Patience Is Not Easy

We are definitely having to learn and exercise patience during our house build.  We both work, and our property is just under an hour drive from where we currently reside.  Since I work 11 days and get 3 days off, I only get to work on our house build every other weekend.  I average 60 hour weeks, and we both work 2nd Shift.

We want so badly to start living on our place full time, but that would require buying a travel trailer or tiny house and a shipping container to store the contents of our house until we get our new place built.  Problem is, the money it would take to do that would pay for the ceramic tile, cabinets, and bathroom fixtures.  Lots of things to consider, and we have to have the patience to make wise decisions.  Over the next 3-4 months we will have electric, water, and possibly septic on site and it will be even more difficult to be patient.

When you have been working toward a goal for several years, it can be hard to remain patient.  In the meantime, we continue to learn, make better financial decisions, make lifestyle changes that reflect a simpler, less cluttered life, and work away at building our house.  The patience will be rewarded when we are finally able to move into a place with no mortgage and no monthly rent payment.  

I hear ya Bob, was in your shoes not long ago, stay strong!  Spent about 4 years on weekends living in a small, smelly, leaky, broken 40 year old camper that came with the land, no electric, no running water, nothin. So many times, I wanted to buy a newer camper with better creature comforts - you know, one with stuff that actually worked.  But just like you said, I kept thinking that $5k or $10k or whatever would pay for the well or the roof or any of the other zillion expensive things you need when developing raw land.

At the end of the day it is worth delaying that gratification.  I’m glad I did.

I have to say, I miss that old camper - nothing like lying in bed and reaching over to open the fridge or pour another cup of coffee!  

When I built a cabin, we bought a small pop up camper for $700.  The heater worked and we never used the sink.  We slept in it for weekends while building the cabin over the course of two years.  Once we were done, I sold it for $800.  So if you get a fully depreciated trailer that is still usable, you may be able to get all your money out of it in the end.

Mike Jay wrote:When I built a cabin, we bought a small pop up camper for $700.  The heater worked and we never used the sink.  We slept in it for weekends while building the cabin over the course of two years.  Once we were done, I sold it for $800.  So if you get a fully depreciated trailer that is still usable, you may be able to get all your money out of it in the end.

We have a nice tent camping setup from our days of attending NASCAR races.  We are going to set up and camp there over Labor Day weekend instead of driving back and forth.  The only issue is our 2 dogs, a lab and a lab mix.  Either we have to pay to board them or fence an area to keep them contained for the weekend while we are out at the property.

I guess my best advice is to just stay the course. You are in a good spot for sure, with a good plan.

I have always found, when doing a major project, at about the halfway point, things get really gloomy. And this is for good reason. You consider all that you have done, and then look to all that what you have to do, and there is a feeling of despair. And I think a lot of times, and understandably, people often quit at this point.

I am not sure that you are halfway done with your house, but you are halfway to moving in perhaps, and that is a gloomy spot to be, for all the reasons I just cited. But I encourage you to keep going.

I know when I started my first house, I got the septic system in, and got the building shelled up, and I moved in. I did not even have a well, I had to haul water out of a ditch and dump it into the toilet to get it to flush. But living in it, I was motivated to do more, and living there, I worked some late nights. I think for you getting to the point where you can live on-site will really help. If you have limited time, and getting there and back takes 2 hours of that time, then certainly getting to the point where you can be on-site will help.

For me, I had a tiny house even back then (longgggggg before it was cool to do so), and so it shelled up pretty easily. You could do that, or just work on a very small section of your home, get that fit for occupancy, and then move in. By that I mean, it may be one room, or even a shed that you live in, then use it for storage later or something. For me, the only finished room was the bathroom when I moved in, so that is where my bed was. But you know, I was not there long because I was in it, and therefore could work on it a lot, and actually did so. So while you may look at a small finished room and think, "I cannot live there", well sure you can, because being on-site, your project will really crank then.

