All eyes - and ears - turned skyward when the sound of a round engine was recognized. Soon, we watched as a beautify 300HP Stearman in Army colors settled in on the grass runway. The pilot and owner was greeted by all and it was evident he had the coveted “top airplane” spot. Well, at least for a while.

An hour or so later another round engine was heard. It was fast and not as easy to identify until it was closer. Then we all watched as a bright yellow Beech Staggerwing made a beutiful short field landing. The plane was swarmed as if it were a pollen laden flower.

Zen had been eyeing the food table but finally gave up any hope of scraps (everyone was hungry). So, she did what every girl at the field had done before her - she walked over to the two best planes to get her picture taken.

This year taught me something new - water is not a ripe fig’s friend. The last three weeks of a fig should be warm and dry. This lets them sweeten naturally. Figs do not ripen once picked so timing is everything. What is happening is the figs are absorbing all the water they can and we’ve had plenty of rain. The figs are literally bursting  from too much water. They just don’t know when to say “when”.

I’ve been picking what I can, trying to gauge if they have enough natural sugars. Last year I made Fig Nut bread. This year I am trying to dry the figs with a food dehydrator. It takes a full 24 hours but the figs are drying and the results are very good - although a few don’t have enough sweetness for my taste. The picture shows fresh whole figs, a couple cut in half to show the insides, and some dried figs. Most of the dried figs are like chewy candy. <yum>

I did the math and the food dehydrator is doing a great job but it’s not as “green” as I need it to be given my farmhouse project. I think the best use of the dehydrator is to start the drying process with some other method - one existing system that has a log of waste heat, and then finish with the dehydrator. Last year I tried using the dashboard of my truck but that assumes we have hot weather - which for the last week I am happy to say it has been cooler than last year. Also, drying in my truck attracted fruit flies which was not a welcome experience inside a closed vehicle.

My computer equipment generates warm dry air so I think I will work some solution that puts all my computer equipment together in a series and somewhat enclosed with the air flowing all in one direction. I should then be able to have a series of racks at the output of that warm air. There is a perfect place in the “home office” in the new farmhouse since all the equipment will be clustered together with the warm air collected by the ventilation return vent. All I will need to do is build the drying racks in-line with the air flow. Should be a fun project !

I dearly love my Thinkpad X60. It is light, it is quick, it has a biometric reader, and it is mine (not my employer’s). However, it has one really big drawback - it has only  a 1024×768 screen. My official work computer is a well used Thinkpad T40. The “company” announced I was allotted a “refresh” - yippee ! I immediately asked for a Thinkpad X300. Unfortunately, the company has a short list of approved laptops with fixed configurations. I was not overly thrilled with their first recommendation. So, I thought, “if I can’t has a crisp light weight laptop, I’ll ask for the fastest, biggest, monster I could get. Hence, my new “desktop” is a 15.4″ wide screen Thinkpad T61p with 2GB of RAM and space for 2GB more plus a lightning Core Duo at 2.4GHz. I lost my light weight travel companion (gaining a bit over 2lbs to the travel weight) and the ease of a biometric reader (an option for the Thinkpad but not on the approved list by the company). The biggest different is the nearly 3x screen real estate provided by the 1920×1200 display !

I brought along my favorite tools - Synergy, Emacs, GIMP, Thunderbird (my blogging client thanks to Postie), XP-Themes, StandaloneStacks (I really can’t imagine working without this little gem), plus my usual work tools.

It’s sad that Ubuntu doesn’t get to grace this new machine. I can only imagine what it could do with 256Mb of video RAM and all that horsepower. But, as I blogged a while back, I have had to abandon Linux for Windows to be compatible with my upper management. I will admit, if my workload drops even a little, this new machine could go “dual boot” pretty quickly <grin>

The commercial lending department needed an appraisal on the construction project. Since it was new construction the apraisal would bve based on plans, specs, and quotes along with the estimated value of the land - which I already own.

The land itself, would seem pretty easy as it already existed - with a few exceptions, they are not creating new land these days. But nothing is easy with a non-conforming project. The larger a piece of land, the fewer parcels there are to compare it too and the less frequent those comparable pieces of land are bought and sold. So, to get an estimated value, the brokers can not look at “plots in the same area that have sold in the past 6 months” - the usual formula for estimating land value. Rather, they go back as much as two years and as broad as a 50 miles radius. A lot can change in two years and 50 miles. Economically, a lot has changed - so the land value was a huge guess by anyone’s estimation. Still, they crunched the numbers and came up with an estimated value.

