I thought I would take a minute to share a few fun facts about me so you can get to know me even better.

Here goes…

1. Someday, I want to live in a school bus and travel the United States. I don’t know why but converting a school bus into an RV and living in it full time sounds like a blast! …even though I don’t like to camp.

2. I used to be a First Grade teacher.

3. After dating for 2 weeks, The Man and I knew we wanted to get married but we waited 4 months just so our parents wouldn’t flip out.

4. One winter, we lived in a small camper on 10 acres we own. We had a ton of fun but living in a camper, during the winter, is a little tough.

5. One time, we went on 5 cruises in one year…just because we could. Two of those cruises were “back-to-back.” That means, we took one cruise and when everyone else got off when the cruise was over, we stayed on a went again.

6. I love to weedeat. There’s something about the instant gratification of the grass being immediately short that makes me love it.

7. I’m a mediocre gardener but, for some reason, I keep trying. I even recorded a hilarious video about it one summer.

8. I want to spend a Fall in Maine. I have know idea what we’ll do but I’m sure it will involve maple syrup.

9. I homeschool our children. We even have a homeschool “classroom.” It’s my absolute favorite room in the house!

10. I can make the most amazing homemade hamburger buns and homemade mayo. Timothy says it beats a burger from Guy’s Burger Joint all to pieces. If you’ve ever had one of those burgers on a Carnival Cruise ship, then you know what he’s talking about. They are amazing! But he likes mine better.

11. I love to build things for my kids. I have built a huge doll house, a log crayon organizer, a car road table, a play kitchen…the list goes on.

12. We paid off our first and only mortgage in 13 months.

13. I love to look up at the sky because it makes me feel small.

14. My favorite meal is fajitas on the beach in Cozumel, Mexico. Every time we go to our favorite spot in Cozumel, that’s what I order.

15. I would love to RV through Canada.

16. Many years ago, we went through a fish tank phase and learned everything we could about being good fish owners. Then, we bought 5 fish tanks and had fish for over 2 years (and a few crabs that we rescued from the local big box store because they weren’t keeping them right). After that, I’ll never have fish again. It’s hard work to do it right!

17. The Man and I hope to live in Portugal one day. Sounds random , doesn’t it?

18. My favorite color is blue and I have painted something blue in every house we have ever owned. In our Dream House, our son’s bedroom ceiling is blue.

19. I learn best if I’m doodling while listening. That drove my college professors crazy! It could also have been because the smell of my markers was so nauseating after an hour of doodling through a lecture.

20. I can do pretty amazing graphic design work with Microsoft Word and my graphic designer husband rolls his eyes every time I say that.

21. I looove warm prune juice. Don’t you?

22. In elementary school, I would wear a dress on P.E. day so I wouldn’t have to participate. If you mention getting a game of kickball together…I’m gone.

23. When we go anywhere, I make announcements like a tour bus driver as we travel down the road. If I forget to do it, my husband and kids beg me to do it because they love it. They even ask me to do it when we ride in our UTV through our woods.

24. I’m terrible at grammar and punctuation…but, I’m sure you have figured that out by now.

25. I’m not tempted my fads or the latest trends. They don’t impress me much. You won’t find me on Tik-Tok and I don’t own skinny jeans.

You made it to the end!

I would love to hear about YOU! Feel free to leave me a comment with a fun fact about you!

Have a great day!
Lindsey

The post 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me And Probably Don’t Care To appeared first on Big House in the Woods.

Once Time, We Lived in a Cave…Sort Of

In our first house, the living room was on the back of the house and it had one double window. That window faced North so sunlight never poured in. To top it off, we had to build a roof over the deck in the backyard to make it functional and that ultimately shaded the living room window completely. The living room became a cave. (I’m sure the fact that we had the brilliant idea to paint all the walls burnt orange had nothing to do with it either.)

The only rooms in our first house that received any sunlight were the two spare rooms and the laundry room. In the winter, when it was too cold to go outside, we would start feeling claustrophobic very quickly.

House #2- A Step Up

The second house we bought was a little better. The living room had a double window like the first house AND it was taller. That meant you could actually see out of the window while sitting on the couch. The den on the back of the house had a sliding glass door that faced West. We got more West sun beaming in through that door than we could have ever wanted but I can guarantee you this…we never complained. The extra bedrooms had adequate windows, the master bedroom had two windows, and there was even a large window in the master bathroom.

While living in our second house, we realized how windows can change the way we feel. On cold, winter days, it took longer to feel claustrophobic because the sun was pouring in and it was easy to see outside. We didn’t feel like the walls were closing in on us. And on summer days when the mosquitoes were thicker than the humidity, we could enjoy looking at the outdoors from the comfort of our air-conditioned living room.

How to Make Your Entire House into a Sun Porch without Spending a Ton

Here’s a fact: windows are expensive.

As we shopped for windows for our new home, we knew that it was going to be expensive. We priced standard-sized bedroom windows at a local big box store and found that one small window was going to cost about $175. We were wanting a lot of windows. At that price, we would spend roughly $5,000 and we still wouldn’t have what we really wanted.

Since we were building this house debt-free, we wanted to find a way to get as many windows as we could while saving as much cash as we could. Plus, we wanted floor to ceiling windows…we wanted lots of light and we wanted our babies to be tall enough to see out of the windows before their 5^th birthday!

HUGE Windows for a Tiny Price

One time, several years before we drew up the plans for our Big House in the Woods, we were living in a camper on ten acres we own in Western Arkansas. It was just for a short time but it’s a loooong story. The point is, we found a neat business that sells overstock windows.

Overstock windows=lower priced windows

We were able to buy huge 7ft by 7ft windows for only $175 each! We bought 7 of those huge windows! They are triple wide and bring a lot of light into our house. We also bought one window that is 5ft wide and 7 feet tall for our kids’ bedroom for only $150. Finally, we purchased 4 windows that are standard width and 7 feet tall. Each of those windows were $125. We used those in tighter spaced like the master bathroom and an upstairs bedroom that has slanted ceilings.

That is a total of $1,875 for all of the large windows in our home. That is an incredible savings! To top it all off, the owner of that business gave us one of those single windows for free. He said it was a gift for our daughter. So, that brings the total down to $1,750!

The Story Behind the Overstock Windows

The owner of the overstock window business told us that a semi load of windows was headed for Florida. The windows were made for a condominium complex but the builder went bankrupt. So, they sold them to this overstock company.

I don’t know how accurate that story is but it works for me! Otherwise, we would have had to custom order all of our windows and we would have spent waaaay more than $1,750!

Father-in-Law To The Rescue

We purchased the windows for our dream home 6 YEARS before we actually built it! We were planning and preparing in hopes that we would one day find land that we loved. So, what were we going to do with all of the windows for 6 years?

