Our contemporary green home - self-sufficient living

We just signed the contract and I am so excited about our new house in upstate NY. We close on the 24th of October and we can't wait to move in! It is pure chance that we saw it at all on the morning we were leaving and we were surprised by how much we liked it.

It is set at the top of a hill on a private dead end road on 15+ acres. The other homes on our road also have acres of land. It has fertile, sloping hills, an enormous pond that's been stocked with bass and bluefish, and woods with trails through them. The house was built in the seventies and was designed to be passive solar. There is a fabulous green house built in (and near the kitchen) that I'm excited to grow herbs in year round and start my seeds in early in the spring. The master bathroom contains a deep European tub, built-in wooden benches, and a sauna. The home is wired for radiant floor heating and sits on top of a large thermal mass for insulation. There is also a large centrally located wood-burning stove. It has a two-car garage with built-in workshop on one-side and an additional barn as well as a circular driveway. Basically, it was love at first sight. Kevin is already plotting whether to use geothermal with the large pond, solar panels, radiant floor heating or a wood burning furnace. I plan to put in a swingset for Savannah and an in-ground trampoline (for me as much as for her), an 8 by 12 foot root cellar that I'll need help constructing, a large garden, and raspberry canes for Kevin, blackberries for me, and an assortment of our favorite apple trees for pies, cider, and applesauce. Here are some pictures, but don't judge it until you see it in person (and have the chance to ice skate, ski then thaw out in our sauna....)

Front entryway on the North side covered with a deciduous tree in summer.

Back of the detached garage and the deck off of the kitchen and dining room on the west side, faces the pond and my future root cellar. Shaded in summer by deciduous trees.

Spacious deck on the west side.

The south western side of the home, showing the walk-out finished basement and greenhouse.

The southeastern side of the home.

The northeastern side of the home.

The two-car garage facing the driveway on the north side of the home. The right side of the garage is already set up as a workshop so Kev is thrilled with that.

One of the many views from the land and house.

My attached greenhouse! Larger than it appears in this picture and I can access it from the kitchen. Doors open to ventilate it outside and inside.

One-third of our future ice-skating pond, Savannah's ongoing frog lifecycle experiment, and the possible site of a future geothermal system.