Sagebrush & Solar

It’s easy to look at where we are, slouch our shoulders and think, man, we didn’t get as far as we thought we would.

When we decided to take the leap and sell our house earlier this year, we thought we’d be moved in by Thanksgiving. Christmas at the latest. As our timeline shifted, that gradually changed to thinking we would be dried in by October. Then Thanksgiving. Then Christmas. Now, it’s evident that we won’t be dried in until after the new year.

The purpose of this post is to focus on the surprising amount of things we did accomplish — because it’s a lot. Despite extreme heat, despite a very early winter, despite loads of unforeseen hurdles and unavoidable issues, we’ve pushed forward and have simply taken it one day at a time.

Spring

In May, we sold our house, put everything in storage, and moved in with my parents (major shoutout here!). We began working on our floor plan, and ultimately decided to hire an architect to finish it. We hired our ICF subcontractor. It took longer than expected for our plans to be finalized; and we submitted our permit. We didn’t realize it would be a 6-8 week approval process with the county. So, the waiting game began. There were plenty of projects to work on at my parents house, though, in the meantime.

Summer

When summer hit, it hit hard. It was consistently very hot. This coincided perfectly with our road project. One of the permit requirements was a road improvement; widening the existing private drive, lessening an incline off the main road, and cutting our own long driveway.

This sounded easy – but no. It involved 100+ hours of moving dirt, moving massive cement retaining walls, moving more dirt, digging culverts, etc. We rented a bulldozer, excavators and borrowed a neighbor’s backhoe. We spent thousands of dollars on pit run and dirt. We contracted with dump trucks to move and dump material. It was a massive project, and one of the most expensive parts of our build.

Fall & Winter

When September hit, our permit was approved and we were ready to get rocking and rolling with our build. We rented an excavator, dug out our house hole, and our ICF subcontractor got started on our footings.

Two concrete pours later, and our foundation was done, subfloors installed, and the exterior walls began to go up. French drains were placed, backfill completed, penetrations and beginnings of electric and plumbing were installed. This was all despite freezing temperatures and lots of moisture.

Keith also worked on laying pit run on our road to make it less mucky and easier to drive on. We moved our shed from my parents’ property to the build site for storage and heat.

We ordered and received our trusses. We ordered windows, but they’re being stored at the warehouse. We’re just waiting on the final pour of the exterior walls to move forward with placing the trusses and installing our roof.

One thing we’ve learned this year is to accept help. We are so incredibly grateful for everyone who has helped us make this dream a reality. We are blessed to know talented people with a variety of experience — but more so, experienced people who are kind and willing to help. Our friend Coty has put in numerous hours on the bulldozer and excavator. My dad has spent endless amounts of time on seemingly every project — the kind with tangible results, but also the minutiae you don’t see behind the scenes: triple checking measurements, planning out electric and plumbing, hours of research, plus contributing years of experience and knowledge. My mom has not only helped out at the build site, but she watches Luke so I can help at the build site when possible. Not to mention, the hundred other things that help us live day to day that go unnoticed.

This year has been full of trials and tribulations, highs and lows, trials and errors. But it’s also been full of happy moments, beautiful lessons and — at the risk of sounding like an absolute sap — lots of love. I’ve become closer to my parents than I have been in years, we’ve both grown as individuals, our marriage has become stronger, and Luke is thriving.