Building Our Dream Home

This is hard post to write but I want to share it with you and I to remind myself of this long journey. Somehow what I've written seems like too much but not enough...In August of 2015 we sold our big, beautiful farmhouse and moved closer to my husband's grandparents. They are located on about eight acres of beautiful woods. It was a hard process, selling our home. We loved our gardens, chickens, fruit trees and tranquility. Where we are living now is still considered rural but the town we are closest to is a lot bigger than what we were accustomed to. We have grown to love it and the friends and family that are close to us make where we are the perfect place for us. My husband grew up in these woods and we are fulfilling his dream by building on his old stomping grounds.

When we sold our farmhouse we were able to pay off my van, buy a camper and live debt free. We lived in the camper, the six of us, for one year. 

Camper Christmas

We had a metal building erected that my husband and my dad finished out on the inside to be a beautiful two bedroom/ two bath home. 

We were originally going to put a loft at the top for the older two kids but decided against that. We were ready to move in and enjoy a full size bathtub, kitchen, laundry room and some room to spread out. The plan was to build several of these metal homes and rent them out while building a larger home for our family. 

From the moment we moved out here (actually, even before) we have been cleaning up the land and clearing. Pawpaw used to have rentals in mobile homes but unfortunately, since he had been sick the mobile homes quickly deteriorated. There was actually a group of people squatting in one of the mobile homes. My husband told them they had 60 days to evacuate but if they wanted the mobile home they were living in they were free to take it. Gladly, they agreed and hired someone to haul it off. We had two other mobile homes hauled off. My husband and dad had to tear apart and dispose of two additional mobile homes that were beyond repair.

Across the street from us is a three and half acre lot which our neighbor offered to sell to us. We gladly accepted and we now rent it out to some friends to keep their RV on and live in. It took a little work to get the land ready for an RV but we are grateful to have our friends there and finally seeing part of our plan come to fruition. 

It was time for us to build our home. We were planning to live here as long as Gramma needed us. My husband wanted to save the money needed to build as we continued to live in our two bedroom. That option would prove to be difficult as our youngest is now a teenager and needs her own space. All of the children have been great about sharing a room together but this journey has not been without difficulty.
 One of the biggest challenges is clothing and personal items but I'll save that for another post... 

We finally agreed the best thing would be to take out a loan and let the rentals pay the loan for us. We explored many different avenues. Going with a conventional loan for a new build meant we would have to hire a contractor build our entire home. We knew we could do so much ourselves and save a tremendous amount of money by being our own contractors. I called our bank and asked about a home equity loan. This would allow us to get a certain percentage in cash for very little closing costs and then we could build our house however we want. We had the cash in our account in a matter of weeks and began looking for contractors that would  work with us. This also proved difficult but we finally found a family friend who was a custom builder. He let us decide what we could do and he would do the rest. This allowed us to build a beautiful custom home at a fraction of the cost. 

I researched home ideas for another rental and found a cedar cabin at a reasonably low price which I purchased. It is a shell which will be delivered next week. My husband and my dad will finish out the inside as well as add a laundry room. We already have renters lined up for our current home and our cabin. 

The beauty of our newest home is that it will be debt free. All of the debt will be on the rental properties. Our newest home is immeasurably more magnificent than anything I imagined. I attribute that to the Lord going above and beyond what we could ever ask or think. 

About a month after we moved here my husband's pawpaw became so ill that he could not get out of bed without help. I believe it was the grace of God that led us here. Gramma was a kind, faithful woman and had been taking care of Pawpaw by herself as he suffered from dementia. She was growing weary physically and I know she had been praying for help from the Lord. God's timing was miraculous. My husband was able to go up every night and change pawpaw and put him to bed and do whatever Gramma needed done around the house. 

"But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God." 1 Timothy 5:4

PawPaw passed away in his home in 2017. Gramma was amazing and I will never forget the way she took care of him, lovingly, tenaciously, and faithfully. 

Read more about Gramma's legacy in this post. Sadly, Gramma passed away on September 30th, 2018, also in her home. I miss her tremendously and I am so grateful for the time we had with her, thankful we were able to be blessed by serving her. 

We know she is proud of us and would want us to carry on our plan but I'm heartbroken that she is not here to see it. 

Thank you for reading.
Grace & peace,
Adoring Family