This is a great website and it is nice to see that I am not really crazy for wanting to do this. MOST OF THE FUN IS IN THE JOURNEY... William Palmer

Long Time Coming

Posted by Louise in Franklin, NH on 10/24/2007

I've wanted to journal this project from its start, but did not know where or how. We have friends building in Wilton, NH who are using this website - and that's what finally got me motivated to start making some notes and entering some photos. It will be five years this December since we sold the house in Pembroke and bought 47 acres on the side of a mountain in Franklin, NH. We started widening and improving the half mile right of way road in June, 2004 and got our building permit and financing in October, 2004. We were very glad that we did our homework which is my biggest recommendation to anyone.

We found out that we would not get a building permit unless the fire department could access our property, and therefore had to widen our right of way from 20' to 50' and since it went through the city forest, it meant getting approval from the city council. We started this process before buying the land as we wanted to be sure it would be approved. We also had the financially-daunting task of getting power in more than half a mile. We looked at solar or wind, but the banks would not finance an off-grid project (my mom was really upset that this is how the system works in this day and age!). Instead, we forked over $25,000 for power, but that did not happen until February, 2005 - and needless to say we ran on a generator for a long while...

Photos