cabin: foundation done!

 

The foundation is done! The concrete blocks have been laid, the concrete floors poured, and the pooperpumper installed.

We were in Las Cruces (technically Mesilla) for Thanksgiving and, after out Thanksgiving meal, rolled the 1.5 hours to Cloudcroft to gawk at the site ourselves for about the last 15 minutes of daylight before hi-tailing back to Mesilla. 

Nothing beats seeing stuff in person. The foundation looks small (to me) in photographs, but seems HUGE in person. It's also terribly exciting to see the view and imagine sitting on the patio while a breeze tickles the pines. As The Bride says, it's going to kill us to not be out here all the time once it's finished.

We needed the pooperpumper since the lower floor is below the city's sewer line.

There's a little bit of construction improv in that the foundation and block extend under the master suite and laundry room, not envisioned on the plans. This is a good change imho in that it provides a better foundation for that part of the house and creates more storage space under the house, albeit unconditioned.

We've also been chosing toilets, plugs and switches, concrete stain, and the front door. We are in the process of choosing slate flooring, which is a challenge.

This next week they start framing. I'm going to have to roll or fly out there to see what that looks like, especially from inside the house. 

 

we are building a cabin!

We've been talking about building a cabin for a long time and have had to overcome several setbacks, including, most recently, job uncertainty, the pandemic, the price of lumber, and, now, the price of EVERYTHING. The cost of the project has come in higher than anticipated, so we've had discussions about whether or not this was a good financial decision. Woke up one morning a month ago and said, "Screw it: we're building the damn thing." And here we are!

Early last week, the builder broke ground, and it felt good,

The plans go like this:

 

 

 

The work this week was about prepping the site, digging the foundation (down to rock!), and digging the footings for the foundation (which will serve as the floor for the basement/living area.

pricing a build in Cloudcroft

So it's time to start thinking about how much to spend on a cabin in Cloudcroft. While we bought the lot and planned to build with little regard for resale value (we plan to keep the cabin until we are incapacitated or die), it's still helpful to know what kind of money pit we're getting into (if, indeed, we are getting into a money pit). And you never know when plans change.

First off, the market in Cloudcroft isn't all that great. Many homes have been for sale the full three years we've been watching properties. Many (most?) homes are vacation homes. And the market seems to swing with the price of oil (many Texans from nearby Midland-Odessa buy and build in Cloudcroft). Although the price of oil is low at the moment, fracking continues to boom in West Texas. Nonetheless, the market seems slow.

The market is not exactly billowing in value either: the mean (and median) price per square foot is $130 ranging from $70 to $181 (note that the numbers I'm using are based on asking prices so they most certainly lean high). Mean square footage is 1,733 square-feet with a median of 1,555 square-feet (lower because of a number of smaller, true cabins). The mean and median property has three bedrooms. The mean asking price is $216,800 with a median of $185,000.

The chart at the top of this post plots square-feet against asking price. As would be expected, the more feets, the more dollars to get those feets. The range in price increases as the square footage increases: 100 to 200K for 1,000 square feet, 100 to 300K for 1,500 square-feet, 150 to 400K for 2,000 square-feet, and 150 to 500K for 2,500 square-feet.

The graph immediately above shows price related to number of bedrooms. Again, as expected, more bedrooms equal, in general, higher prices, although the price difference between three and four bedrooms is less notable. 

I did not see a relationship between price per square foot and year built, price, or square footage. Interestingly, quality of the property (based on my personal assessment from 1 to 10 where I wouldn't live in anything less than a 7) didn't correlate to price per square foot (see below). Properties I rated a 10 ranged in price per square foot from $80 to $170.

So, what does all this suggest? It looks to me that a three-bedroom in the 1,500 to 1,700 square-foot range is the sweet spot where something really nice might pull off something close to $200 a square foot. However, we'd be looking at investing $300,000 to $340,000 to get there. That's a hell of a lot of scratch for a cabin.

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there's something in the woods...

As the bride and I approach 50, we're starting to hear the slow rasping of the Grim Reaper on Door Number 3 some unknown distance down the mortal coil. It's easy to take life for granted. It happens, whether you like it or not, until, often unexpectedly, it doesn't. This realization prompted us to sit down and talk about retirement and (gulp) the great fade-to-black.

I won't bore you with the financial whatnots, dates, and career plans, but we did decide that we had two real estate goals to accomplish before retiring: a small condo on the coast (the bride loves the beach) and a small cabin in the mountains (we both love cool weather in the summer). We don't know if we can swing both or even one, but we are going to try.

A small cabin in the mountains was the reason we spent a week in Cloudcroft last September, to check out the scene and look at properties. To make a long story short, we saw a lot we liked, we put in an offer, and we closed on it yesterday! The photo above is a panoramic shot of said lot, about half an acre on a corner edge of town with national forest out two sides. Although we weren't exactly looking to buy something on the trip, we looked, and this lot kept creeping back into our consciousness. The lot's not perfect, mind you (we can't afford perfect), but it is something special. The lot is a wee bit unusual in that it only has a driveway's width of access from the street, but we like unusual; unusual creates opportunity.

