The Berties are Back!

I feel like we're a TV premier, or a boy band that's come out of retirement or...well that's all I've got.  We left you all high and dry after some crazy moments in our building process.  One might have thought my computer was stolen too!  I am so sorry it's taken us this long to come back with our latest post.  I've been asked so many times when I'm going to start blogging again - love that people are actually following :)   Let's just say life was beyond crazy with busy photography season and building a house while trying to manage a family all at the same time.  Have you ever had too many balls in the air and eventually you start dropping them but you try your damndest to keep the most important ones going?  Well that was my life for the past 2 months.  Now I'm as caught up as I can be so I'm here with an update!

After 2 months of living in a camper we are officially living in the...garage :\.  We can call it an upgrade as we now get to sleep in normal sized beds, we have a working oven (purchased from an auction), kitchen cabinets (purchased off of craigslist), a couch, carpet remanent and concrete floor for Jackson to ripstick on.  We also have our washer & dryer hooked up!  Peace out Laundry Mat!  We temped in our bathroom with a toilet - oh how nice it is to have a toilet that flushes and a shower that for about a month we used a hose to shower with - I know what all you ladies are thinking - CRAZY MRS. BERTIE SHOWERED WITH A HOSE?!?!  Yep, I did and let's just say I have a whole new appreciated for continuous water flow from a shower head.

So here's a panoramic pic of our current living conditions:



Lovely don't you think?  Yes, that is a picnic table as our dining set.

Here is an outside pic of the house from about 2 months ago -


For now this post is just a quick update, but I'll rewind and talk more about the steps it took to get to where we are today.  Tomorrow we get texture on our walls and will start painting and even laying tile in the bathroom that we currently use.   We also chose the worst time of year to start siding our house.  This morning when we went to work it was 1 degree...1 degree...yes, 1 degree and it sucked.  Mr. Bertie is a work horse though so we went outside, nailed a few on, came inside to warm up and then back out again.  We still have a ways to go but I'm going to say it out loud...we are hoping to be done by the end of February.  I sure hope we can make it happen, but it's going to take a lot of hard work, persistence, and of course money.  We'll talk budget next time if that's ok with you - I've got some catching up to do with it.

Wishing you all a blessed Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Theft was NOT in the budget

Ok I hate to be a Debbie Downer right off the bat because if you know me I'm typically a happy bubbly person.  I find the optimism in just about any situation.  Sure the last couple years have been well...unlucky and at time felt unfair but that's life right.  I once heard someone ask, "can you imagine how boring life would be if everything was just ok all the time and there were no ups and downs?"  That has stuck with me so even when bad things like theft happen, I try to find a lesson to be learned and move on.

So we have a storage unit that was broken into and they just so happened to steal everything that was in our garage from our last place...and I mean EVERYTHING!  Oh wait, they did leave us a rake and shovel.  Bless their hearts.  I don't know what you have in your garage but in the Bertie's garage we have tools galore and those tools were going to be used to build this house.  How the hell are you supposed to build a house without tools???  So of course panic and anger set in.  Little Lucy said, "they could have just asked for it."  Let's just say we heart to heart about working hard for the things you have and never taking anything from anyone.  They also wrecked some household items but the tools are the devastating part.  To make it worse...our deductible is $3400!!!  ::insert me slamming my head against a wall::  You see I was oblivious as to how our insurance worked.  Apparently our homeowners covers our storage unit, great...not so great!  We then have to pay that deductible even on our RENTED storage unit!  Because we thought we were being smart about paying lower premiums for higher deductible in case our house burned down at some point we thought we were good to go, except when "little" things like this happen it about knocks you over.  So Lesson #14038672 - pay more attention to your insurance policy and have them walk you through scenarios so that you don't feel misinformed.  I'm not gonna lie, I feel incredibly misinformed and while I take most the blame for it I sure wish my insurance agent would have piped in - just sayin'.

MOVING ON!  This weekend we worked on POWER!!!  We had to trench in the power from the power box to the house.  I'm pretty lucky here cause my Mr. Bertie is an electrician so we got the hook up!  I even got to run the trencher!  We also ran power out to the pet house/kids fort and also out to where a future shed will be...in the very far future ;)  It's better to get it in now rather than later when everything is looking spiffy.

