There's a noodle on the way!

Just in time for Christmas, we learned that Katy was pregnant and a mini-Gladwin was in formation. Hooray!  We affectionately called it our noodle.  He/She started as an adorable little acini-de-pepe, and soon grew into a developing macaroni.  By mid-winter we had a full fledged tortellini on our hands.  Katy was understandably somewhat trepidacious about the eventual double-stuffed lasagna she would be carrying around.

Early house concepts

Well, this would have been pretty cool.  Also, about double our budget.  :)

Say Hello to Ol' Crusty

This truck came to us unintentionally.  Sometimes the universe just sends you stuff, and there it is.

Yep.  She was crusty alright.

Selecting and clearing the home site

If you read my previous post, then you know we want to build a partially earth-sheltered home.  This changes the site selection process quite a bit (provided you don't intend to completely bulldoze and re-shape the land completely).  What we must find then, is a gentle south-facing hillside to set the house into.  It's almost ridiculous how perfect a spot our parcel of land would provide us.

The Vision

So it's the summer of 2012.  We've owned our parcel of land for several months now, and it seems clear we won't start building this year.  But we can still start dreaming and planning!

The idea I kept gravitating towards was that our heat should be free.  Basically, to make the house as efficient as possible, with minimal external energy input.  However, our budget is..... small.  So what basic and affordable home design strategies can we employ?

More on the tractor

This tractor deserves a dedicated post, because it is awesome.  No, really.  It's incredible.

Besides the fact that we got a smoking good deal on it, it's just a phenomenal beast.

(It's a 2001 Cub Cadet 7305, 30HP 4WD Diesel w/ front loader, by the way.  Made by Mitsubishi and  basically identical to the Mahindra 3015).

Hacking our way in.

One feature of this property that was both a drawback and a benefit, was that it was completely overgrown.  And not with all old-growth, well-sorted forest, either (though there is plenty of that, thankfully).  Much of this land is thick, invasive brush under a young forest trying to get established.  So we knew right from the start that having some heavy machinery would be required.

Enter, the tractor:

Now what?

Ok, so we own 19 acres of vacant land.  Now what?

Well, of course we want to build a house, as soon as we reasonably can.  Should be easy enough, right? (no, not really)

We certainly don't need a full 19 acres of land.  Our very good friends, let's just call them the Redoy family, went in on the initial purchase with us.  Should be easy to plan, survey and split off their parcel, and sell it to them, right?  (not quite... might take a couple years... doh)

Is there anything we can build or do on the land right away? (nope, not so much)

Only approved use of parcels zoned R3 is single family residential, with no accessory structures before a primary dwelling having approved certificat of occupancy, only one single family residential dwelling per parcel, of a minimum 1200 sq ft ground floor area, no more than 50% of building surface shall be vinyl or aluminum siding, must obtain and display valid building permit, before which you need 6 other permits, with approved inspections, and all allowable exemptions approved in writing, blah blah BLAH OMGZ shit.

Ok then.  Let's forget about all that for a bit and just enjoy the beautiful abundance of nature, eh?

This is the neighbors house.  Our for sale sign was still up.

Family gathers for an exploratory hike into the parcel

And we're off!  Machetes and loppers in hand

The beginning

19 vacant acres near downtown Ypsilanti at a fire-sale price?  What could go wrong??

Well as we know now, lots, and lots of things could go very wrong.  But we did some critical advanced research, got very lucky on a few things, and went for it.

I had seen the parcel with a for-sale sign for a long time, but couldn't find the listing online anywhere.  Turns out it was only listed commercially, asking $750k!  Ouch... ok, forget about that.  Then a year later, a new for sale sign pops up with a much more reasonable asking price, after the developer had been foreclosed upon.  As we pondered making a low-ball offer for a while, the sign was taken down, and a call to the realtor revealed an offer had been accepted.  Oh well.  But then.... there's that for-sale sign up again (deal fell through)!  New asking price was even lower.  Ok, are we crazy? do we go for it?  Gathered the family and friends and put together a plan.  Whats that?  A competing offer is in!?  Cripes, need to act fast. Write our offer, rejected, repeat, accepted!  Whoa.

By the end of January 2012, we were the awestruck and somewhat dumbfounded owners of nearly 19 acres of vacant forest land just over a mile outside of Ypsi.

Welcome!

Ok, finally made a blog.  Even though our home-build is currently in the framing stage, I'm going go back and start from the very beginning of what's already been a 3-year journey.

I realize there's really nothing all that simple about buying vacant forested land, and trying to build a custom home on it on a tight budget.  But our home design goals embrace simplicity over complexity, and vision for our life on the land is to live simply and in harmony with nature.  It will be an adventure!