Bob Gallamore wrote:The only issue is our 2 dogs, a lab and a lab mix.  Either we have to pay to board them or fence an area to keep them contained for the weekend while we are out at the property.

This may not work but some people around here put up a long wire rope and attach a leash to it so their dogs can be "tied up" and yet have room to range.  Just a thought....

Travis Johnson wrote:I guess my best advice is to just stay the course. You are in a good spot for sure, with a good plan.

I have always found, when doing a major project, at about the halfway point, things get really gloomy. And this is for good reason. You consider all that you have done, and then look to all that what you have to do, and there is a feeling of despair. And I think a lot of times, and understandably, people often quit at this point.

I am not sure that you are halfway done with your house, but you are halfway to moving in perhaps, and that is a gloomy spot to be, for all the reasons I just cited. But I encourage you to keep going.

I know when I started my first house, I got the septic system in, and got the building shelled up, and I moved in. I did not even have a well, I had to haul water out of a ditch and dump it into the toilet to get it to flush. But living in it, I was motivated to do more, and living there, I worked some late nights. I think for you getting to the point where you can live on-site will really help. If you have limited time, and getting there and back takes 2 hours of that time, then certainly getting to the point where you can be on-site will help.

For me, I had a tiny house even back then (longgggggg before it was cool to do so), and so it shelled up pretty easily. You could do that, or just work on a very small section of your home, get that fit for occupancy, and then move in. By that I mean, it may be one room, or even a shed that you live in, then use it for storage later or something. For me, the only finished room was the bathroom when I moved in, so that is where my bed was. But you know, I was not there long because I was in it, and therefore could work on it a lot, and actually did so. So while you may look at a small finished room and think, "I cannot live there", well sure you can, because being on-site, your project will really crank then.

After next weekend we will start putting in the sill and floor joists, so we are a long way from having a house.  Once we get to that point the electric co-op will put in power for us.  I have chosen to go that way because for less than the cost of a middling generator I can have electricity for power tools.  After power comes water.  At that point we will decide if we want to spend the money for septic or wait until we have the house dried in before putting out that chunk of cash.  

I take several pictures each time we get a chance to go out and work.  Last fall I did a lot of solo work because my wife had a bad hip that really limited her activities.  Right after New Years she had a total hip replacement, so she was slowed down again for several months.  Just as she was getting to the point that she was able to start helping with more strenuous work she ended up with a hernia and a lot of stomach issues.  About six weeks ago she had surgery to repair the hernia and remove her gall bladder, so she is restricted physically right now.  I understand the process, know how hard we have worked, and appreciate how far we have come with limited time and no power equipment other than a chainsaw and battery operated hand tools.  The reason for all the pictures is so that we can look at pics from a year ago and realize how much we have done.  I also printed out a calendar on ledger size paper and use it to document work and days when we couldn't proceed with foundation work due to the exceptionally wet past 12 months.  The pictures and the calendar help us keep perspective.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is filtering out the negative and focus on our goal and the reason for our goal.  We choose to share ideas and encouragement with other couples who are in the process of doing much what we are doing.  That spirit of community helps us all.

I used to explain and provide answers to the naysayers.  Of course, my explanations and reasons don't mean anything to them, so that just results in more questions and more "helpful" advice from "concerned" individuals who are just looking out for our "best interests."  Now when people start with their questions I just say "because we are out of our minds."  Pretty much ends the conversation, which suits me fine.  Now, if someone has done what we are working toward and has constructive criticism or lessons learned to share, I'm all ears.  In fact, that's why I'm on Permies.

And we both agree that getting out there will provide not only more time, but a lot of motivation.  My wife wants to move in as soon as we have floor tile down, regardless of the state of the rest of the build.  Her reasoning is that she doesn't want to have to move everything around to put flooring in.  Believe it or not, this process, although not without its stress, has really brought us closer together as we work side by side toward accomplishing a shared dream.