A Decision, part 2

(Image from StoneMill.com — posted here for inspiration’s sake 🙂

Well, in my last post, I mentioned that Something New is coming, and it is.

But this is not that.

This is something else.  This post has to do with our home building plans.

In my post back in February (“A Decision“), I wrote about the decision to take out a construction loan to build our home.  Well, it seems that we may have to go a different route, given certain financial obstacles that are proving repeatedly difficult to overcome.  And so, we are grateful to God for this “trial” (James 1:2-4), for it will compel us to build with little-to-no debt, but requiring great resourcefulness.  I am truly thankful for the necessity of having to go this route.  Why?  Because once our house is built, we will own it free and clear.  We will not be beholden to a 30-year mortgage.  And in America’s current economic landscape, that may be vital.  (Perhaps I will not be enslaved to the 40+ hour work-week, for the rest of my life, after all?  That’d be good.  🙂

A few things of note:

• Montana’s “building code” requirements are extraordinarily minimal; so while we will strive to build everything “to code”, we will only be bound by excellence of craftsmanship, within the bounds of frugality.
• We already have water (a well), electricity and phone/DSL going to the property.
• We have always had our sights set on heating the home with wood, since that resource is abundant at the property site.  That decision remains.

In summary, here’s how I see things unfolding, Deo Volente:

1. We will install a septic system and a (mostly-finished) basement.
2. We will temporarily roof the basement and live there, while we plan to build our timber framed home above it.  The basement will be 1,280 sq.ft… which is at least 200 sq.ft. larger than the place we have been renting (!) for the past 4 years.
3. All former rent payments (and all other available resource$) will go toward purchasing building materials, prioritized by immediacy of need.  Building materials (both purchased and gathered/salvaged) will be stored in a timber-framed barn, which we will build on the property (near the 40’x80′ garden), as a “test build” in preparation for building the home.
4. Once the Timber Frame House Plan is complete, and the timbers designed and fashioned, the frame will be constructed, clad with SIPs and roofed. (Timber material will have been harvested from our property, milled and stacked.)  Basement occupancy will continue, until…
5. When interior walls and flooring have been framed and clad, the family will “move in”, and continue with the “finishing touches”.
6. Estimated completion time: 5 years from start date.

This is all I have time to write… thanks for reading, and we’ll keep you posted.

A Decision

Years ago, when we began this dream of building our own home in the woods of NW MT, we soon became aware of a decision that would have to be made, which would affect many other facets of our life, for decades:

To mortgage, or not to mortgage?

We could build our house little by little, over the course of several years — even decades (!) — only as (or if) the cash became available.  We’d probably be living in an old single-wide trailer on-site as we built the house piece-by-piece.  Perhaps by the time our children had grown and had children of their own, our house would be finished…

-OR-

We could assume a construction loan/mortgage, take on the responsibility of paying it back over the next few decades, and enjoy the privilege of spending those next years in that house with our children, having made not only the house, shoulder-to-shoulder with our dear family and friends — but also having made many memories, and having given them a crash course (pun not intended) in home construction.

————————

Now, perhaps I can hear the cries of “go debt-free!” from all the Ramsey-ites.  I don’t disagree that being debt-free is a blessing.  Still, under the circumstances, the mortgage — and finishing construction in under 1 year — was the way to go, for us.  It was no small feat to bring our family of seven (now eight) from SoCal to NWMT.  We did it, in part, to pursue all the things we couldn’t afford in the uber-inflated economy of California:

• wide-open spaces
• agricultural pursuits like chickens/bees/high-volume gardening
• no HOA telling us how to use our land
• hunting & trapping wild game on our property
• even the simplest thing of owning a dog, with room for it to run around on.

All these things center on having a warm, safe, dry and secure “home on the range.”  To be constantly pushing back that dream of a “clean, well-lighted place” would undoubtedly frustrate and exasperate my family (Ephesians 6:4, Proverbs 13:12).

