One last photo of the Madison House to share.

As anyone knows that has followed along with my ramblings, I often will judge a home’s design with how the back of a house looks. All too often designers today focus entirely on the front view of a home and give little attention to the other faces of a home.

It is extremely difficult to make all four sides of a home visually pleasing and generally the back is the worst of the lot. When you are looking for a home design, or an architect, or a builder, don’t stop at looking at their best work… make sure and “look around back”.

So here’s the back of the Madison House, for all to see.

Originally posted 2015-03-29 18:03:37.

Here’s a section of the view that is seen from the front porch of the Madison House.

There was no view available from the house-site when I purchased the property. This parcel of land was an overgrown thicket of tangled woods. It was a strenuous hike, through briars and vines, to reach the house-site. Upon arrival I could see that there would be a nice view if some of the property below were to be cleared. It just took a little imagination on my part to see it’s potential.

This ten acre parcel had been for sale for a long time with no offers because it was so overgrown. When it came time to put in the new driveway into the property one of my neighbors came by to say hello and to tell me that I was a fool to have paid what I did for the land. I just blinked and smiled.

After I had cleared this field, and before I had started building the house, the offers to “double my money” if I would consider selling the land started flowing in.

There is nothing better than finding a diamond in the rough. Is there?

Notice the little cabin in the view?… now there is another story I’ll have to share… sometime in the coming days.

Originally posted 2015-03-29 17:42:55.

Let me share a few tips on how to make a small porch special.

Now, it doesn’t hurt to have a great view from the porch… I’ll share that view in my next posting… but the view isn’t everything. A porch is a place where one can simply enjoy the outside world.

Make sure when you build a porch to use quality materials. The siding here is wood, no vinyl can be be found, other than the bird-feeder hanging on the other end of the porch. The floor is painted wood. The ceiling is also painted wood… I’m always amazed that some builders will use interior drywall for a porch ceiling.

One final note is that this view, looking down at this end of the porch had nothing to look at… so I built my chicken coop down there. Then I could enjoy viewing one of my weekend projects as well as keep an eye on my hens.

Originally posted 2015-03-29 16:58:49.

The budget was tight on the Madison House, this was after-all a builder’s home. The kitchen was a bit small in size, with no high end appliances… no subzero fridge, no vulcan stove.

But there were some nice features that made the kitchen very special…

The ceilings were tall… ten feet to be exact with two hundred year old heart pine beams that added that “country charm feel”.

And there was the large twelve-foot-long bow window, that was salvaged from an old country store. It really brought the outside in and always drew great attention from all who visited our home.

We installed two very tall windows at the dining end of the kitchen that looked out onto the porch and beyond to the pastoral views.

Originally posted 2015-03-29 16:34:43.

I like this photograph. There is just something very pleasing about multiple roof angles.

And then, there is that nice stone chimney poking through them all.

Sweet.

On every chimney that I have ever built I have made sure and that it has had a crown put on top. Yes, it takes more time and labor to add this little feature… which means yes, it cost a bit more money to build. But, I think a chimney with a crown signals to the world that this home was worth the extra effort… that no detail was overlooked in building this home.

Originally posted 2015-03-29 16:09:59.