Next came the appraisal of the construction. They looked as the architectures, the materials, the renderings, and the quotes. When it was all said and done, there were 64 pages which did not include the photos. When I read the appraiser’s report I wanted to yell and scream … but it would have been pointless. The value of the land was a bit better than expected but the rest was a huge disappointment.

The report started out well enough with a statement that “due to the complete lack of sales of bulk properties with large buildings similar to the subject, the ‘cost approach’ will be utilized to estimate the value of the subject property. … Because of the subject’s somewhat unusual features such as geo-thermal heat and finished living area, some reliance has been placed on the contracted prices.” I read that to mean the estimated value would be the cost of construction. I was wrong.

Within a few more pages, I hit a new term - “functional obsolescence”. This means the “loss in value due to a lack of utility”. the report went on to say, “The subject improvements are a combination living area / work shop and as such have a questionable market appeal because they are somewhat unusual.” Then the bomb hit - “Although there is no straight forward market data to indicate the precise amount of [functional obsolescence] depreciation, due to these factors, it is the appraiser’s conclusion that it should be substantial and that a charge of 50% of the building cost should be made.” In my questioning I was told right to my face that “geo-thermal may be good for the environment and a long term investment but it’s risky from the point of saleability.” WHAT !?  - Lower energy bills is a negative sales incentive ?!

In short, the appraiser said that my new home is worth half of what it will take to build it !

I would agree that it it not a mainstream project but I guess I know a lot of people who would love a big heated workshop attached to their home - suitable for a trades person, a craftsman, a mechanic, or semi-retired tinkerer. I would expect that would translate to a slower sales cycle if it were to ever go on the market but I would not expect the bank to discount the sale 50% to get out quick. But that is exactly what the appraiser said and his word was in 64 pages of black and white reporting.

I contested the appraisal. Nothing came of it. Fortunately, I have a lot of equity in the land but that still did not dull the sting.

There was still more salt to be spread on my wounds before I could close. I needed insurance on the “yet unfinished” project. I went to my insurance agent and asked for a quote. It was ready in about a day. Once again “non-conforming” was the explanation. It did not matter that the building was steel and should get a much better fire rating. Nor did it matter that I had designed for 115 mph wind loads and my rating against hurricanes should weigh in my favor. Nope - turns out the computer program for estimating insurance doesn’t have input fields for these things. So, in stead, I get hit fo the size of the building as if it were all living space.

I was told, “It’s just the price you pay for doing something different.”

(to be continued … if I can stomach writing more of this saga …)

“Conformity” has to do with the huge chasm between cookie-cutter homes and architecture and “everything else”. I use to watch those TV shows that depicted unique and - to me - very interesting custom homes. The various episodes showed custom architecture, the re-purposing of a building from a commercial or public space to become someone’s personal residence. With the advent of cable television, channels like HGTV appeared and entire TV series like “Extreme Living”, “World’s Most Extreme Homes”, “What’s With that House”, and “Generation Renovation” presented success story after success story.

What these video diaries didn’t show was the difficulty that comes with non-traditional building projects. I expected a few raised eye brows and the need to provide additional answers along the way but I never expected what has happened - and now I expect will continue to happen throughout the entire project and beyond.

It all started with my first visits to the banks for a mortgage and construction loan. I was quickly told; “I can help you with a mortgage because this is not a residence, it’s a commercial building”. I knew commercial loans had less desirable terms than home mortgages so this was a bit of a blow to the budget. (The different in rates between comparable residential and commercial loans turned out to be between 1.5-4% !) Still, I figured, “OK, I’ll deal with it.” So, I went to the commercial loan department and was told, “this is not a business so it does not qualify for a commercial loan.” Now wait a minute, I’m standing in the same bank and literally one side of the room - where the mortgage representative sits - said its a commercial project; and on the other side of the room - where the commercial loan office sits - said it not a commercial project. Each side said, “it belongs to the other department”. It took nearly a year before I found a banker willing to stand up for my request with the corporate headquarters and help me secure my loan request. I am very grateful to my loan office; otherwise, this project would still be just a pile of paper. But financing was just one challenge and indicative of what I was trying to accomplish.

(to be continued)

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