If you could change one thing about your homestead, what would it be? Location? The house? The barn?

I love where I am, but (and this is a strange one) I'd take out all of the modern changes to the house - no furnace in the basement, no wiring in the walls, no washer dryer. I know I could turn them off or get rid of them, but as long as they are there, it is just too easy for me to make use of them. We live in a wonderful 120 year old house, that we love, and I'd love to have back the way it was before it was modernized, because while I want to make the transition to off-grid living, I don't always have the resolve to just turn everything off and keep it that way - plus, then you've got to get rid of everything. I think I'd like to start with a house that has just woodstoves and no electricity.

Oh, and I'd like a real barn, rather than the small stable we have now - an older, but sturdy pole barn with a hay loft and plenty of space, if I'm dreaming.

How about all of you?

-- Sharon in NY (astyk@brandeis.edu), May 08, 2002

Answers

This isn't a change, but when we were house shopping, we looked at a house that was the first built in its mile section after the land run in 1889. I would have loved to have it, but it had been "modernized" and poorly! If they had done a good job, or just left it alone, I would have jumped on the place!

We live in a 1960 - era ranch style red brick house and I love the open floor plan, but the fireplace is right inside (and I mean RIGHT inside) the back door so whenever you open the door you get a draft and smoke comes out into the room somewhat. Also, the front of the house has rarely been used and NO ONE ever uses my front door, which steps right into the kitchen, of all places! If I were to change it (and I may do so within the next few years) I would rework the front of the house so people actually use the front door and so the back door didn't step right into the living room and fireplace!

-- Christine in OK (cljford@mmcable.com), May 08, 2002.

P.S. to mine - I want to change it mostly because all the dirt gets tracked in right onto my living room carpet, which some previous occupant(Not Me!) deemed should be light beige - almost cream. NOT a good idea with my family and their "dirty" habits!

-- Christine in OK (cljford@mmcable.com), May 08, 2002.

Mine's in the wrong place. I want to go home to Texas.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), May 08, 2002.

Mine's in the wrong place, too. Next week, we are making a visit to Oklahoma. I have been there several times, and have family still there, but will be viewing this visit differently, looking for a place to call home.

-- Gina NM (inhock@pvtnetworks.net), May 08, 2002.

I don't know about "would" as I am an eternal optimist--let's say "will"!!

We will grow vining vegetables and flowers up every vertical surface (barn, outbuildings).

We will add a sitting area near the pond that is not accessible by cattle.

We will add as much edible landscaping as is possible.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), May 08, 2002.

Mine's in the wrong part of the state. I grew up around Austin, in the Hill Country. Where I am now is the coastal plain, and it is FLAT. I love what I have here, house and native landscaping, cows and my horse, but I miss my hills.

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), May 08, 2002.

the room we have as a family room would have been all glass, and used as a greenhouse area. The kitchen would have opened right into the fruit cellar, now we have to go outside to get to it. We could have easily done these things...now it would be a LOT of work!!!

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), May 08, 2002.

Wrong--place!!!!!

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), May 08, 2002.

The location. We like Ohio and the friendly people here but we want to be closer to my Mom and other family in Oklahoma. Land and property taxes are cheaper in Missouri than Oklahoma so that is where we will eventually head.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), May 08, 2002.

One thing no way!!!! I want the Waltons house on a back dirt road and the only ones who visit are wanted .A small town where everyone know one another and are nice .

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@hotmail.com), May 09, 2002.

well, I used to think "wrong place" but I'm trying to retrain my brain...I love this house..it is all I need and feels like home..the only thing lacking is more light in the kitchen..for folks who hadn't heard already, it is actually 3 houses in one..a two room log home, built in the 1860s, which was dragged to this spot from somewhere down the road and attached to a 3 room and a bath 1920s farm house, which was THEN built onto along the entire side with 2 more bedrooms, a hallway and another full bathroom. It has a "typical" Southern sloping roof which we changed from shingles to hunter green tin and the whole outside was pulled together with cedar log siding..so under some of the siding are logs and some frame..while th folks were doing this, they blocked off a huge pantry in the BACK of the kitchen..this room has 4 very large windows..then they left one little bitty window in the kitchen over the sink..in the Winter, the kitchen is like a tomb...LOL...on the other hand, on this hot climate, one doesn't want a bunch of huge windows letting in 105 degree sunshine in over the stove, so it is probably my Yankee heart pining after light that thinks they were being "silly". Since the pantry is at a 90 degree angle from the kitchen, it is not practical to think of opening up walls, etc. to get at the light, and I don't "do" skylights...I still would rather be here in my "mole kitchen" in February than back in my brightly-lit kitchen in PA with all that snow outside LOL LOL

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), May 09, 2002.

That's easy - location! I love where we are, outside a small town yet close to anything necessary, and we live in a beautiful (to me) location. But not long ago they moved the city limits further out and the people are moving out from town way too fast! Too much traffic, etc. and I miss my seclusion. Most of them are the yuppie type that build monstrous elaborate homes and let their dogs run loose (grrr!). Wish I could just pick this place up and move it, along with the view and a couple neighbors, about 10 or 15 miles further out. Despite this being the "family farm", and all the work we've done on here recently, dh and I have decided there is a point where we would sell out and move. It makes me sad as there are a lot of memories on this place.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@nospam.com), May 09, 2002.

While I wouldn't mind being farther out in the boonies, the location is the best I've ever been in. We're finishing the fourth addition to this house. It was started in 1893 as a log house two rooms up and two down. I'd change it by being done with the above as well as finishing the re-building of the other and the barns and controlling the over-grown property and....now end of stuff right now, but the journey's can be as wonderful as the destination.

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

One thing we are really wanting is our own place. We have tried homesteading on rented land, and it just isn't working like I want. I am allowed do plant anything I want and change the flower beds, plant trees, put in berry bushes, etc., but we are not allowed to get other animals besides the chickens and the rabbits.

This is probably not the kind of answer you're expecting, but just in case someone reads this who is thinking of homesteading on rental property: Go ahead and do what you can, but try to get your own place if at all possible.

-- Cathy N. (eastern Ontario) (homekeeper86@sympatico.ca), May 09, 2002.

Oh goody . . . I get to do some dreamin' out loud :^)

I would love to add a small shop, somewhere where my wife and I could do our building in an enclosed area, with tools nearby, rather then schlepping inside to utility room to get tools. I would also like an enclosed screened porch, I love hanging around outside during wintertime.

A small kitchen addition, where pantry / mud room would be added to design.

A bigger lot; we are running out of area to plant (though good right now, with watering restrictions now in effect), but I wanna grow a bigger garden. The cultivated rows is hardly nothing right now. If the house next door were to disappear and the lot was made available, my wife and I would seriously consider buying it; a 60' x 110' is all we have for the lot we are on, and I want more elbow room. Un improved lots around here cost about $8,000 for lots around that size, taxes about $50 for unimproved lot with no utilities.

-- j.r. guerra in s. tx. (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), May 09, 2002.

This is an easy one...I love our location.Nine miles from town,no neighbors,big lake on our small ranch...60 acres is plenty for me to keep up. I would change the house.I want a nice log home with lots of windows and an open floor plan.Right now we are still in the mobile home that was here when we bought our land.

To me,a mobile home,no matter how nice is just NOT a home...just my opinion.

-- Johna (in central TX) (marcnjohna@aol.com), May 09, 2002.