Thankfully, my father-in-law helped us and stored them for all that time. It’s a great blessing to have family who will always back us up and help us out when we need it. My father-in-law is that kind of guy. He’s a problem solver.

He also loaded all those windows up and drove them 3.5 hours down to our land when we were ready to install them! On a scale of 1-10…I’d give him a 10.

A Glass House in the Making

When we were designing our dream home, we put windows EVERYWHERE. Even our shower has windows. We were building our house in the woods and we wanted to enjoy them whether we were inside or out. When we were drawing the plans for our Big House in the Woods, we had several meetings with our framer and with an architect to make sure it was going to work. We had to make sure we had enough room for an adequate amount of studs so the house wouldn’t fall down! The windows were taking up a lot of the wall space but we were determined to make it work. Never again would we live in a dark house. We had purchased five beautiful wooded acres and we wanted to look at them ALL. THE. TIME.

A Note About Energy Efficiency

Some of you might be thinking that our electric bills must be through the roof with all of these windows but it’s not. All of them are “Low-e – Argon Gas” windows and our electric bill is just as low as all of the other houses we have ever owned.

So, what’s it like to live with so many windows?

I have to say that it first it was very odd to me. Many of our windows do not have curtains so it felt like we were living in a fish bowl at night. If we were living in town, we would definitely have curtains covering all the windows but we are in the woods, so it’s different. Now, we are completely used to it! However, we have lots of exterior lights that we can use to flood the areas around the house if we hear a weird noise outside.

Also, we love all the sunlight during the day. We rarely turn on any lights until the sun goes down. Even our stairwell is completely lit by a tubular skylight on the roof!

What’s the Take-Away Here?

Always look around. There are small businesses out there who do a great favor to anyone who wishes to build their dream home for less.

The post Project Dream House: What It’s Like to Live in a House Full of Windows and How to Afford Them appeared first on Big House in the Woods.

Videos and products referenced in this video:
Harvest Day video from last summer
Snake Gaiters for walking in the woods

Feel free to leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

The post Take a Tour of Our Place! appeared first on Big House in the Woods.

How to Build a House Debt-Free

It was a hot summer day. I was wearing one of my husband’s big t-shirts to cover my round, pregnant self because I didn’t want to tear one of my nice maternity shirts in the woods.

We had just bought 5 beautiful, wooded acres and we were marking trees to clear so we could build our dream house. We had saved for 6 years so we could buy land and build our dream house (ourselves) with cash.

Why Did We Choose to Be Our Own General Contractor?

The answer is simple: money. And we saved loads of it.

It would have been difficult to build a house debt-free if we had not been our own general contractor AND looked for ways to save money.

In addition, we were able to customize the house exactly how we wanted down to the last detail and have complete control over the entire building process.

Big House in the Woods Specs

Our house is 2300 sq. ft, with 5 bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and an attached 900sq ft garage. (We use it as three bedrooms, a sitting room and a man/game room.) The house includes 5 walk-in closets, a FEMA approved concrete safe room, a clubhouse under the stairs for the kids, an area for homeschooling, and a screened-in porch overlooking our land. 

It appraises for OVER DOUBLE what we spent on the house and the 5 acres together. We could sell it today and make a HUGE profit!  

We didn’t have any experience building a house when we started. My husband works in a cubicle on a computer and I’m a homemaker. (I built a doll house once but I don’t think that counts.) 

Being your own general contractor just takes planning and a lot of determination. You can build a house debt-free if you put your mind to it.

How Much Does a Professional General Contractor Make?

General contractor management fees generally total 10 to 20% of the project cost. The rate can get as high as 25% depending on the size of the project.

HomeAdvisor.com

Read more about Professional General Contractor Rates Here

Generally, homeowners finance that amount into their mortgage and pay it off over the 15 or 30 year loan period. However, we were paying cash for our home.

Being our own general contractor and saving all that money meant that we could put it toward doing other things we wanted like: more square footage, custom trim work, sidewalks, concrete fire pit, etc.

We did get a bid from a professional general contractor who was going to cut us a little bit of a deal but it was still more than we wanted to pay. Plus, we’re just really picky people (and why shouldn’t we be? It’s OUR money!).

We knew we would constantly be coming over to the house checking on it, talking with the general contractor or wondering why he had stalled. So, we decided it would be better to just do it ourselves. 

Why pay a general contractor when we were going to be so involved anyway? 

Our House is Custom

We drew the plans out ourselves on graph paper. We planned every window, every door, exactly how we wanted cabinets placed, the size of the walk-in shower, how wide we wanted the foyer, etc.

We designed every wall and corner down to the inch. We knew it better than anyone. Being our own general contractor was a perfect fit.

Plus, we were going to save TONS OF MONEY. 

Can You Build a House Quickly on Your Own?

Our house was built and liveable in 6 months, which is the same length of time that it would have taken a professional general contractor. We accomplished all this while my husband worked full time and I continued my homemaking tasks while caring for a 5 year old and our infant son.

I’m not saying it was easy. Don’t be disillusioned. I’m just saying it’s very doable.

Now, to be clear, the house wasn’t fully complete when we moved in. We finished it up once we got here.

We did that for two reasons: #1- We were anxious to get out of town. #2- We didn’t quite know what all we wanted until we moved in and got a feel for the house.

Things to Consider Before Being Your Own General Contractor

There are a couple of things to consider before you decide to become your own general contractor: Are you organized? Can you handle some pressure? Do you like babysitting? 

“Babysitting?” you say. “Why do I have to babysit?” I’ll tell you why. It’s because this is YOUR house and no one cares about it like YOU do. Now, I don’t mean EVERYONE who works on your house will have to have a constant eye on them but there are plenty who will.

Think about it, this is YOUR dream house, not theirs. They don’t have any love invested in it like you do. It’s just another house to them.

Sometimes they don’t pay attention to the plans and completely forget to frame the 7 ft. by 7 ft. window in your master bedroom (which happens to be almost the entire bedroom wall). You might tell them you need a 2 ft. x 2 ft. window space framed for a beautiful antique window you already bought, and they will most definitely leave you an 18 in. x 36 in. hole.

You may send them 10 pictures and diagrams of how the foundation blocks need to be laid for the concrete safe room to sit on PER THE MANUFACTURER, but they’ll just nod enthusiastically and then do it according to the way Builder So-And-So does it across town, I promise.

This is what I call babysitting. I’m just saying. 

Despite the babysitting, there are plenty of rewards to contracting your own house.