Buying a lot feels vaguely foolish at this point, but when the world's going to hell, why the hell not?!? Property taxes are crazy low in New Mexico (at least compared to Texas), so the annual carrying costs are equivalent to a nice meal for two at an upscale Austin restaurant. If we don't build, we can always sell (although the market is somewhat lethargic at the moment with the dip in oil prices).

Looking back up towards the street. The sellers were hoping to build and cleared the lot. On one hand a shame (where are the trees?), on the other hand an opportunity.

so what's the plan?

So what do we plan to do? Building our Modern house in Austin spoiled us for architect-designed homes, so we will work with an architect (or architects) to build a cabin. We want to stay modest: thinking at the moment of a small main house (1:1.5) with a detached guest house (1:1). If we build sooner rather than later, we'll put both into the local VRBO rental pool to help pay it off.<1 a="" an="" architect-builder="" are="" case="" couple="" decide="" don="" familiar="" feeling="" happen="" in="" later="" little="" make="" modern="" move="" p="" please="" pressure="" re="" s="" so="" sooner="" souls="" t...="" t="" than="" that="" there="" they="" this="" to="" town="" we="" with="">

<1 a="" an="" architect-builder="" are="" case="" couple="" decide="" don="" familiar="" feeling="" happen="" in="" later="" little="" make="" modern="" move="" p="" please="" pressure="" re="" s="" so="" sooner="" souls="" t...="" t="" than="" that="" there="" they="" this="" to="" town="" we="" with="">Been pinning cabins, peering in cabin books, and gawking at Cabin Porn for ideas and inspirations. An architect friend asked us what we were thinking. Our reply: We want someone walking down the street to peer down the drive and whisper to themselves "WTF?!?!" And, of course, the usual Modern mantra: great indoor-outdoor relationships, natural light, and honesty.
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Here are some fave cabin pins:

cheers and jeers

I had hoped to make this post after we traveled back from Nuevo Mexico from the closing, but we got caught up in Southwest Airline's computer glitch adn couldn't make the trip. Here are a couple cheers and jeers from this experience:

cheers

Cheers to our agent Annie Daniels with United Country Properties out of Tularosa. She was polite, patient, and resilient in working with us and the sellers. Whereas things have been far more formal with our real estate experiences in ole urban Austin, things were much more informal, country, and down home with this transaction. At first this was a little unsettling, but we learned to go with the mountain stream flow.

cheers: The Lodge in Cloudcroft

The Lodge (owned by the same folks who own Hotel Paisano in Marfa), despite being completely booked, allowed us to cancel our reservations for three rooms (us, mom-in-law, brother-in-law [the latter two from Socorro, NM]) the same day. We had to pay $10, but that's a big whoop. The hotel's highly rated restaurant, Rebecca's, also canceled our dinner reservation without a hitch.


jeers: Southwest Airlines

We both love Southwest, but they really muffed up this time, both with the original issue (ever hear of back-up routers?) and the customer-neglecting Southwest-first response. We were supposed to fly out Thursday evening when we received word our flight was canceled. There was still time to fly out early (like, get up at 3:30 in the morning early). "Is the glitch fixed?" I asked. "Will the El Paso flight make?" At that point, we could have (and would have) driven to El Paso. The agent said the issue was solved and that only weather would cancel the flight. Woke up at 3:30 in the morning only to find the flight canceled due to ongoing issues and outfall with the glitch.

jeers: Avis

After we rescheduled the first flight, we called to let them know that we would be picking up the car 12 hours later than we thought due to Southwest's issues. They said: "Fine, that'll be fifty more dollars." Huh? We asked to keep the reservation for the original three days since that was (ahem) 50 bucks less expensive, and they said no. WTH?

mega jeers: Camino Real Hotel

I wanted to stay at the Camino Real (I've stayed here for business trips in the past...) because it's designed by Henry Trost, a prominent southwestern master-of-all-styles architect (including his gorgeous Prairie Style El Paso home that Frank Lloyd Wright mistook for one of his own). However, the greedy dirtbags that run this place refused to refund our $175 when we called to cancel the reservation. No, they were not fully booked. We won't be staying there ever again; we hope you won't either.

cloudhaus: random thoughts...

So we've been thinking of building a cabin up in the high hills of New Mexico. Through happenstance, we stumbled upon the Sacramento Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. Originally, we thought we'd build R.M. Schindler's log cabin; however, given the lack of windows and head-knockingly short ceiling heights (and an unwillingness to build something simply inspired by his design), we drifted toward prefab, specifically Rocio Romero's LV Home. We thought prefab anticipating the lack of willingness of a local builder to tackle a modern design in the upper hinterlands. Therefore, we approached Cloudcroft looking for lots/land to accommodate the LV.

