Hey everyone – it’s been quite some time since I’ve written anything. 7 months to be exact. I browsed through the last post that I wrote, and it’s hard to believe that we had just poured our slab. If you’ve been following the posts on our Facebook page, you’ll know that we’ve been busy during that time building our house. In the last post I had mentioned that I was hopeful we’d be receiving an offer on our house. A lot has changed since then, but let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the past year and also look ahead to what’s coming up for us.
Looking back at 2016
So 2016 was kind of a mixed bag for us in both highlights and depression/frustration/setbacks. The first few months flew by as I had taken some time off from work in dealing with the loss of my father. During that time I spent quite awhile drafting plans for our house we had been planning. While this was always our eventual plan, the events leading up to this year kind of spurred our haste in getting things started. I spent quite awhile researching spans, loads, and building construction as well as learning how to design in SketchUp. I also gathered estimates from all of the subcontractors that we’d be required to hire.
Dealing with financial issues, we had saved a little, but we were relying on a building construction loan to finance our house. When that fell through due to a low appraisal we were kind of stuck. Fortunately, we were very lucky be able to borrow the money required from a family member (and we’re incredibly thankful!) However, this also required us to list and sell our house to come up with the remaining funds. This was an adventure that we are lucky to never have to endure again as we’ll be on our property now for the rest of our lives. I think we had over 22 showings before we ended up getting an offer; each showing required us to clean the house, pick up the dogs, and scram.
On top of that, we had begun construction so I was in between both houses most of the time and Bre and I were also both busy with work (and her with school). Once we did receive an offer, it was quite a bit lower than what we had anticipated. We were able to negotiate a deal, but after the buyer’s inspection (which they did themselves) they lowered the offer again. Now, we were able to negotiate that back up a little bit, but it was still less than we had hoped for. After spending a lot of time praying, talking, and thinking about our options we decided to accept for less and just be done with it. I can’t tell you how happy I am about that. We closed in September, and in the quick three months since then I have completely forgotten what it was like to live there.
Cleaning the house and moving was just a matter of a few hectic days, but once it was done it was a huge sigh of relief to know that we just didn’t have to deal with it anymore and we could just focus our attention on only ONE house. Now, the house still wasn’t (and isn’t currently) ready for us to move into as we had just finished the exterior by this time. Again, we were incredibly lucky to have a family member offer to let us and the dogs move in for as long as we needed in order to finish the house. So in the past three months I’ve been able to work at a more relaxed pace, still get work done, but have more time at home to spend with Bre and the pups.
In those same three months we’ve gotten the plumbing, electric, spray foam, and most of the basswood tongue and groove up. All we have left to do is finish the tongue and groove, do the trim, frame a couple of sliding barn wood doors, install the tile shower, install the wood burning stove, and build some cabinets for the kitchen and bathroom. Oh, and build some stairs for the loft. And put up the soffits. So the list goes on, but at least it’s getting shorter.
So looking back at 2016 I am amazed at what we’ve accomplished. Staring out this spring we had stakes in the ground marking the corners of our prospective house. Now, we’re almost to the point where we can move in. While each step has been painstakingly slow at times, and I don’t always look at the whole picture, it’s amazing to me how much our lives have changed in just one year.
I’ve always had an issue with getting too excited about things to come and not enjoying or appreciating the time at hand. That’s one thing that I’ve really tried to work on over the past year because this is something that we’re doing that not many people get an opportunity to do. Also, I want to look back and cherish these moments, even the hard ones, because you never know when things might change for the worse. That said, there’s a number of reasons why I am looking forward to 2017.
Looking ahead to 2017
First and foremost, we will, at some point, finish the house and move in. And then I’ll probably take a week off and do nothing. Also, Bre will be finishing her program in 2017. Even though it’s incredibly difficult, she has worked extremely hard to get where she’s at in her program, and I know that it will pay dividends in the near future. Even though she’ll be working more, she’ll still have more time off by not having to deal with school and clinicals, and it feels like we can finally start our lives again.
Also, I have quite an extensive list of projects that I’ve been obsessing over, and I just can’t wait to start. Smaller, more manageable projects. Ok, maybe a few big ones too. I’ll gloss over a few here in a minute. And the last and most important thing for 2017 is a total surprise, and one that I can’t share just yet. So, you’ll just have to wait!
As far as projects, here’s what I have planned so far (these are just a few highlights of the bigger projects, not the day to day ones I have planned for our YouTube page).
I have to opportunity to inherit my father’s old “dozer”, a John Deere 1010 Crawler Tractor. It currently hasn’t run in probably 15 years, and I’m no mechanic. That will be a big project to bring it back to life again, and I hope that I’m up to the task. That’s because there’s no way I’ll be able to afford another tractor in the near future, and I can use this to establish our trails on the land, grade out our garden and yard, and possibly dig our fence poles for the fenced dog yard if I grab a three point post hole auger.
Also, I’m REALLY trying to convince Bre that it’s in our best interest to purchase a sawmill. While rationally I know it’s not prudent by any means, we could potentially mill the lumber required for our remaining outbuildings. Such as: a solar wood drying kiln to process our lumber, a firewood shed, a chicken coop, a greenhouse, and a gambrel timber frame barn! This barn would be the eventual home of our sawmill, tractor, and temporary garage for our vehicles. I’d also love the sawmill to process my own lumber for woodworking projects, and hopefully do some commercial sales on the side. Sourcing lumber shouldn’t be too difficult either seeing as though we’re removing trees for our trails and the Spruce Budworm is in the process of killing off spruce forests in the area, and our forest is roughly 80% Black Spruce.
And lastly, I can get back in the habit of creating new content for this blog and our YouTube channel. I’ve kept a journal that’s now brimming with ideas for projects to create, and I’ve also kept a separate journal detailing each day that I’ve worked on the house. I hope to recap those daily accomplishments in future posts here. And, I’m super excited to check out the footage from our time-lapse of the build. We set up a time-lapse for the exterior construction of the house, and I really hope it turned out as I had planned.
Regardless of how much of my plans get accomplished, I know that we’ll be together on our land, and have more time to do some of the things we’ve been talking about for years, instead of just talking about them.