Rewards From Being Your Own General Contractor

#1: The biggest reward is the TONS of money you’ll save. 
#2: You will gain lots of life experience.
#3: Also, it is such a reward to see your dream house become a reality.

I still remember the feeling of walking through the house after it had been framed and thinking, “Wow! We drew this on graph paper and now it is three dimensional!” We were actually kind of surprised that it worked! 

I know all of this can sound daunting. You see other people who have done it and you think it’s just too big of a task for you. Well, here’s the truth. We thought the same thing going in to it.

We had NEVER built a house before or been involved in any type of house construction. The most we had ever done was buy (then sell) two houses and do minor work on those (like painting). 

We set out to build a house debt-free and we did it!

What If You Have Never Built a House Before?

Here’s the deal. You don’t have to know everything. All you have to do is find people who know what they’re doing and hire them in the correct order.

It’s just like any other seemingly over-whelming task you’ve experienced before (college exams, losing weight, potty training your child, teaching your dog to not eat the quilt your great-grandmother made you); just take it one step/day at a time and all those steps/days will add up to your dream house in the end! 

Here’s what we discovered: once you find that very first subcontractor you need (in our case, it was a guy who did dirt work), just ask him if he recommends anyone to frame the house.

Does he know a good plumber? Can he recommend a good electrician? These people are all in the same business and, most of the time, have met or heard of each other because they have been on the same job sites.

They know who Mr. Big Time Builder in the next town uses as a roofer, and they can get you his number.

I would say that most of the crews we hired to build our house were not listed in the phone book. They were too busy to be in the phone book.

We learned about them through word-of-mouth. We talked to everyone we met and asked them their recommendations. 

We also discovered that most of the people in the building business are quite friendly. They can point you in the right direction if you get stuck or they know a guy who can. 

Big House in the Woods Real Life Example

When we were in the insulation phase, we came out to check on the house and and discovered that the company we hired was doing a pretty sorry job. I didn’t have any other leads about who could replace them so I just called a number out of the phone book.

I looked up “insulation” and found a family-owned company with a nice looking ad that had a picture of the whole family. They looked nice so I called and explained my situation. I told them I was pretty sure our current company was doing it all wrong and I needed advice.

One of the owners came out to the house and looked it over. He was kind and explained how it SHOULD be done. We needed the insulation installed between our rafters in the second story before we could get the sheetrock put up.

He said it would be too expensive for us to hire his company to do it because it was too small of a job (since we were just trying to finish what the other company did wrong).

So, he sent out one of his crew members to do the job on his own time and we paid him directly. He had the job finished and correct in a day.

He even texted us pictures when he was done.  As a result, when we needed a company to spray insulation in the attics, we knew exactly who to call. 

What Should You Do When You Need Advice?

It is also helpful to find someone who has built their own house before so you can ask them questions when you get stuck or bounce ideas off them if you need to.

Maybe you have a neighbor or relative who has built before. Or maybe you could bounce ideas off the guy who owns the hardware store down the street.

You will most likely find that there are lots of people around you who can give you valuable advice or contacts. 

We also had a book that we referenced every now and then to make sure we were on the right track: “Housebuilding: A Do-it-Yourself Guide” by R.J. DeCristoforo.

One of my husband’s coworkers brought in a stack of books he didn’t want anymore, and this book was in the stack. We found it to be a great resource to go along with the advice we got from other people; it saved us from having to bug people a few times when we had questions. 

Build a House Debt-Free Conclusion…

We have experienced all the highs and lows of contracting our own house and I can tell you that it was worth it. I’m so glad that we saved up the cash to build it instead of getting a mortgage. Now, we have a beautiful place to enjoy our debt-free life!

We Are Debt-Free!

If you are wondering why we were so determined to build a house debt-free, it’s because we are debt-free and taking out a mortgage was never in our line of thinking.

In fact, we have been debt-free and mortgage-free since we were 25!

We had saved and lived frugally for 6 years so we could build our dream home debt free. We were excited, determined, and stubborn.

Sometimes, stubbornness pays off.

Want to Know How to Be Debt-Free?

Becoming debt-free is simple…in theory. It’s about spending less money than you make then applying that saved money toward your debt.

It’s a lot like losing weight.

To lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you intake.

But you must move beyond the theory.

You must be diligent because the journey may test you.

Basically, you have to make a plan of attack and put it into motion.

Everyone has different situations with different amounts of debt. You must determine the best debt-free path to take that meets your needs.

I’ll help you.

Start here: How to Become Debt-Free

What is it Like to Be Debt-Free?

Do you ever ponder about this? Do you ever wonder what it would be like to not have to divide your paycheck so many ways?

I know the journey to becoming debt-free can be a long one but there is a happy ending waiting at the end of that road!

Read: What is it Like to Be Debt-Free? I’ll give you the full scoop!

We are Living Debt-Free, No Mortgage.

We have been living debt-free with no mortgage since 2011. We were 25.

We paid off our first and only mortgage in 13 months then saved so we could build our dream home with cash.

Now, we save like millionaires so we can retire when we’re 45.

Do you want to build a house debt-free?

We would love to talk! Leave us a comment below.

All the best,
Lindsey

Also, remember to follow us on Facebook and YouTube so you won’t miss a beat!

*This post contains affiliate links.

The post Our Debt-Free Dream Home – How to Build a House Debt Free appeared first on Big House in the Woods.

We thought about traffic patterns, where the kids would play, the width of doorways, minimizing wasted space, where we were going to keep our massive book collection, etc.

One major decision to consider was where all of the plumbing was going to be located. Plumbing placement can make a huge impact on the total cost of this phase.

Kitchen Sink Placement in an Open Concept Floor Plan

The entire back of our house is an open concept with wall to wall windows. I knew I wanted the kitchen sink to be positioned so that I would be facing the rest of the family in the living room while I spent countless hours standing at the kitchen sink. (Because sometimes I feel like I LIVE in the kitchen!)

Our first house did not have an open concept so when I was in the kitchen, I was alone. House #2 was an open concept but I always had my back to the rest of the family because of where the kitchen sink was located. This was a problem I wanted to fix while drawing the plans for our Big House in the Woods.

You can fix the problem in several ways. One way would be to put the kitchen sink on an island that faces the rest of the living space. I didn’t want an island in our kitchen. I wanted to create one way into the kitchen and one way out.

Our second child was a baby at the time we were drawing our floor plans for our Big House in the Woods. The kitchen in the house we were living in at the time had two entrances and he always seemed to find a way to be underfoot. I could put a baby gate in one entrance but the other entrance was too wide. For a while, we had to create a barrier with a Christmas tree box and a chair!

The kitchen we designed for our new house is U-shaped with the sink on a pony wall facing the dining area and the living room. The one entrance to the kitchen is 3 feet wide which is perfect for a baby gate if need be.