So wisdom was sought after… and received.  And then we acted.  We secured the most trustworthy General Contractor & Carpenter that the Flathead Valley has to offer, and we are currently pursuing a construction loan.  Please keep us in your prayers as we move forward, by faith.  I will post as much of the process as as I am able, here on this blog.  Thanks for taking the time to read, and may the Lord bless your days, as you trust — and rest — in Christ.

Sure Footing at Uncle Dave’s

Uncle Dave is, of course, far ahead of us in the building process.  His crawlspace has been excavated and levelled:

 His footing form boards are up:

Now some of you may be thinking:  His footing forms look a little scant, don’t they?  Let me sum up.

Both my Uncle and I have been convinced of the benefits of using Fast-Foot form fabric to lay our footings.  Now, after installing all his form boards by himself, it seemed his back was running out of steam.  So, we jumped at the chance to help him lay the concrete fabric, since at some point in time, we’ll be doing the same process on our own home.  This presented a great opportunity for our family to learn how to participate in laying the foundation of a home.

Emily and Sophia are tacking down the plastic

Everyone pitched in, and we made some significant progress.

He’s got a nice view, doesn’t he?  🙂

This weekend, we hope to do some more excavating on our own house plot, to see if we can manage a walkout basement.

Clearing the Land

A few weekends ago, we found ourselves trudging through the light mud and melting snow to fell a few trees that were either too close to our “house-pad” or causing too much shade over our future garden location.  Most of the larger trees (12″-16″ diameter), we merely felled, de-limbed and cut into 14′ sections, which will be laid together and “seasoned” until we decide how to use the timber.  More than likely, we will “mill” them (if we can find an economical way to do so — maybe this), and then “sticker” them for drying and later use.

Here are some pics…

Starting the Log Pile

“Working Smart”

The much-needed arrival of a necessity.

The Pile gets bigger…

This is where the house will sit.

I installed a tree swing for the kids.

We’ll be doing lots of this, I’ll bet.

Where the pavement ends, our bliss begins — 1.7 miles down the dirt road.

Everyone’s working together (except my dear and very pregnant Bride.  She’s supervising.  🙂

Pulling up roots…

…So we can “put down roots.”

 Have a great weekend!

We Did It.

Well, we did it.

One of the things we came to Montana to do, is done.

We have officially purchased our first piece of land — “1.456 acres more or less” — just outside of Whitefish.  Not only is this the first plot of land we’ve bought, it will contain (Lord willing) the first house we will have ever built…  which will also be the first home we will have ever bought.  Yes, this piece of wooded bliss will come to represent the end of 20+ years of paying rent.

Hallelujah.

Here’s a picture, courtesy of Gogle Maps (boundaries are approximate):

“The Calvi Homestead”

As of today, our names are on the title.  Now it’s our turn to “fill the Earth and subdue it.”  🙂

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
    but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
— Proverbs 19:21 (ESV) 

Winter Plowing

(Little Miss makes a snow angel…)

Dear friends:

I have received word that our land tract of 1.5 acres has now been parsed off of Uncle Dave’s land, and that we now have our own physical address!  One giant step forward.

Here are a few pics that our oldest daughter snapped, while we were getting ready to plow all-Winter’s snow from the homestead driveway…

 

This is the driveway to Dave’s pad… covered in 1-2′ of snow.

 Around here, giant piles of snow means endless opportunities…

…to build Quinzhees!

Meanwhile, Dave and I got busy, putting chains on his tractor for the winter.

…And off he went, to plow a ton of snow off the driveway…

And then (as if the Google+ image enhancer knew what was going to happen 🙂 it started snowing again, just as he was near the end of the driveway:

__________________________

Please pray for us, as we organize the myriad of details involved in building the “Little House in the Big (Mountain) Woods.”

–Ric

The View from the Living Room window…

What in the world is a "Frolic"?

