As most of you have read before, we moved onto our little farm about 10 years ago. Our goal was to build a small self-sufficient working farm. A place we could retire to and make a modest living from. It took some planning, changing and sacrificing, but has proven to be and will be very worthwhile in the long run.
When we moved onto the farm we had planned on building a house, though needed a place to live until that house was built. We began our farm life living in this…
Why an RV you might ask... it was a quick fix to a major need, we also thought we could use it in later years if we decided to travel and it was affordable.
Living in the RV was actually enjoyable. It was a good fit for just the two of us. Had one bedroom plus a Hide-a bed sofa if we had unexpected guests. Had a nice compact kitchen (only draw back no dishwasher and not much room for home canning), separate dining area, living room, surprisingly a lot of storage room. Had central air conditioning and heat. We had satellite, Internet, telephone. I really can’t complain at all.
Some of you might be raising that eyebrow and questioning living in such small quarters. For me, I spend most of my time out of doors. Especially back then, just beginning the farm, we didn’t spend much time inside at all. It was easy to keep clean, had all necessities and most that stopped by the farm were totally surprised at how nice and roomy it actually was. I do believe(but don't hold me to it) it was 12 ft wide with the slide outs and 34 ft. long. Since the RV was not moving for awhile the better half connected electric, water and sewer lines to the house instead of the temp lines most use when setting up while camping.
We did not get around to building our green dream home. With the better half being gone from the farm most of the time it was obvious it would never happen. We chose to look into other options.
Did you know that having a pre-fab modular manufactured house built off site can save as much as 50% in energy as a traditional residential home building. They also contain 30 % more building materials than a comparable traditional site built home.
What you ask is a modular home? - Prefab, panelized, or modular are terms that usually refer to housing that can be any combination of pre-engineered home parts that are delivered to the building site ready to be assembled in a quick manner. A home of this type, when properly installed and maintained will appreciate the same as the surrounding site-built homes in its area.
We chose to design our own modular home. This year we celebrate our first year anniversary of living in our new farm home.
Yes, it took almost 10 years due to our wanting to be debt free with our only expense being the house payment. No land payment, no auto payments, stopped buying on credit. Cash and carry only. If we can't afford it we don't do it. Sure we had to scrimp, sacrifice and go without at times, it was very well worth it! We accomplished our goal as of last October, designed and purchased the house in November. The house was brought in the second week of December and we moved in December 20th.
The farm remains a constant work in progress, we still have a barn and new chicken coup to build and it may take a few more years to accomplish all we wish to do.
I have to say we are very happy and very proud of what we have accomplished.
Building up and leveling (this was actually quite a bit of work, we live on a hill side)
Pouring concrete for the foundation
The foundation piers attempting to dry in the snow
Parts of the new house being delivered and put in place
The better half inspecting sections as they arrived
Annie venturing out in the snow to inspect the back doors
Construction of the back screened in sun room/deck