Preventing Freezing Water Pipes in a New Construction

The second thing I wanted to fix was plumbing pipes that were located in outside walls. I know freezing temperatures aren’t a HUGE problem here in Arkansas but when the temperature drops in the winter, I start worrying about water pipes that are in outside walls.

In our new house, I wanted to make sure all of the water pipes would be located in interior walls where they would always be warm. This worked out well for the most part except for the water supply to the washing machine and the water supply to the refrigerator.

However, the water supply for the washing machine is on an exterior wall that gets all of the warm South sun in the winter. Also, it’s blocked by the north wind by the hallway that connects the house to the garage.

So, that leaves only the water supply to the refrigerator as a weak point. That’s a huge improvement from all the other houses we’ve lived in! *An important thing to note here is that even though these two water supplies are in exterior walls, they are located in heated areas. It would be much different if our laundry room was unheated.

“The pipes most at risk are those in unheated interior spaces such as basements, attics, and garages. But even pipes running through cabinets or exterior walls can freeze.”

Consumer Reports

Bathroom Placement in a New Construction

Now let’s talk about bathroom placement. The best thing you can do to keep your plumbing costs down is to keep bathrooms as close to each other as possible. For example, our half bath and our master bathroom are both on the same side of the house downstairs. This kept our materials cost down.

Also, our upstairs bathroom sits directly on top of the half bath that is downstairs. This means that our plumbing pipes can run through the same walls and we aren’t trying to run pipes to the four corners of the house.

“To save on materials and make the system more efficient, consider grouping rooms that require plumbing closer together. For instance, place a laundry room adjacent to or near the kitchen, while placing bathrooms in key locations near bedrooms. When you design rooms that have plumbing fixtures in multiple and opposite locations around the home, you can expect to pay more for materials and installation overall.”

homeguides.sfgate.com

We placed the water heater under the stairs so we wouldn’t have to waste closet space. The space under stairs is perfect for a water heater! Because of the way I designed our stairs, one side of that space is for the water heater and the other side is an awesome clubhouse for our kids. That also means that the water heater is centrally located between the kitchen sink and all the bathrooms.

Outside Faucets for a New Construction Home

The last thing we had to consider was where we wanted faucets outside. Since we were designing this house, we had the opportunity to make it fit our needs. That means we wanted water in specific places for our specific needs. (It’s all about ME ME ME!)

We put an exterior faucet on the west side of the house so we would have it near the side yard. (You can’t have “Riviera Time” without water for the pool.)

We also put a faucet on the back of the house so we would have water near the back yard and the garden I had planned.

Finally, we put a frost-free hydrant in the wooded area in front of the house so it would be near our blueberry bushes and the yard for the dogs.

After living here for a couple of years now, I am extremely happy with the way we planned everything. We put a lot of thought into every part of this house including the plumbing and it pays off every single day.

A quick note about PEX Pipe…

Plumbing with PEX Pipe

Our entire house is plumbed with PEX Pipe. Since this was the first house we had ever built, this was my first experience with PEX pipe. Ideally, I wish our house wasn’t plumbed with plastic pipe but that is what all homes are plumbed with these days. PEX has been used in the U.S. since the 80s. PEX pipe made plumbing a little easier because it doesn’t require soldering. It also made plumbing possible for DIYers. However, we are not plumbing DIYers! We hired this job to be done.

What is PEX Pipe?

You’ve probably seen it before…rolls of colorful tubing in the plumbing aisle at the hardware store. You’ll see it in red, blue, white and gray. Each color represents a different function for that particular pipe. But what is it?

“Cross-linked polyethylene (PEX), a type of flexible plastic, is currently replacing traditional copper and galvanized steel as water supply lines in both new and construction and remodeling projects.”

bobvila.com

So, PEX Pipe or PEX “tubing” is plastic tubing.

What do the different colors of PEX Pipe mean?

PEX Pipe is conveniently color-coded so plumbers and DIYers can easily know their function.

Here is what the colors mean:
Red PEX pipe: hot water
Blue PEX pipe: cold water
White PEX pipe: either hot or cold water
Gray PEX pipe: either hot or cold water

All You Need to Know About PEX Pipe from Bob Vila

Best Book for Being Your Own General Contractor

While we were building our Big House in the Woods, we frequently referenced this book:

Housebuilding: A Do-It-Yourself Guide, Revised & Expanded

I hope this answers your questions about planning the plumbing for a new construction home and PEX pipe. If you have any more questions, please leave me a comment!

Also, remember to like Big House in the Woods on Facebook so you’ll never miss a beat.

All the best,
Lindsey

*This post contains affiliate links.

The post Project Dream House: Planning the Plumbing appeared first on Big House in the Woods.

All of the rooms and spaces we had walked through in our minds could ACTUALLY be walked through. And it looked like it might actually work! Project Dream House was thoroughly underway!

The speed at which it was framed was nothing short of amazing.

The day the framers were starting on our house, The Man went out to our land to watch the process start before he went to work. It was very early in the morning so the kids and I stayed home. At the time, we only had two children and the youngest was a baby. I didn’t want to get the kids out that early. Plus, it was January. It was coooollllddd.

When the slab was poured, we also had a concrete patio poured among the trees. So, The Man took a cup of coffee and watched as the framers worked their magic.

Since we were our own general contractor, we had to find our own framer. When we were calling around getting prices from framers for the job, we had two things in mind: a good price and a good recommendation. We didn’t have professional blue prints drawn up so we needed a framer who could work with the plans we drew out ourselves on graph paper. As we were calling framers, we found some who would work cheaper but we also knew that there is a balance between cheap labor and quality work. We found a framer who had a crew that worked for a good price and they came highly recommended from our concrete guy (who we already trusted because of his honesty and quality of work).

In our experience, framers price their jobs based on the square footage of the project. Our framer charged around $3 a square foot. They also charge you for nails. That price is also based on the square footage of the project.

All throughout the building process, we referenced “Housebuilding: A Do-It-Yourself Guide”.

Housebuilding: A Do-It-Yourself Guide, Revised & Expanded

It has FIVE chapters dedicated to framing. The table of contents has each chapter thoughtfully itemized so we could go right to the section that pertained to us. We learned a lot about joists, composite lumber, sills, beams, pony walls, top plates, pitch, slope, rafters, headers, etc. from that book.

It was nice to have a book to reference and not have to Google EVERYTHING.

When our framers started building our house, The Man noticed that they completely forgot to frame in the large 7ft by 7ft window in our bedroom. I don’t know how they missed it on the plans! Thankfully, he was there and able to point it out before they raised that wall up.

