Vamos Homestead Adventure!: Let's talk about the house!

Well, that little burst of writing in December didn't last, did it? I was teaching and we're building and time got away from me! Now, I'm home (like most of the world) but we are still building...with an even greater sense of urgency. Well, we're pressing on with a light at the end of the tunnel. We hope to move in by the middle of May, Lord willing. But for now, we're going to take a quick look back because we have a video to show you! The only real update from the last blog is that we won't be off-grid. It would have been wonderful, but in the end it didn't work out to be as cost-efficient as to make it worth-while. The fuel costs to run a large generator, which would need to run every day for a few hours in the winter, plus the cost of the generator itself (and I don't mean the kind from Canadian Tire!) put our calculations over the top. We are still focused on being energy-efficient but now we will have a much lower initial cost. -Cathy

From Jonathan:

Finally, after almost 12 months, we have our first video of building our house. When you´re building a house, you normally have hardly any time for other things (like making videos). But here it is: Video number one, of us building our house. Enjoy.

There were also some other steps, that you did not see on video, for example:

Before we were able to scrape off the dirt we had to move mple:some frozen cedar logs (in April). The only way we managed that was with the help of the neighbor, who came with his tractor to move them away.
We also had to cut down some trees and clear away some bushes.
And, (in case you´re wondering) here is what happened to the flat tire that started coming off: We called the rental company and they told us that their insurance does not cover a flat tire. So it´s our responsibility. They recommended somebody who fixes tires though. He pulled up in a bright yellow pick up truck with all his equipment.....and left less than an hour later with a big smile on his face (fixing the tire wasn´t cheap). Then when we were going to park it for the night, we started hearing a hissing noise. Another hole, in the same tire!!! The guy came back in the yellow truck and fixed the tire again, this time (luckily) only charging us 20 dollars for the second fix.
After the backhoe had scraped off all the dirt, it was left at the side of the road by our property for a few days, with the name of the company potrayed for everybody driving by to see. That was some cheap advertising for them. They even got payed for it!!!

From the beginning of the video to the end of it was a time period of about 1 month, because we had to wait for,the building permit to come through, good weather, weekdays (because of helpers) and more good weather.

The laying of the concrete blocks themselves took about a week, we were hoping for it to take two days, although it looks so fast in the video.