When we sold a year ago spring, our hope was to find a place swiftly, close on whatever piece of property, and get the house built over the summer and fall.

That is obviously not what happened.

Instead, it took us three months to find and sign on a place, and then delays kept us from moving to the land until the end of September. If everything had fallen in place at that point, and if we worked our butts off, we MIGHT have been able to have the house up before winter.

But another month went by with nothing coming together at all, and we had to abandon plan A. There simply was no longer time to get the house built before the snow flew, even assuming we could access the necessary materials.

There were several Plan Bs. Everything from moving back to mom’s for the winter (which we REALLY didn’t want to have to do), to “winterizing” the tent and doing our best to survive the cold. Ultimately, we decided to build the barn as a much faster structure, and then tackle the house in the spring. It cost more than we expected, though. Particularly the concrete slab, which we had not planned or budgetted for, and the stovepipe which cost a stupid amount of money.

So, we have a liveable barn structure, but the money to continue the build is gone. Building this spring obviously did not happen. In the original Plan B, we would be in the barn for less than a year. We’re on Plan XV3 now. We’ll be in the barn at LEAST a year, probably 2, while we line up our ducks and save our dollars.

Today, I was back at it with the graph paper. Given that the barn and the house will share one wall, the rooflines have to work together, so I am beginning now to measure and draw and figure to make sure we don’t end up with major problems later. I was also figuring the placement of support posts and roof beams, and the length and number of stovepipe sections we will be needing.

I need to draw out the entire exterior, to make sure the number and size of windows and doors is noted. Once I am certain of the windows and doors, I can get a more accurate idea of the area of the wall spans, and calculate the number of cedar posts accordingly. Sure, I can order wildly high numbers – cedar fenceposts are cedar fenceposts. They’d get used. But if I can winnow the number of needed posts down, it is both cheaper and easier to source.

We have decided to only do the lower storey out of the cordwood. The upper half-storey will be board-and-batten to reduce the weight and keep the distribution more equal. That will require batt insulation, so that must be accounted for also, especially as I refuse to use the disgusting pink fiberglass insulation and Rockwool isnt always carried here and must be special-ordered.

Mostly, right now, we’re saving as much as we can. Which isnt always much, as things like vet bills and car repairs crop up periodically. Winning the lottery would be awful nice. Too bad we don’t play….