Soil Survey)
“The faywood series consists of moderately deep, well drained, moderately slowly permeable or slowly permeable soils. These soils formed in material weathered from limestone and mudstone interbeddded with thin layers of calcareous shale. They are on narrow ridgetops and side slopes in the uplands. Slopes range from 12% to 30%. The soils are fine, mixed, mesic Typic Hapludalfs.”
We also have Fairmount associations with the Faywood series indicated on the map,
“Fairmont soils have a mollic epipedon and have bedrock at a depth of less than 20 inches.”
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