3 Year Timelapse - Raw Land To An Off Grid Homestead - Debt Free

[Music] three years ago our land looked like this you three years later and a lot of hard work our land now looks like this [Music] this all started after myself and my wife bought a 42 acre piece of land that had been for sale for quite some time [Music] it was heavily treated with invasive maple trees that had not been thinned or maintained ever [Music] while these trees were invasive we didn't want to remove all of them but we did want to remove enough to have a usable piece of land [Music] after hand drawing the plans for a fairly simple house we got our permit to build and the work began initially the house was going to be right around 1,600 square feet with a few bedrooms upstairs in one great room downstairs we are good to go initially the plan was to subcontract out the things we weren't comfortable doing do the things we were comfortable doing try to save money in between and wrap it up in a 30-year mortgage because our land is 2.6 miles from the nearest powerline nobody wanted to finance the project this caused us to do some serious reflection and reevaluate just in fact what we could and couldn't do I have 15 years in the plumbing trade but above and beyond that I had zero other construction experience good help has been hard to find [Music] we started with the septic system got a little bit of help from a few friends to pour the foundation and from that point on basically did everything ourselves up to this point I had very little framing experience I had framed up maybe a shed and a little bit of interior work in a remodel but that was it I did what I knew how to do I talked to the right people when I didn't know what to do [Music] I looked for discounts where I could get them paid cash as we went [Music] conventionally framed the entire house and did virtually everything myself [Music] along the way we battled every kind of weather you can think of [Music] along the way I've lost a few things mainly a few pounds but I found something that has given me more purpose in life than almost anything else [Music] when the cost to build an average home in the area is north of a hundred and fifty dollars a square foot we've managed to keep our costs around $16 a square foot [Music] after getting the lower portion of the land thinned and cleared and as we began to understand just in fact the beauty that we had we felt that the rustic doug-fir siding would be perfect up here [Music] my trusty sidekick Ruger has never let me down regardless of the conditions [Music] because the bank told us no it forced me to figure out ways to save money which ultimately meant that I was going to do everything from the septic system to the gas line to the electrical to the roofing to the siding to the solar system everything that will be necessary to give us the 21st century comforts that we're looking for I had never done anything significant with electrical but I had a couple of good friends that were willing to talk me through it as I had questions our only source of heat is a wood-burning stove in the last three years that we've owned the land we've had as much as four feet of snow we framed the house to handle well over a hundred pound snow load as we got deeper into construction we realized that we needed more room our intentions are to keep everything associated with a solar system inside the house we've had more challenges along the way than I could have ever imagined there have been moments where I wondered if this would ever come to an end there have been moments where I figured out why nobody had ever built a house up here in the first place the end result is we're three years into this in the house is nearly finished we have nearly a 2,000 square foot house that's very well built that we love it's paid for [Music] we poured another 400 square feet of concrete which gave us a utility room for the water heater and everything associated with the solar system as well as another bedroom in the bathroom we've had just as many ups as we've had downs along the way but we're in the homestretch [Music] we're moments away from moving in while we have many other projects like a root cellar like building my shop like building a cabin on the back section of our property we first can't wait to just move in I then dug a shallow well ran over a thousand feet of waterline to a water tank that's over a hundred feet above the house [Music] after hauling the water tank up the hill and getting it properly positioned getting the solar well pumps in place we have water [Music] there's no question that hindsight is always 20/20 [Music] knowing what I know now if I could go back to the beginning and start over I most definitely would have done things different [Music] I most definitely would have avoided some of the mistakes I've made and some of the changes that we've had to embrace but what's the point if this was easy everybody would be doing it sometimes it's hard to know what we're capable of until we're put in situations where we just have to get things done [Music] I've made mistakes I will make more mistakes I promise but anything worth doing is gonna be hard this is probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life [Music] second only to being a husband and a father it's definitely one of the most rewarding things I've ever done we've got a lot more projects to come and I've got a lot more learning to do [Music] my shop foundation walls have been waiting for me for two years that's also on the short list [Music] the upstairs is nearly finished with drywall I'm about to transition to the downstairs drywall then it's paint kitchen cabinets then we'll probably move in we've saved more money along the way than I ever could have imagined we are nearly finished with our mortgage free home living in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet as hard as this has been we wouldn't change it for the world we have individual playlists of every phase of construction that we've gone through nearly 300 videos [Music] don't forget to subscribe to see what the next three years look like you

Channel: Red Poppy Ranch

Views: 2,199,217

Rating: 4.8409739 out of 5

Keywords: off grid idaho, off grid living, off grid, homesteading, homestead, barn house, off grid homestead, living off the grid, self sufficient, sustainable, sustainable living, DIY, do it yourself, how to DIY, New Holland, Mini excavator, excavator, clearing land excavator, e57c, chicken coop, chickens, rustic, rustic decor, drone, dji phantom 3, timelapse

Id: XkjBYgLtqaQ

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Blasphemy4kidz]

That's incredible. I ended up watching the whole thing. Just the sheer amount of time and dedication involved in building a 3000 ft² home BY YOURSELF is mind-boggling. Not to mention the effort and complexity of the whole thing...

But in the end, he'll have a mortgage-free home, with his family, in a gorgeous 40-acre plot of land for about small fraction of the cost of a finished home. Amazing.

[u/hatch_bbe]

Clearly the craftsmanship here is top notch, for someone that hasn't done any of this before the guy's done amazing.

However, I do have some issues with the design.

1. Zero fire protection. They're using the wrong plywood; it's the cheapest kind that shouldn't be used structurally or in any dwelling without extra fire protection. This stuff burns with a lot of smoke and goes up like a match stick. Use a denser, treated board. Or paint them with fire retardant paint at least.

2. Insulation. This house will be very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. They could have used insulation backed ply board which could have also helped with fire proofing, and sound dampening; on a rainy day it may feel like you're sitting in a shed.

3. Structure. I mentioned the ply they're using that offers no structural support, I would have used steel or bigger studs, on the ground floor to support the floor above. If this house falls into disrepair it could easily collapse if the 4x2 wooden studs became rotten. In-fact, 4x2 shouldn't be used to hold up an entire floor.

The good thing is that the guy that built it lives there so he can mitigate a lot of these issues and he's managed to build a fair size house on a shoe string budget so fair play to him.

[u/Shit_Ill_Repost]

I love the video. I hate how it makes me feel for being a 30 year old stoner.

[u/papahawk]

what the hell, no beauty shots of the finished exterior at least? I want my 15 minutes back

[u/jed313]

I thought he was putting in a moat for a second there. Still awesome without the moat.

[u/blueooze]

This guy put in a shit load of work. Props.

[u/OM3N1R]

$16/sq.ft is absolutely insane. Where I live in Southern California, people pay up to $700/sq.ft for new construction!

Granted that will be utilizing a bunch of fancy stuff like teak flooring, marble counters, very expensive kitchens etc.

But still, I didn't think it would even be possible to build barebones anywhere in the US for under like $50/sq.ft

[u/abalan19]

I'd be curious what is total investment was. Lots of tractors and such I saw that was needed to make this happen. Additionally all the specialized tools required.

Pretty cool stuff and props to him. Just wish these videos had more context.