Because a Trenching Selfie felt appropriate

We also put up all the outlet and switch boxes throughout the house.  When you marry an electrician you better believe your house is going to be well lit.  He also drilled through the studs to run the wire.    Tomorrow, if it's not too windy, they start the trusses and by the end of the week we'll be ready to shingle!!!

We also ran to Menards menards.com for some insulation as they were having the 11% Rebate and we will be doing insulation soon.  Let's talk numbers:


Underground Foam Insulation:
  BUDGET: $5658
  ACTUAL: $3850
  DIFFERANCE: +$1808 YAY!

House/Garage Insulation:
  BUDGETL: $5676
  ACTUAL: $4267
  DIFFERANCLE: +$1409 YAY again!  Plus we'll get 11% ($469) back in rebate!



TAKEAWAY:

    - I will encourage all of you to talk to your insurance agent about your current policy.  Do an all around look at your rates, premiums, deductibles and really get to know your situation so that you don't have to learn about it the hard way like us.  Oh and we did lower our deductible to $1k and no they will not do a separate policy for a storage unit - UGH!

  - Search for good deals people!  It pays off as you can see!

  -  If you are not on a budget yet I HIGHLY encourage you to get on one and everydollar.com is THE BEST budgeting tool out there.  So easy to use and I promise you that if you are not on a budget right now and you get on one, it will feel like an insta-raise!  "Tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went." ~ Dave Ramsey

Oh and one last thing...we're having a Shingling Party this next weekend!  Beer, Pizza and Gas Gift Cards if you feel like helping the Berties out!

{as always we love hearing from you so feel free to post 

questions & comments and share with others!}

Well, well, well...where is the water?

Hello...anyone...anyone...Bueller...Bueller???  Oh there you are!  Pretty sure I may have lost a few of you these past couple weeks but we're still alive!  It's been nuts and so I have lots to update you on.  Before we do that I want to remind you that if you'd like to follow along feel free to sign up via e-mail on the blog!  You'll get an e-mail each time I post an update.

This week's good - we have walls!  The bad - finding water was a bitch.

First of all - WE HAVE POWER, and RUNNING WATER, and INTERNET!!!  It's amazing how much we take advantage of our lives having the basic necessities and until you don't have them you don't realize just how lucky you are.  Let's talk info & budget...ready?

Power:
  BUDGET:  $3600
  ACTUAL COST:  $2740 to the Electric Company & $50 to our neighbors as a thank you
  DIFFERENCE: +$810
 
  We have an incredibly long driveway - 800 feet to be exact.  To save a little money we shortened the distance bring the power line on the edge of our woods rather than following our driveway.  Our AMAZING neighbors Phill & Mary Kay (you'll hear a lot about these 2 - they are the best) cut down 5 trees for us so that we could trench the line a shorter distance.  They also trenched our internet cable at the same time.

Internet:
  We planned on cash flowing this if there were any extra costs.  Luckily there weren't any!  It just took them FOREVER to get it to us.  It took a lot of phone calls, a lot of following up to get them here and after an entire month they finally hooked me up.  A huge thank you to Matt & Sam Anderson for borrowing their laptop to me.  Try running a business without internet - IMPOSSIBLE!  I was becoming a regular at Caribou however I don't drink coffee so I ended up ordering a cookie and water.  Hey whatever works!

Water:
  BUDGET: $5500
  ACTUAL: We haven't received the final bill but it's looking like $13,078.
  DIFFERENCE: -$7578 - OUCH!

  The well has been our biggest learning experience and our biggest downer since beginning the project.  I have some major advice ahead so if you're ever planning to dig a well you'll want to read the following - if not feel free to skip over.

