Visit to the lot

Today we drove up to the lot as a family. After being up there again, Riley is reinspired and totally on board! YAY!!!!!!! Sending in the contract today! Here are some pictures from the lot today! 

To be or not to be

Tomorrow is the day we 100% decided if we are in or out. We have the contract and if we sign in the morning, the land is ours.... Emotions are high ever here. Lots of weighing the options and second guessing everything. 

Living quarters

So, our lease is up in November. The original plan was to build a small house and live in it while building the big house. The small house design was going to end up costing a grand, the permit, nearly another grand, then the cost to actually build the house probably 6-7k. With all the other costs associated with getting the land ready it seemed ridiculous to pay a ton for a little house when that money could go towards the main house. 

I decided to look on Pinterest and see if anyone had redone an old 5th wheel and made them open and awesome. I now totally see the potential in 5th wheels! Riley and I are kicking around the idea of buying a cheap old 5th wheel, spending a little to make it nice and liveable, and stay in that on the property while we build. We have emailed on a bunch. Fingers crossed we find one large enough for our little family! 

The Lot

Here she is folks! 2.64 acres! It starts where I am, and goes all the way to the little black dot (Riley) on the right side of the picture. It also goes up to the first crest shown. 

Here are the challenges we are facing right now. 

-a well must be dug 100ft by licensed well driller (quote of about 6k)

-septic system must be installed. We will do that ourself.

-building plans must be signed by engineer in order to get a permit

That's just the current list. Riley is really starting to stress out about this process, unsure if we can do it. I think building a house would be good for his anxiety, keep him busy! Fingers crossed!

The Search for Land

You can't build a house without land. That has proven to be problem number 1. I searched EVERYWHERE from a cheap piece of land. We had a chunk in savings that we were willing to spend on some land. But the problem would then be that we wouldn't have that money to actually build... See the problem!

My job is moving buildings at the beginning of the year and we wanted to make sure that I am within an hour commute as I will continue working (fingers crossed I get the promotion/pay raise I have put in for!) We called on every affordable piece of land we could come across. There was nothing within the immediate valley. I finally called a man from an ad on KSL. He had property in 3 different areas surrounding the valley. Our ideal area is currently zoned so you can only buy 50+ acres of land that will not be buildable for 7-10 years, the second area has 1 acre lots for a pretty penny, there are no animal rights and utilities are not to the lot. The third area is a little further away, it would mean about a 45 min- hour commute. The had lots ranging from 2-5 acres for a great price.

They also offered seller financing which wasn't what we had originally planned on seeing as we wanted to do this totally debt free. But there are no banks involved and no fee to pay the lot off early. We drove out to look at the lot. It's 2.64 acres in a gorgeous valley up the canyon. We fell in love! We are planning to sign the paperwork this week and make the bit of earth OURS!

There are a few drawbacks. I will update with a post on the cost and problems we are running into soon!

Building Types

Once the decision had been made to build our own home debt free we started looking into construction types. The plan was to build a barn with a loft that was livable and stay in there until the big house was finished. We started slowly pricing out lumber, We knew it wasn't going to be super cheap but were hoping to have the barn up by the time our lease is up in our current loft.

I spent hours on pinterest Friday and Saturday finding blogs of those who have ventured to build their own homes. Saturday night Riley and I were laying in bed around midnight looking on pinterest about our upcoming project. He drifted off to sleep just as I found some info about building a house out of straw. The first post I saw on it my thought was "Freaking crazy hippies will build out of anything" then I clicked the link.

Guys this is like a REAL option! it's far less expensive than traditional buildings and gives the home a totally unique look. Sure some people build them and they look like total "hippy, off the grid" type house. But when done right, they are GORGEOUS. I started searching everywhere on the internet for more info on straw bale homes. These homes are virtually fireproof. the straw is so compacted in the bales that any flame will simply smolder rather than burn.

While looking into straw bale homes I also came across cob houses. These homes are made from a mixture of clay, sand and straw. They also have the potential of either looking crazy hippish or beautiful.

Since we are determined to build "debt free" we have at this time decided to build a straw bale house with cob flooring.

The Beginning

Riley came to me a few weeks ago determined that by the time our lease is up in November he wants to have a place of our own. He is currently using the Post 9/11 GI Bill which includes a housing allowance. It seems like a waste to use this housing allowance for rent when it could be going towards a place all our own. We started driving around during nap time hours and searching for homes for sale. We wanted a house with at least 3 bedrooms, plenty of room to grow when we decided to add another little one to the family, as well as a big yard. We didn't want neighbors too close, and we wanted enough space to grow a decent garden. A home with these requirements in the county tend to run between $200k-$300k starting out.

I HATED the idea of having a mortgage. We bought a townhouse right before the economy crashed, we had plenty of money before we bought the house and then suddenly we were both making a fraction of what we were before. Riley ended up joining the Marine Corps due to the economy crash and we had to do a short sale on our home. It was terrible!

I've always wanted to build a house from the ground up, I have mentioned this to Riley many times throughout our marriage. Each time I am scoffed at, he usually says something about how hard it would be and totally impractical as while working full time how would he find the time to build a house. While searching pinterest last week I found a blog misformama.net. She outlines in a post how she and her husband built a home from the ground up debt free for 100k. Inspiration had hit! I showed Riley the blog and told him it was entirely possible to build our own place. I found story after story of people building their own place, in most of the stories it either took years to complete with working around a full time job, or they took a year off work to complete the home.

Here is where our advantage lies, Riley is home due to being a disabled vet and also using the GI bill. I know that doesn't sound like an advantage but it is. He currently has an income along with plenty of time.

This time things will be different. I don't want a bank to have it's hand in our decision regarding what we can and cannot "afford" to live in.

We then began the search for a little bit of earth for us to build, as well as started research as to different types of homes to build ourselves.

This is our story... Hopefully it ends up the way I see in my mind and it doesn't end after 4 blog posts. Stick with us to join in our journey!