January 20th, 2020 – $1M to pour a concrete basement and finish ONE floor??!?!

January 20, 2020

Captain’s Log: City to Gritty

Living off grid consecutively since July has taught us many things. Many things like houses are luxury items. And water is a god.

We will not be closing on a house this month or next month or perhaps even this year. We have surrendered and whatever happens will happen.

But the good news is we have learned to live without a house. We don’t *need* a house. It sucks sometimes, but only because we once lived in a world where we didn’t need to have any concern for what happens after flushing a toilet or where the power comes from when we flipped on a light switch. Now that we do have to concern ourselves with those things, we associate it with struggle. Though at its core, it is not. It just is what it is and our attitude is what needs to adjust.

Tonight, I looked around at our 120 sq/ft trailer and felt this feeling like “this is not what I imagined for myself—this is not where I thought I would be, but alas here I am. I chose this. And I can choose joy.”

This year, I plan on getting highly educated in home building. If there is a GC trade school, I will enroll. I again (I know I say this constantly) had no idea how difficult it is to build a home. I’ve learned so much and am starting to get the lingo down, but there is still more for me to learn.

You can’t simply buy land and build a house in today’s world. It’s so crazy I ever thought that was true. There are hundreds of thousands of steps, planning, permits, engineering, architects, surveyors, testing and MORE that is required before a build attempt can begin when choosing a location where no one has ever built before.

But I’m grateful for our spirit and willingness to try. Designing our 2nd design and researching what we thought was the right way took 18 months of near full time work and tens of thousands of design + prebuilt expenses. It was a great design, but learned within days of wanting to close, would cost $1M+, even with sourcing materials from a cabin kit, local vendors and Home Depot.

We are now ready to scale wayyyyyyyyyy back. Manufactured houses won’t fit on our roads, cabin kits are too expensive, so we are now trying to discover what options are left.

More and more sources are pointing to a custom home again. We did try this route in the past (our first design), but bailed because we thought cabin kits would be cheaper. But it looks like this has become the only option left for our budget and needs of our family.

We have some ideas on what we could build custom within our micro budget of less than $1M (less than $1M is micro for our location and challenges of building where no one has built before).

We will not make any decisions for probably weeks or months or who knows. We are exhausted. I’m ready to take a break. Slow way down. Hike our acreage and build trails. Create a new normal and stop treating our life like everything is temporary. Focus on our family, education (both kids in school soon!), a new career for me on Wall Street (JK I wish 😅) and maybe even buying a new RV, building a chicken coop, barn, and pasture and start right now with where we are and what we have.

Today we hiked the bottom of Cronin Mountain to location scout other build locations that may or may not be more affordable. But the top view 💯 reigns supreme. We will see!!! You know I’ll keep you posted. 😉

Comments:

  • David McCann Ugh, sorry to hear you guys are having so much difficulty w/building. Makes me soo nervous to start ours. We’ve already got driveway, well and septic scheduled for this summer, so no turning back for us either lol 😱
    • Rachel McCash Cronin David McCann yeah we are getting our well scheduled ASAP and next step will be septic. We’ll need those no matter what we build or what we live in. Both will increase our quality of life in big ways too! We really tried to save our design, but we had to pay for the foot print square footage (exterior walls), not usable square footage (Avrames declared sq/ft). That changed our plan from 3,000 ish to 4,200 ish. And at 4,200 sq/ft (though only 1,300 sq/ft would be liveable/finished) it was too expensive to build. We really tried to save it!! But could not with including the ductwork areas behind the walls and other footprint determining factors. I hope you all have a much easier path!! 🤞🏻
    • Kim MacLurg are you familiar with the duct-less mini splits?
    • Rachel McCash Cronin Kim MacLurg I’m not familiar with those actually. Have you used them? How do they work?
    • Kim MacLurg Rachel McCash Cronin I haven’t but they are what my builder recommends. They are like a space heater, but much stronger and more efficient. They use very little energy and can heat or cool a large space with ZERO ducting
    • Rachel McCash Cronin Kim MacLurg that’s awesome!!!
    • Kim MacLurg https://airconditionerlab.com/best-ductless-mini-split…/Delete or hide thisAIRCONDITIONERLAB.COMDuctless Mini Split Air Conditioner: Reviews, Ratings & ComparisonsDuctless Mini Split Air Conditioner: Reviews, Ratings & Comparisons
    • Jennifer Lomeli Oh how I feel your pain and frustrations! Building on vacant land is not for the faint at heart! I’m supporting you and sending positive vibes from my still not finished tiny home at 9300 feet!
  • Kristy Cronin Beautiful land ! What about a Morton building that’s built out to be a small home ?
  • Kim MacLurg How much land do you have there? Surely it must be easier since you own the land?
    We are in escrow on almost 60 acres and the land cost is wrapped into our construction loan. It has been a 3 month process and looking at 3+ more before it’s ours and construction can start
    • Rachel McCash Cronin Kim MacLurg we have 35 acres! That was our plan as well. Do you already have stamped build plans ready to go? We didn’t start that process until after closing. That process for us took 18 months. Whatever we build will be an all in one construction loan as well.
    • Megan Merola Ladies please help indint know any of this but we just took first step into building too and I’m nervous
    • Rachel McCash Cronin Megan Merola congrats!! which step are you on/where are you at?
    • Kim MacLurg Rachel McCash Cronin The house plans should take eight weeks, followed by approval from the lender and county which will be about three weeks. So hoping to close and start construction in about three months or so
    • Rachel McCash Cronin Kim MacLurg love it!! Keep me posted!!
    • Kim MacLurg Rachel McCash Cronin we will be posting videos of our progress as things start moving along ❤️
  • Deb DeKoff Build a barn. Scott Cripps master barn builder.
  • Jessica Kish Let’s hike soon and chat about all this.
  • Christion Sadler What an incredible experiential education the kids are getting by default in watching their parents overcome obstacles after obstacles in creating a dream. I’m proud of you both and inspired by the journey
  • Mario J McCash Win the lotto!!! 
  • Brook Nuttall Sorry to hear of the struggle. It’s amazing how many things we take for granted living in suburbia with all the utilities at our fingertips and homes already built.
  • Of course, we end up being slaves to our homes for 30 years and utilities and property taxes for the rest of our lives…
    But anyway, on a positive note,
    your story is an inspiration to me to keep working every day for progress and improvement in my life.
    I wish you much success in your building project this year.
  • Kristen Holly Hill I don’t live in the camper anymore, but I’m glad I don’t. I cried every day that we didn’t have running water and we had to use a lugaloo. Never going back to that.
  • Adrianne Reyes Feel your pain.
  • Robyn Brown There are vids on YouTube of couples literally building their own A frame. Like with their own 2 hands. Obviously not as fancy as a pre-fab or a contractor build, but doable. The trio you were looking at would be too high for the 2 of you to do that way, but a smaller design is possible. I vote that you keep it simple, and put your house on that beautiful mountain top on a slab foundation. You are off grid now- leave it that way, you can add the luxuries later- but get a simple A frame up so you at least have more space to work with. Rome wasn’t built in a day😊