  ALWAYS over budget to make room for DRY HOLES.  We had a company (I'll leave their name out since it didn't end well but feel free to contact me for references if you need one) was the highest bid but was willing to match the lowest bid just to keep our business as we'd worked together in the past.  Our 3 bids for a 100' well came is as follows:
  1-$5,444
  2-$6,830
  3-$7,047
We thought great - we had trust and a better price.  Our first mistake was giving the bank the number $5,500.  We should have added at least $3,000+ as you end up paying in big time if you drill a dry well.  If you end up with dry holes then you have the money.  If you hit water the first time then you have wiggle room.  This company dug 3 dry wells!  The 2nd hole the rig broke down so we were not charged for it but 3 dry holes people!  And then they wanted to go 150 yards south of our house for the next hole.  That's when I stepped in and said enough was enough.  We had 2 well witches come out with that company and then independently had 2 more come out.  If you've never tried well witching, give it a go.  Adam's been shocked too many times so he wasn't able but it worked for me.  Anyway, we then had another well company come out and after a lot of discussion including scientific geological reasoning I was convinced they would be a good option.  I gave the other company one last shot telling them if they could get me running water for $10k or less we'd stick with them only they said they would but wouldn't use quality products - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!  After a lot of discussion, me being pissed off with the situation we switched companies.  The new company found water 10' from the other company's second "dry" hole.  In the end we made the right decision letting the other company go.  You have to follow your gut in these situations.  Unfortunately the bank would not cover the first company's cost since we let them go so we had to come up with $4,218.00  -  yikes!  It sucks because it happened right away but it's a good thing too because now we can adjust our budget now rather than later.  There go my gorgeous kitchen countertops :(  Traut Wells out of Alexandria is the company we ended up going with and their bid came in at $8860 for a 180' well.  Our well ended up being 163' so there will be some adjustments made.

Here is us getting water!!!  It brought tears to my eyes!

We also had our footing installed.  Jackson got hands on experience working with block.  What a wonderful crew they were showing him the ropes.  Thank you Lake Mary Concrete!  They have been absolutely amazing to work with.

Then they backfilled and we went to work.  We bought foam for inside the walls of the footings and foam for the flooring.  $3850 from Menards.  

In-floor Heating:

  BUDGET:  $1700

  ACTUAL: $1245

  DIFFERENCE: +$455 - but we plan to sell the gun

Bought a PEX tubing staple gun ($200), staples ($165) and PEX($880) off of E-bay.

2nd Lesson Learned:  When doing IN-FLOOR HEAT you have the option of doing 1/2" or 5/8" tubing.  1/2" is cheaper but each run can only go 300' where 5/8" can go 500'.  The tube that we ordered off of Ebay was 1000' so we ended up with 3 sets of 100' of waste.  That's a lot of money!  This is good to know before you order and will save you money if you do it right.  Also, be sure to staple every 5 feet or so.  If you leave too much of a gap the cement will push the tubing up or move it out of place.  I ended up adding staples as the guys were pouring the cement.  Yet another lesson learned.  We also worked into the night.  A huge THANK YOU to Brandon Lennox for helping Adam while I was away at a shoot.

I realize this post was more informational than entertaining but I had to catch up on where we are today.  Speaking of...WE HAVE WALLS!!!

Ok off to bed!  Us Berties gotta get our sleep while we can!  Thanks again for following along!

Tiny House

First of all, what an incredible response I've had to the blog with just one post!  YAY!  Thank you so much for your encouraging words and advice.  Thank you to all you new people that I didn't even know for following along this journey.  I even chatted with a local lady who's doing the same thing as us!  I think I finally found someone like me...not afraid to get her hands dirty ;)  So thank you all and keep on following along!  Ok, now back to business...

So there's this Tiny House movement making its way across the world!  So in all actuality we are just keeping with the trends with our new living arrangements!  We live in a Tiny House...or camper...tomato, tomato (I'm saying them 2 different ways, get it?).   And actually we have 2!  So here it is, our home:

For 10 months we lived with my parents.  You never know how living with your parents will go but I must say, it went amazing.  Better than it should have.  They even extended the offer to stay longer - how sweet, but no.  It's time to be adults again.  So with many tears from Jackson...and yes a few from me we moved out.  We saved enough for our initial down payment by living with them and we cannot thank them enough!  I also have an incredibly amazing and generous sister & brother-in-law that lent us this mansion of a camper (trust me when you compare the 2, it's a mansion).  We do our every day out of the main camper and the fish house/camper is my office and closet.  That's right, we have a WALK IN CLOSET!   Rent in Alex would run us at least $1000/month if we went with that option.  Sure we'd have power, running water and maybe even internet but hey, we can do it!  It's all about exploring your options! 