Once they got started, it only took them about 4-5 days to frame the ENTIRE house.

The Man went out each day after work to check on the progress. The kids and I went with him when we could.

We noticed several mistakes along the way. For example, we had an antique window that we purchased. The idea was that it would be an interior window that would overlook the stairwell from the upstairs sitting room. The framers needed to leave a 2 foot by 2 foot space for that window. When we went to check on the progress one day, we realized they left a 3 foot by 18 inch hole. We had written the dimensions on the house plans and explained the whole idea to them. They just didn’t look at the plan OR listen to what we said!

Another example is that the door to the kids room was one foot in the wrong direction. Trust me, it made a difference. I told them it was wrong but they didn’t want to listen to me. I mean, what could a girl like me know about building a house, right?

When I drew the house plans, I drew it to SCALE. I put the kids’ bedroom door exactly where I wanted it because on one side of it is their closet and the other side is the stairwell. It needed to be exactly right. The framers figured that out when they started building the staircase and the bedroom door was in the way. They promptly moved it. Ha!

The last example I can think of is the deck off the Man Room. The floor is made from composite deck boards. The boards are supposed to have a quarter inch spacing PER THE MANUFACTURER’S INSTRUCTIONS.

The Man: “Now, when your guys lay these boards, they need to space them so they have room to swell in the summer.”
Framer Boss: “Yeah. They will.”
The Man: “So they have used this type of flooring before?”
Framer Boss: “Oh yeah. No big deal.”
The Man: “How far will they space them?”
Framer Boss: “They always space them about a quarter inch. That’s how we always do it. We would NEVER butt them up together. We would never NOT space them. Trust me.”

The next day…

The Man: “Your guys did not space those composite deck boards. Now, they might swell and buckle in the summer heat.”
Framer Boss: huffing and puffing and trying to blow the house down

Why is it that when you ask someone about something they did NOT do that they said they WOULD do, they get mad?

After he huffed and puffed and steamed a while, the Framer Boss sent one of his guys upstairs to fix the composite deck boards. However, the screws were stripping and it was going to be a mess so The Man told them to just forget it. Those boards were expensive and we didn’t want to risk messing them up (again).

So far, so good. They haven’t swelled or buckled yet.

Those are just some of the things you have to deal with when you are acting as your own general contractor.

However, overall, the framers did an excellent job. It was fun to watch them work and even more fun to walk through the house when they finished framing it.

Here is what happens in the framing phase:
House gets framed (obviously)
Windows installed
House wrapped with weather proof wrap
Roof decking installed and covered with weather proof material
Exterior doors installed

When the framers were done, it looked like a house! Obviously, it had no brick on the exterior or shingles on the roof but you could actually unlock the front door, walk inside, and look out a window.

They also built the framework for the staircase and nailed on temporary 2x4s for the treads.

Something to keep in mind is that you should never pay for the job in full before it is done. Sometimes, people don’t have much motivation to work if they’ve already been paid. We paid our framers half of the agreed upon amount when they were half way done. They got the final payment when the job was completed to our liking.

Seeing our dream unfold in front of us was so exciting. Especially since we had worked so hard to pay for this entire house with CASH!

Are you wondering how to become debt-free? I’ve got full details here.

All the best,
Lindsey

The post Project Dream House Framing Phase: Our Dream Becomes 3D appeared first on Big House in the Woods.

When I started gardening over 10 years ago, I didn’t know much about it at all but since then I have read countless books and articles about the subject.

Check out my video to see how much I have learned!

Also, I will show you what I do with my harvest!

Happy Gardening!
Lindsey

The post Video: Harvest Day in My Garden and Making Fried Green Tomato appeared first on Big House in the Woods.

Now, let’s talk house plans.

This part is SO FUN!

We knew when we were designing our house that we wanted it to have personality and character. As we talked about it, we realized that when we were both kids and we drew a picture of a house, we usually drew something two stories with a big dormer on the front.

We wanted it to look like the house we always had in our imaginations. We didn’t want it to look bland. That’s what drew us to the Craftsman style. Big dormer. Stone. Tapered wood columns on the porch. There was actually an article in This Old House Magazine that provided a lot of inspiration for us.

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ideas/idea-house-2015-cottage-cloudland-station

We decided to build a two story house for two very critical reasons.

Reason #1: It’s cheaper to build “up” than “out.”

Let’s say you want to build a 2000 square foot house. If you build it one story, that means you have a 2000 sq. ft. slab of concrete (provided you are building on a slab). That also means you have to pay for a roof that will cover that 2000 sq. ft.

However, if you take that same 2000 sq. ft. and build it two stories instead. That changes everything. Let’s say you have 1000 sq. ft. down stairs and 1000 sq. ft. upstairs. That means you only have to pay for a 1000 sq. ft. slab and a roof that only has to cover that 1000 sq. ft. slab. That’s half the amount of slab and roof than the 2000 sq. ft. one story house.

Don’t forget that building two story also means that you will need to buy less concrete blocks for your footing and less fill to go under the slab.

Reason #2: We thought it would just be cool to have stairs in our house because we both grew up in one story houses. ?

Our house is 1344 sq. ft. downstairs and 920 sq. ft. upstairs with a hall that connects the house to the 900 sq. ft. garage.

Here’s our cost breakdown for the slab phase:

Footing materials- rebar, lumber for bracing, string: $404.67
Sand for block: $220
Footing concrete: $2,603.65
20 bags of mortar: $208.11
Blocks and brick for footing: $1,597.87
Block labor cost: $1,135.00
Footing labor cost: $1,750.00
Slab framing supplies: $112.74
Cost to have house space filled and packed for slab: $1,790.00
Pump truck extra cost (since our house is on a hill and the truck couldn’t drive behind it): $650.00
Slab concrete cost: $1,343.75
Slab labor cost: $1,974.00
Plastic moisture barrier- $112.11

So, that means, the entire cost of the footing and slab comes to: $13,901.90

(Had we built one story, the cost could have easily been around $28,000! Yikes!)

That $13,901.90 includes the 1,344 sq ft slab for the house, 10 x 15 screened porch slab on the back of the house, 5 x 19 front porch slab, 4 x 11 slab for hall to connect the house to the garage we had already built, and a 10 x 10 concrete patio in the trees out front.

We also had a FEMA approved concrete safe room installed. We made it into our master closet so it would have an everyday use and not be wasted space. It was installed before the slab was poured. The slab was then poured in and around it so that the safe room is now part of the slab.

