Building without debt

We feel very lucky to be able to build without having to take a loan. When I was a kid I saw my parents example of how nice it was for them to have started their dream  (an organic farm) without a loan. When they had decided they want to buy a farm and start growing vegetables they went off and worked for 5 years saving money to buy the farm. These days it is more than normal that when you decide you want to buy a house you go to the bank and get a mortgage.

So already when I was a kid I decided I don't want to take a loan but instead I want to save money for my house. So that's what I have been doing for the last 15-20 years! Of course I haven't been making money all those years so during many of them I was not saving more money but my goal all along was not to have to touch my savings I already had. And I was able to do that, even when studying, thanks to my parents who supported me financially when I studied and also thanks to my first profession, nurses aid, because with that schooling it was super easy to get a job for the summer so I didn't need to touch my savings. Being stingy also has helped. (When me and Mick started spending more time together and did shopping Mick was surprised to learn I thought sun dried tomatoes were too expensive to buy except on special occasions).

Another reason we have the money is that Mick used to own a house in Ireland that he has sold now and there was some money left from that as well.

All along I had thought I'm saving to buy an old house but that dream has changed into building one. I think building one will be more expensive than the houses we looked at for buying. When building you easily might use all the money you have and also it will cost more than expected (or so I have heard).

What ever it ends up costing it wont cost more than we have so I feel safe in that way. And we both feel really lucky to be able to do this project without banks involved. Yes, our savings have come from working from eight till four so being in the working world (and rat race) is necessary sometimes but it is good also to be able to leave it if you want to. Its good to believe in yourself that you can do it too, not only others.

We hope our example inspires others to build small and cheap, from recycled materials and materials you can find from the building spot so that it can be done without loans or lots of money involved.

Out of the rat race into the beetle race (oravanpyörästä kisaan kuoriaisia vastaan)

Mick often talks about how we are trying to get out/stay out of the rat race (or have succeeded in some parts): no bank loan, no need for nine to five (or in Finland eight to four) jobs, no busy city life etc. So we try to live with out being in that rat race but now we are in a race against the beetles!

When you cut trees down the fresh cut down bark on the tree starts to attract beetles. The beetles come fast and they lay eggs in the bark and then the baby beetles start to eat the bark.
Luckily here (at least the beetles we have) don't eat further than the bark. Or they do go a bit into the timber but not so much that it would be harmed by these. So actually the race is not that bad. When we were peeling boards this week we found many beetles like in this picture and also some other type of beetles but the harm that they had done was small and the marks easily peeled away. And once you take the bark away the beetles are not interested any more. So we win!

A funny fact: Rat race in finnish is oravanpyörä which is literally translated "squirrel wheel"
Hassu fakta: oravanpyörä englanniksi on rat race eli "rotta kilpailu"

The visit of the mobile sawmill

The same week that we were busy getting the planning application ready and getting the road cleared the mobile sawmill came. Those were busy one and a half days too. There was a big pile of pine to be cut. The sawmill guy put his mill ready the day before and started cutting the next morning. He needed lots of helpers to carry away all the boards that were cut. A noisy job!

Getting ready to cut more

 On the left the pile of pine logs uncut, on the right the cut ones stacked according to size

It took the next good few days to stack all the cut boards into a big pile

Now they can dry slowly and they don't warp (hopefully)

Application in!

At the same time when we were clearing the road in a hurry we were trying to get the building permission application ready. The drawings by the engineer were ready on the 10th of May. I went to print them at the library with the kids and Mick continued clearing the road. After loads of printing, filling in forms and getting signatures from neighbors that they OK our plans we were finally ready to apply. The application was left to the office on the 11th of May at 9.30 am. That felt really good and it was a relief to have it in.

Right now lots of applications are left before the summer so it will most likely take five weeks to get the permission. During that time we might be asked to do changes but hopefully nothing big. We have showed the designs and had correspondence with the planner already before applying so there should not be any big surprises.
This is what we applied for:

Julkisivu itään, South elevation 1:100

The surface of the house wont look like this because the roof will be of aspen shingles, haapapaanu and the walls will be clay and lime so a very smooth surface

Leikkaus, Section 1:100 

The posts and beams will be visible inside the house. 

The chimney will be in the middle and a wood burning stove will heat the whole house.

The windows on the roof will bring in extra light.

Road done half way

First of all sorry to all you readers that there has been no posts for a long time! We were on our trip to Ireland and Holland and came back in the end of April. The trip was nice but it did take a good week to recover and get back to our normal rhythm. Then we spent some time at out building site clearing space there. After that we went back to clearing the road.

The person digging the road had planned to come in the end of June but he was suddenly available in the beginning of May. So he came and we spent a week trying to clear the road faster than he dug it :) Luckily the road was mostly cleared but at some points it was cleared only 4 meters wide and the digger needs 12 so thats what we were doing.

The digger stayed a week and then needed to go to another job so he will be back in the summer. But half of it is done!

Our new road. The view to the field wont soon be there cause the birch will have leaves