I promised a floor plan and budget but I can only deliver on one.  Sorry, my budget is currently being overhauled by our current well situation (I'll talk more about that in another post...trust me, it's post worthy).  So here is the plan!  Feel free to disect it and share any thoughts on it!  Just a couple things to note, we have 2 little ones and are DONE having kids so we only wanted 3 bedrooms with the bonus as a guest room/kid's retreat.  We also hope to grow old in it so it is 1 level with a bonus room over the garage.  Our storm shelter is the closet off the kitchen and will be reinforced accordingly.  The "sun room" is actually my studio!  If you didnt already know I do photography so I'm so excited to have a designated space for it.  Ok, enough talk, here it is:

My goal is to post each Sunday night and so as we sit here on a Monday you can see that plans sometimes change.  It's been chaotic with moving and starting school so please forgive me.  Stick with me and I'll have more fun posts coming up about the ups and downs of the building process!

There's no place like home

We've been clicking our ruby red slippers for over 2 years now and we're finally almost home!  It's been a long run of ups and downs but we've made it through and we are finally able to call Alexandria HOME!

That's right people it's official,we broke ground, we move Labor Day weekend onto our land and into a...camper!  SAY WHAT?!?!

It played out like this 2.5 years ago on a trip back from Pelican Rapids:

Alicia: Adam, would you ever move?
Adam: Why would we move when we just added onto our house?
Alicia: I know but if you did move anywhere, where would it be?
Adam: I suppose Alex. (that's the answer I was hoping for)
Alicia: And if you moved what would you want?
Adam: I'd want over 40 acres of hunting land and I'd want to build.
Alicia: You know the only way you're going to get a good deal on land is if you buy it from a widow (I know shame on me).  hops online to realtor.com...I think I found something.
Adam: What?
Alicia:  I found some land just 3 miles outside of Alex with 53 acres.  Want to go take a look?
Adam: I guess

And that's how it all started.  We looked at the land, called the realtor, they just dropped the price $50k (it happened to be a widow that wanted a fast sale), we found a realtor Matt Imdieke (centralmnrealty.com), listed our house on Monday, put an offer in on Wednesday and had our first showing on Thursday.  This is how we did things; quick decisions with no clue of what could go wrong...and they did.

(picture taken when we thought we sold the 6th time...Lucy must have seen the bad news coming...they too backed out.)

Let's just fast forward through all the not-so-fun things and move on to TODAY!  Today I'm starting this blog as a way for me to document our building process and also, and maybe more importantly, our budget process.  You see we did learn something through that roller coaster ride.  We learned patience, thought process, hope for the best but plan for the worst, and we learned how to budget.

We found Dave Ramsey (daveramsey.com) and it has completely changed our way of life and outlook on our future.  If you've never heard of Dave or maybe just heard a few little things about him I encourage you to check it out.  You see I was never told that I should live on a budget, or how for that matter.  Money comes and goes as we make it and spend it and that's that.  Everyone has a house payment, everyone has a car payment, everyone has student loans...until I learned that some people don't and the freedom that comes along with that.  It's amazing what happens when you tell your money where to go.  And that's just what we're going to do.

It is my goal to build this house on a budget.  "But Alicia, you can't build a house on a budget and actually come in on budget" they say.  "EVERYONE goes over 10-15%!"  So here is me holding us accountable and putting it out there for others to see.  I will talk numbers on here but not always specific as I don't want to upset my contractors.  And I will explain when, how, and why we do things.  If you ever want details don't hesitate to ask - I'm an open book.  I would also encourage you to share this blog with anyone who is looking to build, a do-it-yourself friend, or anyone you think this might be helpful to.  We would also love to hear from you so please don't hesitate to comment with words of encouragement (we're gonna need them) and questions you may have.

*I also want to add a disclaimer.  I am not a creative writer nor do I have the best grammar and spelling.  I also cuss like a sailer but I'll limit that on here.

So here is our building process...on a budget...wish us luck!

{stay tuned for our next post which includes the house plan & budget}

#bertiesbuildonabudget