 Photo from AmishAmerica.com

I was talking with a couple of my brothers in Christ recently, when the subject turned (OK, I turned it 🙂 to the building plans for our home in the woods, beginning in the Spring/Summer/Fall of this year.  I told them that it became clear to me LONG ago that there was no way I could accomplish this endeavor with my pea-sized knowledge of construction (or lack thereof).  I then asked them, if I put a date on the calendar (say, over the course of some upcoming three-day weekend), would they come out and help us “raise the roof” and eat a bunch of food?  One of them, who’s had extensive interaction with the Amish in both Montana and Maine, said, “Absolutely!  The Amish call it a ‘frolic‘ or a ‘work-bee‘ “.  They were both quite enthusiastic about the possibility of helping building our home, which came as no surprise to me, given the reality of the love and Spirit of Christ operating in their families’ lives.  (Not to mention that they both have some serious labor forces in their families!  🙂

Then I got to thinking.

God has blessed me with such dear family-in-Christ in other locales as well, several hours’ drive away, but reachable nonetheless.  I suspect there may be many who would like to visit Montana in the Summer (a gorgeous time to visit here; isn’t it always?), and perhaps swing a hammer or heft a saw in productive fellowship on the outskirts of beautiful Whitefish, Montana.

So, here it is:

If you’re interested in being a part of our family’s biggest project to date, a labor of love that will represent the culmination of a lifetime of prayers and dreams, please consider joining our “Frolic” this Summer.  If you are seriously considering making the trip to join the effort and fellowship, please leave a comment on this post, or send me an email, letting me know when you might be available.  If you are unable to attend, please pray for the Lord’s protection, provision and wisdom as we build.  This will undoubtedly be a very long project, overall, but we would be honored to enjoy your company for even a small part of it.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

"WELL" UPDATE

After drilling down deeper-than-a-football-field (!), U.D. was able to obtain a flow rate of 30gpm!  Woohoo!

Here are some pics of the process (Click the photos for full-screen):

The drilling begins…

Me & Little Miss, checking things out.

The view from Uncle Dave’s house site

Looking Southwest

Looking Southeast

Checking out Uncle’s site, ready for building the crawlspace

Standing “in” our future home!

 

Breaking Ground

Here are some photos I promised.  These were taken when we were first digging into our house building site, checking to see how far down we might be able to dig for a basement.  So far, what we were seeing looks promising.  Time, and a professional excavator, will tell how much earth we can move.

(Click any of the photos to see them full-screen.)

Enjoy!

 Taking down a tree inside the building site.  We decided not to build around it.

 Moving trees, the modern way.

 Levitating chains with my mind-powers…

…Levitating trees proved a little more difficult, so I called Uncle Dave for help.

 Everybody’s diggin’!

 Little Miss “crosses the line”

 Building the fort…

Attack of the Killer BackHoe!!  AAaaaaggghh!!

Stay tuned!  The next photo album will feature pics of the water well digging.

See you then!

Well, well..

Summer hasn’t quite left us yet, here in the Flathead Valley.  People are still hittin’ the River: fishing, hiking, rafting.  The “Fresh Huckleberries” signs are still posted up en route to Glacier National Park, and there are still a few tourist RV’s left in the motor park down the road.  And as long as the ground isn’t frozen, some people are still making the most of the ever-shrinking window of opportunity to build.  That’s where we find ourselves, now.  The word around here is, all bets are off after Halloween.  That’s when the weather could turn foul at the drop of a hat.  Some daring folks, though, will build all the way up until Thanksgiving.

Photo from ga.water.usgs.gov

Tomorrow, the digging starts (!) for the water well we’ll be sharing with U.D. (Uncle Dave) (see last post).  The local well logs in the area indicate an average depth of 267 ft. (standing water level average = 94 ft.), with an average flow rate of about 20gpm — that should be plenty ’nuff for the foreseeable future, Deo Volente.  (I’ve been eyeing the “Simple Pump” as a reliable means of pumping the water up, with or without electricity.  The benefits of such a system would be enormous.)

We’ve consulted with an excavator, who believes that the ground on our plot may be “un-rocky” enough to dig down for a walk-out basement.  If this is accomplished soon enough, there may be time to build the basement, and perhaps live in it while we build up the rest of the house.  I’ve gathered that this is not the best of living arrangements, but it could save us some money in rent, for sure.  I hope it would be a beneficial trade-off, that wouldn’t rob us of our sanity and family cohesion.  🙂

That’s all for now.  I’ll try to post more pictures soon.  I know you like pictures.