The time has finally arrived - I am building my tiny home!
I am so excited to start this process! I have been dreaming of building this tiny home since January of 2024 when I first thought of the idea and now it is finally time to get started! I explain in detail in my last post how I got the idea for a tiny house and how I am making it happen - definitely give it a read if you haven't already as it will probably answer any questions you have leading up to this point.
The first step in the process was finding my spot. I am going to be building my tiny home on land that my parents inherited from my grandfather. My great-grandfather was actually the one who purchased the land originally so we have quite a few generations worth of history in this spot. I am proud to continue the story of this land.
Since my mom and dad currently own the land and are living on it in my grandparents old house, I wanted to make sure the spot where my house would eventually be wouldn't interfere with them. They have a lot of windows in their house and I wanted to be sure I wouldn't be blocking their view. My parents are very gracious and pretty much told me I could build wherever I want, but I did try to pick a place that I thought would be good for all of us. The three of us agreed on an area at the north side of the land near an already existing fence so that I can use it as part of my fence. The ground in this area is very flat so I don't have to do too much site prep and it is also slightly elevated so I hopefully won't have any issues with standing water in my yard when it rains. I also have an incredible view from what will eventually be my living room windows!
The second step in the process was marking out the four corners of my yard for fencing. The area of the land I am going to build my house on is currently pasture for a herd of cows - such is life in the country. I don't mind the cows, but I also don't need them walking around in my yard so I am going to have to fence off the area around my house. For the size of house that I am planning I decided that a 100ft by 100ft square would be the perfect size area to fence off. This will allow me to still have a decent size yard around my house without being too much for me to mow by myself. I do want keep a pretty good chunk mowed around the house to help keep the snakes away though - again, such is life in the country.
The actual process of marking the yard was an experience! My mom and I headed out to the north end of the pasture with a tape measure, some flags, and confidence in our ability to mark a straight line. We ended up only coming back with the first two! We were definitely underqualified for that job (but I maintain that it was mom's fault for not wearing her glasses lol). We had a few arguments about cardinal directions and a lot of laughs about or shared terrible eyesight, but in the end we got it done. Four little orange flags was the first physical evidence of my dream becoming reality!
After marking the corners with flags I wanted to try to get some actual wooden posts in the corners. Out of everything I have researched and planned for the process of building my home there is one thing I was most worried about - digging. I feel pretty good about my ability to build whatever I need to above the ground, but for some reason actually moving around a lot of dirt to make the foundation and bury fence posts is very daunting to me. I decided to give a clamshell posthole digger a try, but I knew it probably wouldn't go well - and it didn't. After an hour of digging I had only gotten the hole about half as deep as I needed it to be and I just wasn't strong enough to get the shovel into the ground any deeper. As expected, I am going to have to figure out an auger to get my fence post holes dug. For the safety of the cows though I went ahead and put a post into the small hole I had already dug to prevent them from stepping in it, but I will have to pull that pole out and dig it deeper when I get an auger.
And that is where I am at now! I have a square of land marked off with three flags and a poorly set fence post! It doesn't seem like much, but it is the greatest thing in the world for me right now! Up next on the agenda is getting an auger I can use and fully fencing off my spot. I don't know if I am going to get it done this next week because we are expecting several days of rain and sever weather where I am at (it's tornado season), but as soon as the weather clears it is full steam ahead! My tiny home build has officially started!
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