These are the exact house plans that we designed in SketchUp and used to build our own 600 square foot home. I laid the plans out similar to (in my own childhood experience) LEGO instructions to simplify the ease of construction. Using the plans also allowed me to create an accurate pricing and materials list for ordering. These plans can be used for creating your own small home, or to start your planning process. (more…)
A little while ago I mentioned that I was preparing to write a book. As I said, I’ve always wanted to be an author, but I never could find a topic to which I felt knowledgeable enough to write a book. Eventually, my plan is for this entire blog to become a book so that others might enjoy (or laugh at) some of the experiences we’ve had in building our homestead. Then I had a thought. (more…)
Buying land is probably the biggest investment a person will make in their lifetime. It is vital to get it right. I say that it’s a bigger investment than purchasing a house because not only are you buying the land, but you also have to then build your house along with all the infrastructure. A significant amount of planning is involved. (more…)
It’s a funny thing, writing these posts about our build. Next to my word processor I have a list in my sticky notes that reflects my daily jottings of the progress we made. On it, I can see Day 5,6,7, etc. All the way up to Day 87 (as of today). Yet, when writing about what we accomplished, I can honestly relive it. And it seems like just yesterday that we were putting down the subfloor in the loft. (more…)
Last weekend we performed my father’s ash ceremonies. It was a weekend that I had been dreading ever since his passing. I had picked out a simple urn for my father’s remains. It was made out of reclaimed wood, and it’s been sitting on our bookshelf since his funeral service. When it came to actually spreading the ashes, I had two ideological oppositions to it that I struggled with, and it was difficult for me to overcome. I doubt that anyone going through this same situation will stumble upon this page, but in the unlikely event that occurs, I hope that this post will explain how I was able to rise to this occasion, and my thought process thereof.
First of all, I have to clarify – Bre and I are vegetarians, so even though she saved the day I had to make the post title a meatless vegetarian option. Clear? Sunday was the nicest day we’ve had in quite some time. In fact, temperatures reached above 50 degrees which is rare for our area this time of year. We both had the day off, so we thought we’d take the puppies out to the land for a nice hike to investigate the current status of the snowpack on our building site. We had been out to the land just a few days prior and were able to drive all the way back to our building site, so we figured that since some of the snow had undoubtedly melted given the temperatures we would have no issues driving back now. We were wrong. Very wrong.