6ft x 7ft FEMA approved concrete safe room delivered and installed with crane: $3,630.00

(DETAILS: We have already made use of this safe room several times. It has a light, electrical outlet, phone jack, HVAC vent (so we can stay cool in there during summer time storms), and TV antenna connection so we can watch the weather forecast while safely in the safe room. It has a FEMA approved metal door with THREE dead bolts. The company we bought it from custom builds them. Inside the concrete walls there is rebar and metal wire to reinforce it. As they are making it, they leave rebar sticking out of the bottom of the walls so that when the slab is poured it becomes one GIANT piece of concrete with the house.)

Our house is what some people might call “a story and a half.” My uncle is a builder and told us that to get the most for our money, we should just raise the pitch of our roof and essentially build our second floor in the attic. By just raising your pitch, you get an entire second floor for (basically) just the cost of the studs in the walls. These days, people are building houses with higher pitched roofs anyway. Most of them are doing it just to make the house look more grand from the outside. (I guess. I’m not a fan. I think they look like mushrooms; giant roofs with little houses underneath.) However, many of them aren’t even using that space. It’s just a hot, wasted attic. They could have just as easily insulated it, added a floor and an AC unit, and had a second story!

We added 920 sq. ft. to our house just by raising the pitch. The reason that’s cheaper than a traditional two story is because you don’t have exterior walls to build. The roof is your wall. That also means your upstairs can have some cool slanted walls if you want it to. Some of our walls are slanted upstairs but we still have 9 ft. ceilings up there.

Now, it’s time to talk about the fun part: DRAWING HOUSE PLANS! I loved this part. I started drawing house plans YEARS ago in preparation for this day! We drew our plans to fit THIS piece of land. I don’t believe you can take just any house plan and make it look right on any piece of land. Some places have a view to the front so you might want your living room and windows on the front. Some places might have a view to the back so you might want to do most of your living on the back of your house. You’ll want to take sunlight into account too. Do you want the West sun shining right into your living room? Here’s a big decision to consider also: Do you want the EAST sun shining right into you kids’ rooms in the morning?! Nope. Let those babies sleep.

We knew we wanted our living room on the back of our house. That way it would be easier to hide if someone rang the doorbell facing the view of our woods (our house is situated on top of a ridge and we can see other hills miles away and a lake). We have about 35 feet of floor to ceiling windows in our living room (which is the entire two exterior walls). We literally drew our house plans to fit these windows. We found an EXTREMELY good deal on them, bought them, and stored them for years. Don’t bring this subject up to my father-in-law. He might cry. He has helped us haul them when we bought them, he’s stored them, checked on them, delivered them, and probably several other things I can’t think of right now. (We love you! You’re the best.)

That also means we would need a foyer or a hall so we could get from the front door to the living room. Sometimes, hallways are wasted space and we wanted to combat that. We wanted our foyer to have as many uses as possible. We designed our foyer to lead us to the front door, master bedroom, one of the kids’ bedrooms, the half bathroom, and the living room. It also contains a coat closet, a library, and a clubhouse under the stairs for the kids. AND it serves as a bowling alley for the kids’ plastic bowling set and a freeway for their ride-on cars.

We also wanted our master bedroom downstairs and at least one of the kid’s bedrooms downstairs. Another must was an open concept since I’m ALWAYS in the kitchen. I don’t like being in there and away from everyone all the time. I want to cook/clean and still be part of the action.

Also, I wanted the laundry room to be right next to the kitchen. I wanted to expand the laundry room so that 3/4 of it could be our homeschool room. That way, when the kids were working/ playing in the school room, I could help them and keep an eye on them from the kitchen. That plan has worked out BEAUTIFULLY.

Now, let’s go upstairs.

I knew a LOOOONNNGGG time ago that The Man needed a Man Cave. Seriously. We’ve been on 9 cruises so far and he brings home WAY too many souvenirs. I didn’t want that mess those beautiful cultural items displayed in my living room. So, we added a Man Cave upstairs that also serves as a fun place to watch family movies or play board games.

Because we wanted a big, beautiful dormer on the front of the house, that meant we had space for a sitting room with a vaulted ceiling! This is where we go to have tea time, Bible time, girl time, grown-up talk time, decompress time, coffee time…you name it and the sitting room is a good place for it. The sitting room has a 7ft x 7ft window looking out over the front of our property.

Finally, there is another bedroom upstairs that has two walk-in closets, there is a full bathroom, and two extra walk-in closets in the foyer for Christmas decorations, neatly organized craft supplies, lawn chairs, old college laptops, throw pillows we need to get rid of, batteries, cds, extra lamps, box fans, an entire Christmas village, too many electrical cords, buckets of paint, cushions for our outside chairs, door knobs we never put up, fabric even though I don’t sew, a heating pad, school supplies, ect.

We designed everything about this house to fit OUR needs (and wants) but to also be appealing to a buyer should we choose to sell it one day.

So, what’s next? Let’s get this baby framed! It’s time to watch the walls go up!

We would love to hear from you! Leave your questions and comments in the comment box below.

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The post Project Dream House: House Plans and Slab Costs appeared first on Big House in the Woods.

You wouldn’t want to miss all the crazy neighbor and house hunting stories.

Anyway…

The perfect place I was talking about is 5 acres near work for Timothy; five beautiful, heavily wooded acres on a secluded hill. One day, when Timothy was at work, he asked a guy he worked with if he knew of any good land nearby; we had been looking for years. Well, that guy said, “Actually, there is some land for sale across the road from me.” We decided to go take a look.

When we got there, we parked on the side of the gravel road and started looking around. Right then, a couple who lived on that same road drove up to us. We told them we were there looking at the land that was for sale. They invited us to hop in their vehicle with them and they would show us around. They spent an hour or so showing us the different 5-6 acre parcels that were for sale.

It didn’t take us long to find the one we liked the best. It was at the top of a hill with a view of trees and a distant lake. We emailed the owner and made an offer that same day. (It just so happened that it was my birthday!) The owner told us that they had just gotten an offer that very same day for a little more money than what we were offering.

Here’s where all the years of saving and not indulging in all the luxuries that everyone else was enjoying paid off. We had the cash for the land. The other person who made an offer wanted to work out an “owner financing” deal.

The owners of the land said they didn’t want to deal with owner financing so they liked our offer better. They asked if we would come up on our offer a little. We came up some and they said, “SOLD!”

If we would not have had the cash and wanted to do owner financing like the other people, we could have lost out on the prettiest piece of land around.

As a side note, before any money was exchanged, we got a copy of the survey and scheduled a perc (percolation) test. There is no city sewer system out here so we were going to have to get a septic system. A perc test will show you the absorption rate of your soil for the septic system.

