Debt-Free Home Building

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We bought a travel trailer and moved it to our property. Our first step was to get a building permit for the home, which made it possible to bring electricity to our site. We submitted plans, paid fees and got our building permit. We had saved enough money the first month to purchase the land, get the permit and install a septic tank, giving us all the comforts of home. We moved there in March 1993, and our young family had a home for the next few years. We outgrew the trailer quickly, so I added a porch that covered the outdoor washing machine. The next month's funds paid to excavate the basement. I had experience surveying and laid out the foundation with my family's help in holding the elevation rod.

Two months later, we were able to buy the concrete needed for the foundation and slab. I paid for 25 cubic yards of concrete and a day's labor for eight concrete finishers, and we had a slab. We waited two more months, saving enough to purchase 1,500 concrete blocks for the basement walls. I traded an older car we had for a day of work from 10 masons. With my son's help, I mixed and poured grout into the cavities of the block walls, waterproofed then backfilled around the basement.

By late July, four months after we started, the trailer seemed to be getting smaller every day. Though our spirits were high, nerves were growing raw in such close quarters. We knew that finishing the house would mean living through winter in a rick poorly insulated travel trailer. About this time, I read an article touting the value of a backyard gazebo. I realized I could use the gazebo structure as the basis for an enclosed, insulated room, which would make a more suitable home for our family during construction. I could build the structure quickly and we could use it for something else after our home was built. I drew up the plans and got a permit. A friend who was helping pour the foundation made an offhand remark that this design looked like one his cousin built in Mexico, except that his was two stories tall. Then it hit me. Cyndi and I could have some privacy with a small bedroom above the main floor. The foundation was large enough for two stories, so I revised the plan to include a 17x10-foot bedroom.

I bought a wall-mounted heat pump for $5 at a garage sale, and we moved in just after Thanksgiving. We built the floor framing over the basement, installed floor decking and covered it with a large blue tarp. Then we moved our entire life's collection of material wealth into the basement. It had been more than a year since we'd seen some of our belongings. It had been difficult for our kids to do without their toys and special keepsakes, and reveling in our rediscovered possessions felt a bit like Christmas.

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