Construction on the New Addition Begins

In our book The Doable Off-Grid Homestead, we talk about our progressively built home. What I mean by that is that we started with a 400 square-foot cabin built under an existing roofline. To that we added a kitchen and dining area just shy of 300 square feet.

Those were the days when it was little Ruthie crawling around the construction site, eating dirt. Now she’s playing with her baby sister as the rest of us dig trenches, make forms, and get ready to pour concrete.

At some point in the last year, Stewart started talking about building an addition. Sure, 700 square feet can feel pretty tight sometimes with the eight of us running around, but it’s doable with the proper management (which I am usually not good at). We are a live-at-home family; we do school at home, I work from home, Stewart usually works from home, and we spend pretty much all day, every day together, at least the children and I do, in or around the home.

So we decided some new bedrooms might be in order for these growing little (and not-so-little) ones. Two stories is the plan for this addition, giving us an additional 600+ square feet. Also, a dining room that will double as a school room, with room for actual bookshelves and all of the school materials that I am constantly moving around the house because there just isn’t a place for them.

Of course, it would not be one of our building projects if there weren’t a whole lot of reclaimed materials being used. We have collected and were gifted a whole bunch of used materials including lumber, windows, doors, and plywood (or is it OSB? I can never remember) that are all in great shape.

Thankfully I’m not in charge of this operation. If it’s anything like our previous construction projects, you’ll find me digging some trenches, holding walls, and wrangling toddlers when I’m in the construction zone.

As I prepare to hit publish, concrete is going into the forms. Stewart and the boys are mixing and pouring, the big girls are tamping, and little Joshie is involved in all manner of play with the occasional work thrown in. It is a bit surreal to watch the construction process unfold again, five years later. Little Ruthie crawling around and eating dirt seems like so very long ago, but also as if it were just yesterday.

If anyone can locate where these past five years have gone, please contact me. I didn’t even really know that they had passed until I saw this photo again.