With a septic system, the waste from the house goes out to a septic tank. The solids in the tank are digested naturally by bacteria. Once the tank fills to the top, the wastewater starts flowing out into an overflow pipe (yuck, I know). The overflow pipe takes it downhill to the lateral lines. The lateral lines have holes in them where the wastewater can start seeping into the soil. Once it gets into the soil, it is naturally cleaned.

Our soil here has a lot of clay in it so the guy doing our perc test had to go all over our 5 acres to find a spot that had the proper soil mix. If we had installed the septic system in an area with too much clay, wastewater could never have seeped out of the lateral lines and it would have backed up in the house.

(I know you’re enjoying this topic.)

This is important because if the land can’t pass a perc test, you can’t install a septic system on it. In the country, there usually isn’t a city sewer system to hook your house up to. So, no septic system = no house.

Someone who is licensed through the health department does the perc test. There is also a list of people to choose from who are certified by the health department to install septic systems. When our perc test was being done, they needed someone who had a small trac hoe to dig holes so they could test the soil. In our case, the guy who dug the holes for the perc test was a certified septic system installer and offered a discount on the septic system installation if you let him dig the holes for the perc test AND install the septic system. Did you follow all of that?

The health department has to verify that your land passed the perc test. Also, the septic system installer has to submit their plans of how your system will be laid out. They do this by drawing it out on paper and by flagging it on your land. All of that has to be approved. The size of your septic system is determined by the number of bathrooms, sinks, and bedrooms you have. The more bathrooms, sinks, and bedrooms most likely mean the more people in the house. More people = more water and waste.

If you want to read more about that topic, here is a link to the EPA with a more in-depth explanation.

https://www.epa.gov/septic/how-your-septic-system-works

Once we looked over the survey and passed the perc test, we purchased the land! After that, we didn’t go back for several months. It was summer and it was hot! In the Fall, we finally went back and paid someone to start clearing trees (only enough trees for the house and driveway; as we wanted to keep the land natural with the house nestled in the forest). The plan was to build a garage first so we would have a place to put all our stuff while we built. We would attach the garage to the house with a hall later.

So, we had the garage built then the septic system installed.

Once the septic system was installed, we felt like we were moving along. I think we held our breath through that whole process because we always had thoughts of “What if the land doesn’t pass the perc test? What if there are too many rocks to dig a hole for the septic tank?” We had lots of “what ifs” in our mind so it was so satisfying to see the septic system in the ground.

Our hill is so rocky that the installer could only get the septic tank buried about a halfway. So, half of it is sticking up out of the ground. Timothy suggested we take lawn chairs out there and sit on it. (It is made of concrete after all.) I rolled my eyes thought that was a pretty bad idea. You might be a redneck if you use the top of your septic tank as a patio.

Seriously.

I could just picture him out there in his lawn chair with a glass of tea and some Bermuda shorts on. However, in his mind, we just passed a milestone AND spent a lot of money (it costs around $5,000) so it was worth savoring for a while!

We originally planned to live in the garage for the 6 months it would take us to build the house. Obviously, it would need to have a bathroom, kitchen and plenty of electrical wiring for this to happen. However, that first summer, after building the garage and moving a lot of our boxes into it from our house, we caught AT LEAST 75 scorpions IN the garage. SCORPIONS.

I had only ever seen one scorpion in my life up to that point… and it was a dead one. Those things are hideous. We couldn’t even fathom the kind of atomic bomb pest control we were going to need to get that problem under control. At the time, we had a four-year-old and a baby who was going to start crawling within a couple of months. There is no way I could let them play on the floor with a problem like that.

Now, I would like to clear up a little confusion here. Yes, we could have just stayed in our current house while we built our new house. The house we were living in and our new land were only about 15 minutes apart. But, if you remember from before, we were going to build our new house with the cash we had saved plus the money we got from selling the house we were living in (which was paid for).

That’s why we had the plan to build and move into a garage first. We needed to sell our house to have plenty of cash on hand for the building process to build without a loan. Living in the garage was going to be a bit of a challenge but we had the pioneer spirit. However, as we worked on the land more that summer and discovered that huge scorpion problem, we realized we were going to have to come up with a big plan to get it under control.

Thankfully, it was my mom and grandfather to the rescue! After my MiMi passed away, my Pop moved in with my mom. He discovered he liked living in the country with her and my Dad. However, Pop and my mom hadn’t gotten around to selling his house in town. It just so happened that his house was only a few minutes from our land. It was vacant but completely furnished. He offered it to us to live in while we were building our house. In exchange, I offered to help them get it ready to sell. The plan was that we would live there while we were building our house and by the time we moved out, his house would be ready to go on the market. It was a HUGE blessing and it worked out splendidly. His house sold immediately after we moved out.

So, what was next? It was time to draw custom house plans and hire subcontractors! More on that, next time.

In case you are wondering…yes, we got the scorpions under control. Timothy did a lot of research online and found a professional grade chemical we could spray around the outside of the house. We have always been against spraying chemicals but we had a choice; either we were going to live in the house or the scorpions were. We chose us. Plus, we have about 4 untouched acres they can live in. We claimed our territory and it worked.

If you are wondering what chemical we use, you can find it here:

Talstar 3/4 Gallon Pros Pest Control Insecticide (96Oz Jug)

It’s expensive but EFFECTIVE! Keep in mind that it’s a concentrate. 1 ounce makes one gallon. However, we have found that, around here, 3 ounces to a gallon is what takes out the scorpions.

See you next time!

Leave me a comment! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook so you won’t miss a beat!

All the best,
Lindsey

The post Project Dream House: Our Septic Tank Patio… and Scorpions appeared first on Big House in the Woods.

Timothy grew up in the country. His family has land and his grandparents’ 150 acres was within walking distance. I grew up in town but I always had dreams of living in the country. I think there are plenty of kids like that who have these glowing dreams of living on a ranch with wild horses and endless sunsets.

It’s kind of like the dream many of us had, at some point, of growing up to be a marine biologist. Because we deeply care about animals in the ocean, and because all marine biologists do anyway is swim with dolphins. Every. Single. Day. Right?

Oh, I forgot one. The dream of going to college in Hawaii. If you going to go to college anyway, you might as well do it in Hawaii, right?

Anyhow, I digress.

The point is, when Timothy and I first got married, we were living in town and we did not like it. We wanted to have a house on a few acres with room to roam. However, we didn’t yet have enough cash to buy it, and we weren’t willing to get a mortgage for it. So, we took baby steps and those steps involved little houses in town.

Both of those houses in town involved some interesting characters. Have you ever had crazy neighbors? I’m almost positive we’re a magnet for them.

Let me tell you a story.

