Sagebrush & Solar

It’s been a hot minute since our last update; and we’re sad to say, we don’t have much to report on. The thing about paying out of pocket as we go is that it’s slow. Really, really slow. Painfully slow. The kind of slow the makes us look at each other and reevaluate if this Thanksgiving will really be the Thanksgiving we have in our new home. After all, it’s something we’ve said about the last two Thanksgivings.

I cannot believe we’re almost at our two year anniversary of selling our home in town, moving in with my parents and beginning this journey. The number of setbacks have been staggering — issues with our footings, issues with our money pit of a road, water problems, a nearly catastrophic subcontractor measurement issue, literally starting over with our ICF forms, so much mud, and when our first concrete pour finally happened, a stuck concrete rig and a blown out wall.

But then, things started to get better. We had a successful pour, our trusses went up, interior framing installed, concrete pads poured, roof done, windows installed, septic installed, exterior pipes and trenches laid.

And then we ran out of cash.

I am now back to work full-time for the interim; this will naturally help with the cashflow. The setback is that Keith will have much less time to be out at the house; so we will likely need to hire out more. It’s a game of give and take, and we’re just kind of along for the ride.

We recently received our solar panels, batteries and inverter. We won’t be installing these until it warms up more, but we have a small temporary setup to power whatever tools are being used. Our actual panel setup will be substantial, and per county code, must include a fence around it.

In an effort to speed things up, we hired out for rough-in plumbing and electric. We’re in the very beginning stages of both of those.

In mold remediation news, Keith has spent quite some time in the crawlspace attempting to remediate our crawlspace mold. Due to some of our water and drainage issues in the beginning, the mold has been thriving. It’s a time consuming job, and due to our time constraints, we may end up hiring out.

So, what do we have left to do? Aren’t we close? We have a lot – and no, we aren’t. But we’re a lot closer than where we were two years ago. We still have to finish electric, plumbing, insulation, HVAC, drywall, baseboards, siding, interior and exterior paint, solar install, finish work…we’ve got a ways to go.