Did you build the house from ground up? How long did that take you?...Lately I have been reading up about building a small house using shipping containers.

Actually, it's two houses, one in Canada and one in NL.

The latter was a rebuild, an old farm house, the one in Canada was from 7' in the ground to two and a half storeys.

The one here in NL was a major project, mostly because I did it all by myself and it's a brick building. It's a beautiful little house in a very quiet spot of the country, with a fair bit of ground around it.

It took me two years to get it all done.

You should write about the whole experience with pictures. I am getting more serious about building a house from the ground up. Two years is a great time frame. Share pictures if any.

I sent you mail.

Building a house is absolutely doable, fixing one up with a rich history in a way is more fun, but comes with more restrictions.

Any photos of the windmill? That sounds pretty cool.

lots of photos in here:

http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/windmill/

Is that HDF?

I want to start building a machine shop in the basement.

The blades are actually milled out of knot free white pine, alternately laminated to reduce warp.

Machine shops in basements are nice once they are stocked but getting your gear in there is a real pain, best to stay on the ground floor if you can, preferably in a place that is not directly connected to your house, the vibration can be quite a nuisance to other occupants.

It also helps if you bolt your stuff to the floor (concrete).