Tag: house

Starting the house

2021 was a busy year for lots of the world and here on Green Journal Homestead – we finally started a house!

The plan had been originally to move into the trailer on the property and fix it up. Quickly we discovered that on the old 1970s trailer, homeowners insurance was going to be impossible.

We spent the next few years trying to go through options that gave us the most control over the process. We looked into having an existing house moved to the property but those aren’t always available or close enough to safely move. We thought about maybe another mobile home but they don’t allow for the amount of customization we wanted to do. Looking into a traditional builder was way more than we wanted to spend and also they all wanted to turn in a turn-key building. Nothing wrong with that at all, but just not what we were looking for. Eventually , we settled on a metal building turned into a house or shop houses that have become more popular – aka “barndominium”.

There was a company somewhat local that drew up blueprints, to our exact specifications and we started the process.

First, we had to clear the land in order to get ready for the gravel and concrete slab.

Then the framers could come out, after the concrete cured to start putting up the outside frame.

Interior walls and roof trusses went up as well.

House wrap and porch roof.

It has been painfully slow, seems everyone everywhere is building right now, so getting people to do the things we can’t has been a struggle. One of the draw backs of not having a general contractor to sub contract out all these jobs to.

We love the look of the metal and with the doors and windows in, it looks like a real house.

Electric and Septic has been the hardest to get, and when we do get them they are so far behind or something is out of stock they need.

But it is still moving forward and we are excited to be able to do so much ourselves. It will help keep the costs down and will be a home we both designed and worked in without being told it might hurt re-sale value. When you are building your forever home, who cares about re-selling!

Adding a New Garden Spot

The layout of our property has two really good garden spots that are about 25ftx50ft. They are near the bottom of the property. We have a third one that is on a hillside that is the same size and it is ok. The sweet potatoes loved it and we got a few watermelons. We are hoping a year or two with chickens on it will improve it .

We tried a spot on top of the little hill next to the orchard, for about 2 years but both years it failed or the wind got too bad up there and it destroyed everything that grew.

So we planted more fruit trees in that area so we would not be tempted to use it again. It works out well, because the very top of the hill doesn’t seem to like the orchard trees lots and this gave us lots more room to expand.

With the three garden spots, we are rotating our chickens to a new spot each year. So we really only have two a year we can plant on.

There is a spot between where the grapes start and the herb bed that could work. It is on a slight hill , and will be shaded the first hours of the day. So while it isn’t ideal, it’s what we have at the moment. Maybe it can be for lettuces or a long term bed for asparagus.

Eventually after the house is built and we know where all the water lines will we can have more options on where to put garden spots.

We’re still very happy with our process of using the chickens to improve the soil. It’s about as natural as you can get and while it does take some time, we love getting the eggs and just enjoy the chickens.

We got the new spot tilled up. Going to plant it this year. Will be interesting to see this year compared to the next when the chickens have had time on it.