It sounded so simple in the beginning…”Hey honey, lets buy some land and build a barn so we can live in it while we save up for this really awesome farm house. I had no freaking idea what was involved for this project! As cozy as our happy trailer was, we needed to move forward with our barn so the moms could move in. In the land of Jennifer (which is a pretty amazing place to visit), things move according to plan and happen when I say they should happen. HaHaHa! In the world of “reality and construction” not so much! Here was our timeline when we hatched this plan:
APRIL 1- move into trailer (Actual move in date- May 22nd)
DURING APRIL: Connect to commercial power, dig well and septic system (Actual time line- End of May completed trailer septic, June 1 connected to power, Middle of June well dug and end of June connected to well water.
JULY- begin and complete foundation (Actual timeline- Foundation was finally completed in September due to an unusually wet Spring and Summer
JULY/AUGUST- Complete Barn structure including metal siding and roof
Reality: it is now January 11 as I am writing this and the structure is complete but we are still working on finishing the interior. We gained occupancy 3 days before Christmas. We actually held Christmas dinner in the barn. It was so nice sitting down to dinner in our own place with all the people who helped make it possible.
Things we learned in the process:
- You can’t manage the weather- it’s gunna do what it’s gunna do
- There is” my” time and then there is “construction” time
- As much as we wanted to do this as a cash project, banks are pretty helpful too (all of the delays forced us to hire help which bit into our budget)
- Neighbors are awesome, so are family members
- At the end of the day, it’s all going to work out in God’s time. ( I’m still working on accepting that)
- I have the most amazing husband in the world
Pictures to follow soon