Today, I found myself reflecting on our house-building journey.
It’s been exactly one year since we cleared the land and poured our foundation—and 2.5 years since we signed the contract to purchase that land. From planning to finding a contractor, just getting started took a full year. Getting approvals from the authorities and hunting for the right builder felt like the hardest part… but oh, how wrong I was.
I’ve shared before about the lessons we’ve learned, but this week brought a new challenge. I can’t tell if this hurdle is truly more complicated—or if we’re just plain exhausted from a year of firefighting—but this one feels heavy.
I’ve always been an advocate for living sustainably and even building your own home. But here’s the truth: it’s not easy, especially on a tight budget. It’s tiring to always find “creative” ways to make things work. And for the first time, both my husband and I feel completely stuck. Usually, he’s the steady rock in our storm. This time, even he feels like we’ve hit a wall with no way around it.
If you’re expecting this post to be my usual “keep pushing forward” pep talk, I have to be honest—it’s not. I’m human too. Some days I wonder if this dream is worth it. Some days I feel like we’re letting our kids down—they’re so excited to start a sustainable life in this beautiful home we’re trying to build, and now even we doubt if it will ever be finished.
Right now, all we can do is pray and take it one step at a time. What do you do when you feel stuck?
I’m not even sure what the purpose of this post is. Maybe I just needed to write it down—so that one day, when this house is finally standing, I can look back and say: “I’m glad we didn’t give up.” And I’ll thank God Almighty for carrying us through.
These pictures show how far we’ve come—and why we must finish what we started.
We will get there.
RR