Goals for 2016? | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

Jain said

Gravel Road said
Our plan,

Build our home and preserve our marriage while doing it.

That is a very insightful statement - do BOTH of you want to do the actual building? If not sounds like a disaster waiting to happen . It took us nearly 5 years to build our last home and we did it all together. I laid all the adobes on the interior and hubby did the exterior (16" double brick bearing wall). We each had our strengths and preferred tasks. But neither did 'more or less' than the other. What kept us going was our enjoyment of living 'remote' and being our own bosses. That and a very strong goal of finishing OUR house.

That said, it was also a mutual decision to have the next house built for us. Not only was it more financially possible after selling the one we built, but we knew we didn't have the time or patience to do it again. None the less, I was on site every day and did a lot of the sub contracting, planning and material pre selection so that the construction crew could do building instead of running around. Our contractor told us that he wished more people would 'build' like we did. But then again, I'm the house person and it was a labor of love for me - both times.

Gravel, is it possible to build in stages? Yes that can drag on the building process, but then you get to move in sooner and keep costs down (pay as go) and take rests between efforts. (Check out 'court yard' house concept in Tiny House topic).

Think up and consider as many alternatives as possible - one will probably suit you more too. BEST wishes!!

That's great insight, Jain! We haven't started building our home yet (been living on our land for just 3 months!) but we have hope we can build a home together because our end goals are SO strong, and similar to yours. I don't have some deep drive to build a house, nor did I grow up learning any of the skills, but it seems to be a great way to build wealth, do things somewhat debt-free, be our own bosses, and I do want to be more well-rounded. I do anything I put my mind to, and I've committed to this lifestyle, but all said and done I don't know that I'd do it twice! I'll tell ya when we get "there"!

It does seem that if you can build one house, it opens up a host of options for future homes. The equity in a house you built can just be insane! We figure that we can flip our property when we're done and do it again, or buy a property that's already developed somewhat. I think in the end, we'll learn what we really enjoy doing and not... sometimes you don't know until you try it.