Searching for Our First House

Back in the day, (circa 2009) we were searching for our first house to buy. We had been searching through all the listings online. After Timothy got off work, I would jump in the truck with him and we would go see all the houses in person that looked decent online. We learned quickly that some realtors can be quite cunningly deceptive.

One house that we saw online looked pretty good. We were looking in a lower price range because we wanted to pay cash. Therefore, a “pretty good” house was as good as we were going to find at the time. Well, after work, Timothy and I went to see this “pretty good” house.

Not as Advertised

We soon discovered that what the online pictures didn’t show was that it was attached to another house! It was a duplex. It never said anything about that in the listing. Imagine our surprise! Each side of this duplex had different siding to make it look like two different houses. The realtor’s picture was purposely taken to not include the house “next door.”

We kept staring at it thinking maybe they were just built really close together but they were, in fact, attached. That would have been nice to know before we drove over there.

Trains or Blacklight Rooms?

We found another house that was in our price range but it was sitting a few feet away from a working train track. I’m almost positive that old house would have rattled every time a train came by. We were newly married and had those whimsy thoughts of, “I could live anywhere with you” but I’m so glad we passed that one by and kept looking.

One day, we had a few houses we wanted to visit with our realtor. One of them was currently a rent house with renters in it. We had a scheduled appointment to go inside but I don’t think they tidied up one bit before we got there. The place was a mess. It had a one car garage that had been built in to make another room. In that area, was a smaller room full of glowing blacklights and bean bags.

On the way to the blacklight house, we passed by a house for sale that we had somehow missed online. Our realtor contacted the realtor who had listed it and got permission for us to go in. It was vacant so it was easy to make a last minute appointment.

THE One

As soon as we walked in, we knew it was the house we wanted to buy. It wasn’t attached to another house, there were no odd rooms filled with blacklights, and it wouldn’t rattle from a nearby train. The downside was that the kitchen had white wallpaper with green vines on it. No big deal, right? Well, not really. The bad part was that someone had continued those vines over the back door by hand painting them on the wall.

THEN, they glued wooden birdhouses to the wall to finish the look. Oh, and there was also shiny, peach colored, wallpaper with metallic swans in the hall bathroom.

Our First Crazy Neighbor

We were standing there looking at the birdhouses on the living room wall when the neighbor let herself in the front door. She was munching on a bag of Cheetos with wild eyes and muttering about something we couldn’t understand. We all stared at her in shock and our realtor, under her breath, said, “Deal breaker.” We didn’t take the hint, though. We bought the house anyway. (We were nuts dreamers in love.)

We loved that little house for three years. We just didn’t like where it was. If we could have picked the house up and moved it to a different location, we would have. We didn’t like living so close to the neighbors.

We had a tiny back deck that we would sit on when the weather was nice. Well, I’m pretty sure the guy who lived on the other side of us must have had GPS trackers on us because it seemed like he knew every time we walked out the back door.

As soon as we sat down on our little swing, he would start hollering over the fence at Timothy. He wanted to chit-chat, ask a question, or borrow something. So, we started sneaking out the back door and whispering to each other while we sat on our swing, just so we could have some peace.

Time for House #2

After three years in that house, it was time to move on. We were on the hunt for another house again. We repeated the same process as before. We would search online until we had a long list of houses we wanted to see, then, after work, we would go drive by them all. If they looked decent on the outside we would get our realtor to make appointments so we could see the inside.

One house we visited had purple carpet and there was no hall. Which meant, you had to walk through the laundry room to get to the master bedroom. Then, you had to go through the kids’ room to get to the bathroom. But to get to the kids’ room in the first place, you had to go through the kitchen.

Another house we looked at had a big hump in the tile floor in the bathroom. You couldn’t open the bathroom door all the way.

We Found It!

One day, we were going to look at some houses with our realtor. Before we left, Timothy checked all the listings online again. He saw a house that wasn’t there the day before.

So, on the way to one of our appointments, we stopped by that house with our realtor. It was vacant so she was able to get the code so we could go right in. It was love at first sight. I nearly cried. After all the crazy houses we had seen, this one was excellent. Now, it wasn’t perfect. It was built in 1973 and it had a few issues. But, as a whole, it was a solid, well-built house, and it was in our price range so we could pay cash for it.

Our Second Crazy Neighbor

We had learned our lesson about crazy neighbors from our first house (or so we thought) so we decided to meet the people next door before we made an offer. We walked over and introduced ourselves. Their front and back yards were a wreck.

It was July and they had Christmas lights on the house and Halloween decorations in the windows. The backyard was full of all sorts of junk, but hey, they seemed friendly enough. However, we know now that we had on bright, rose-colored glasses. 

In spite of that, the house was perfect for us. It was near work for Timothy, it was on a half acre (our first house was on 1/6^th of an acre); it had a two car garage and a little extra square footage. We wanted it. It had only been on the market for three days and we made an offer.

After living there a short while, we realized we had moved in next to crazy neighbors AGAIN. We thought the guy we met next door that first day actually owned the home. We found out though that it was his mom’s house.

He was in his mid-thirties, unemployed, and living with his mother. Apparently, it had always been that way. He slept a lot during the day and if he was awake, he was rearranging the junk in his backyard. At night, though, is when we discovered that he really got busy.

Our bedroom was at the end of our house nearest to that guy’s house. One night, around 3 a.m., we heard some crazy noises outside. We looked out the window and we were dumbfounded.

He was dumping empty soda cans on his driveway (or should I say his mother’s driveway) and using his mom’s minivan to drive over them to crush them. Forward. Reverse. Forward. Reverse. Get out. Pile them up again. Repeat.

This wasn’t just a fluke or a one-time occurrence. This happened many times over the years we lived there. And that’s not even the half of it. One day, we discovered that he had been cleaning his dogs’ droppings out of his yard and throwing them into our yard.

After three years at that house, it was time to move on…again. We had finally saved enough to buy land and build on it.

Looking for Land

We had always been looking for land between our other moves. We just never could find what we wanted. That’s why we bought houses in town. We would find a piece of land that looked nice online but it would be a different story in person.

We would discover that it was next to a dump, the commute would be too long for Timothy, or it would have some crazy HOA that stated what your brick color had to be if you built. I mean, I like rules, but come on! 

BUT, finally, after two houses and six years of looking, we found THE. PERFECT. PLACE.

THE. PERFECT. PLACE.

It was love at first sight; 5 beautiful wooded acres near Timothy’s work! We bought it that same day and began making plans to build our dream home.

It’s been 5 years since we bought our little neck of the woods and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it! I would go back and live next to all of those crazy neighbors again if I had to because it was worth it.

We were able to save money all of those years so we could buy this land and build our dream house with cash. Now, we can sit back and enjoy all of our hard work!

All the best,
Lindsey

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