As I have written before, for some time now my instincts have been telling me that I have actually been occupying and trying to maintain a 3-family home in PA-- because it did, at one time, serve as a 3-family dwelling.

This week I did the math, after finding an old Zillow-type, buried 2004 listing of the property's particulars. At that point, the landlord's family must have restructured who owns what on the total farm acreage-- with one house for each son. (I'm pretty sure which of the 4 sons got 'our' house; my favorite! He's just finishing medical school; his uncle had managed that house, in the past, also from his own medical career downstate.)

The MudDorm would constitute a 6th bedroom if the stairway were re-positioned to make a legal bedroom (Like it had before the fire.) With it, the home's total living space is 4,144 square feet. That dorm sits over what would be either the 5th bedroom in a 1-fam dwelling, or the 3-fam configuration's 3rd living room (if the bath in that section got finished being plumbed in).

OK, so that's the PA rental.

Camp Ridgebury, Ohio is 1008 square feet, with an additional 576 possible with garage being finished and connected via a very tight planned breezeway, for a total of 1590 square feet. This creates a music/weight room with garden tool storage in the garage. (Adjoining the garage there is also room for a weathertight scooter/garden shed.

At present CR is furnished mostly from the MudDorm's former contents (I swapped in the better double bed we had in the main house that Dick and Susan used to use during their visits, til they retired to a senior housing complex and reduced their travel range somewhat. I used it for surgery recovery myself. Due to the bad bathroom adjoining I was never able to rent that room. Now I don't care to; the income it could have generated is now covered by SS.)

Its current purpose is to serve as a comfortable work camp, home for the Liberation Library I draw upon when I am in town here to do that work, and host to music events and neighborhood fellowship.

It is at least twice the size of the trailer we had thought would be our retirement dwelling, thanks to Mom's legacy and low real estate values/interest rates at the tine she passed.

The pop-up camper I'd have happily lived in, on a more rural property in the area as long as we were able, was about 200 square feet of indoor space plus another 160 square feet of screened/canopied space-- the equivalent of a large, 360 square foot Tiny House.

We spent entire summers in the MudDorm, which was 256 square feet (plus using the house shower), until we realized that the main house wiring was OK for AC.

~S~