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!