Because we were looking for a lot to possibly build a Rocio Romero, our lot looking was biased toward lots where a Romero would work. This is bass ackwards in that one should find a cool lot and then design a house to fit the lot; however, the Romero, with it’s privacy protecting facade and uninhibited backside, is a readymade design for a scenic rural space along a roadway.

While the Romero would be a great place, there are several things that work against it: (1) it’s not designed specifically for the location; (2) the design forces some functions, namely the kitchen and the bathrooms, particularly the windows, to work within the footprint and aesthetic concept of the building (not that we are opposed to that); (3) the realization that, outside all odds, there’s a builder there familiar with contemporary architecture; and (4) wouldn’t it be fun as hell to build something custom? These are enough things to consider building from scratch and keep the Romero as a Plan B.

Indeed, there is a builder in Cloudcroft (married to an architect) that builds contemporary homes as well as retail buildings: Green Mountain Construction. This removes one primary concern: a builder that understands and is willing to build modern. So the next question is, what does this custom cabin look like?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the possible design of this cabin. Helps me sleep at night (’cause I sleep like a baby when I dream of architecture...). Although I had sincere hopes of just letting an architect run loose on the project, I’m finding that I can’t. Maybe this is a good thing, maybe its not. We'll see. But here are my thoughts nonetheless.

I’ve been thinking about three morphologies (if that’s the proper term): (1) a minimal mass, (2) three volumes connected with bridges, and (3) three distinct volumes huddled together. I’ve seen precedents of all three, so perhaps they are doable. In all cases, the street-side of the cabin is private (and holds service space) while the far side is open to embrace the forest. One key thing that I mentioned to an architect friend is that we want someone passing by it to think "What in the hell?!?!"

the minimal mass

The cube appears in many projects I’ve seen over the years, the concept being: start with a cube and then subtract volumes to achieve programmatic goals. Pros for this approach is that it minimizes foundation area (cheaper), minimizes impact on the lot, and keeps things cozy. Cons are that there may be programmatic compromises to maintain the cubic purity, it would require stairs (not a deal killer, but could limit our use of it as we age [although one could argue that if we cant walk up a flight of stairs, maybe we shouldn’t be up in the mountains anyway...]). A simple geometric volume checks the same boxes as a cube.

Not a cube, but a simple geometric volume.

Minimal. A treasure box cracked open...

Cube!

Wow.

Longtime favorite: a small house in Houston. Love the material choices.

bridges

Three volumes connected by glass bridges comes from seeing a cabin with multiple volumes (all of them cubes, it just so happens) and talking about the project with an architect friend (who suggested a bridge to the house). In this concept there are three volumes: (1) entry/kitchen/dining/living, (2) guest/bath, and (3) master. Each volume is connected by a bridge that follows the private/open stance of the volumes. Pros include that the volumes are not volume restricted and can reflect the program (and in fact look better if each one is different: a big one for the entry/kitchen/living/dining, a small one for the guest, and a medium one for the master), the volumes are somewhat isolated from each other (better sound control), and each would have its own private terrace/deck to the forest/outdoors. Cons include a more complicated foundation (higher cost), more articulation (higher cost), higher utilities. Another plus on the Bridges concept is that I haven't seen an exact precedent yet. The examples below are masses connected by external hallways (or simply walkways). 

Separate but connected.

Separate but connected with al fresco walkways.

huddles

I had been thinking about this morphology when spookily an almost exact representation of the street presence of what I had dreamed about appeared on my Facebook feed. This calls for three abstract volumes glommed together in an orgy of abstract objects. This fulfills a “requirement” that the cabin invoke a “What the hell is that?!?” response from passersby. Pros include not having all those dang bridges and having the volumes respond to the program (as long as the program doesn’t interfere with the abstractness of it all). Cons include a more complicated foundation, more articulation, more attention to detail and smooth surfaces on the front, and listening to people hooting and hollering from the street (”What in Sam Hell!?!?!!).

I dreamt about this house before I saw it...

Freakin' love this, probably more because of the Schindleresque aesthetics than anything.

Bring us your poor...

Huddles on steroids!

At this point, of the three, I’m favoring Bridges, probably because thats the most recent one I’ve been thinking of. It could be that budget ultimately decides, although it may be possible to design in a way that other costs are minimized to make any of these possible. We shall see...

Another thought we had was to have an architect develop a master site plan that includes a separate and self-contained guest cottage. We could build and use the guest cottage in the short term until we can pull off and build the cabin. And we could live in the cottage while the cabin was being built, say, after we truly retire.

So many possibilities and options. We can dream, can’t we?

lots?

We found an intriguing lot that is in town but on a corner such that it backs up to National forest on two sides:

Possible view from "the back porch".

Looking up the hill toward the street entrance.