I could make a million posts about the process of building our house, but I won’t bore you with each little detail. The takeaways are what I will chat with you about. We saved every penny we could in this process. There are a few things we splurged on. We built the house during a pandemic. That didn’t help a thing. We overpaid for too much, due to shortages. If we could do it ourselves we did.
We started late winter 2021. We had no architect, no detailed plans, but a simple plan on graph paper and a great builder. Chris Cunningham and crew did the big picture – the shelf, subfloor, and framing. We built a barndominium with a twist. We have a crawl space, which most barndos do not have. It is a hybrid. The layout is simple. We drew out on graph paper what we wanted and it went together perfectly. We build it for “us”, what we needed and wanted.
I drew out this exterior image, never knowing that later on it would be published in a magazine (will talk about that later). I sure would have done a better job had I known!
We paid for really good windows, that our little dogs could see out of. We paid for good insulation, sold exterior doors, solid wood interior and trim, and good flooring. We used every rebate and were good at taking back what we didn’t need. I cleaned up and organized after the crew every day. Mike did all the electric, and I was the lovely assistant. I put most of the kitchen cabinets together, and Mike was my lovely assistant. Mike hung doors, closets, just about everything. We were our own general contractor. That meant we were either working at the house or going to get supplies.
The never ending decisions, trips for supplies, late nights, and utter exhaustion came to an end just over a year later. We had Christmas in our new house. We still wonder how we did it. We still pinch ourselves to make sure this dream is real.
The Story About the Red Tail Ranch 