Debt Free Dream Home Build Story – Phase One
Research, Planning, Learning, Design High Efficiency Quality Timber Frame House Buildable By 2 People Off Grid
Build Story Overview
The Debt Free Dream Home Build story is one of lofty ideas, impossible odds, tight deadlines, underdogs, not taking no for an answer and a beautiful, simple home built from a strong desire to be self sufficient and debt free. This is a 36×36, 3447 sq ft home with 3 levels built using principles of building science, high efficiency materials like ICF block, SIP wall and roof panels and a timber frame sawn, cut and raised on site in a blizzard. This owner build project started in 2015, broke ground in 2017 and is currently under construction.
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Phase One Overview
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Phase One Highlights
Failure to Launch
It’s unconventional but the road to this house started with a failure to launch. Upon arrival to the property we immediately laid out footings for a small building and dug footing beds ready to jump into form building and getting the earth work done before winter sets in.
The plan was to build a smaller shop/living quarters type structure upon arrival to the property. Nearly immediately this plan was scrapped due to the high temperatures experienced upon arrival to the property. Fear the shop/living quarters structure would not support off grid living due to extreme energy demands put this plan to bed before it even got out of the dirt. Something we simply had not considered would be a factor at such a northern latitude, but would prove a very wise decision.
While a major setback, that caused a landslide of reactionary projects to survive our fist winter, this would prove to be a major blessing in disguise. The plan would shift from building our dream home “in a few years, maybe 5-10” to “let’s try to survive our current circumstances for now and focus all that time, money and energy on the dream home”.
Surviving would become 3.5 years but it was the best decision we could have made.
Septic Permit, Percolation Test & Installation
One of the first projects we got moving on quickly was installing a septic. While the RV holding tanks were survivable winter was on it’s way and very quickly RV living would become impossible if we had to continue moving the trailer to the county RV dump (which closes in the winter as it turns out…) to empty waste tanks.
This was a really BIG early step towards our dream house. We had to consider many factors which we really hadn’t until that moment like where would the house be exactly, if the system failed where would a replacement system go, where would cars drive. It’s a lot to take in when you’ve just arrived to your property.
Because of the part of our property we’re choosing to build the house on, the side with an amazing view, we have to be very frugal with space to do it all. The slope of the hill, set backs and usable land all made this a very challenging system to locate and ensure proper function and the ability to replace it should it fail.
Wanting to do this once and do it right, the entire system was located, sized and designed to accommodate the future house. This felt like a big commitment because if we wanted to change our minds later it would be too late so really having a big plan for where to site a septic turned out to be a huge deal. We went through the process of permitting, digging percolation test holes (some sill mistakes on that in the video series) and finally hired a contractor to make this project go smoothly.
Full Time RV Living RV Setup
With the house build called off and winter coming quickly we needed to get ready to hunker down. We acquired a RV garage kit to protect the RV from the snow and rain and help us keep a dry area to minimize mud and dirt in the tiny space. This was helpful, but it wasn’t going to be enough to keep the RV protected during winter.
An opportunity came to us to tear down a barn and a house that were going to be demolished anyway for just $300. Thinking we could use the materials to build a “good enough” cabin for over-wintering we jumped on this and came away with an abundance of posts, lumber and metal roofing.
Using a tear off flyer around town we found lots of building materials for free including an exterior metal door, cedar decking, windows, insulation and bricks!
We used these low cost salvaged materials to build a small cabin that would house our solar setup, internet, a wood stove, our water jugs and some space to stretch out a little. Little did we know this cabin would be our home for 3.5 years!
Off Grid Solar, Generator & Battery Bank
It’s unconventional but the road to this house started with a failure to launch. Upon arrival to the property we immediately laid out footings for a small building and dug footing beds ready to jump into form building and getting the earth work done before winter sets in.
The plan was to build a smaller shop/living quarters type structure upon arrival to the property. Nearly immediately this plan was scrapped due to the high temperatures experienced upon arrival to the property. Fear the shop/living quarters structure would not support off grid living due to extreme energy demands put this plan to bed before it even got out of the dirt.
While a major setback, that caused a landslide of reactionary projects to survive our fist winter, this would prove to be a major blessing in disguise. The plan would shift from building our dream home “in a few years, maybe 5-10” to “let’s try to survive our current circumstances for now and focus all that time, money and energy on the dream home”.
Surviving would become 3.5 years but it was the best decision we could have made.
DIY Deck from Chainsaw Milled Lumber
With the pressure off on the house build to start, but with a fire burning to build we saw an opportunity to at least incrementally improve life while getting a chance to build things together to practice for the “big project”.
Wanting to test and validate some of our ideas we set out to design and build an all wood deck. Using a chainsaw mill and tress from our property we set out to make our own lumber and decking. Treated were purchased. The outcome was a preview of not only building as a couple with our own resources, but also the gorgeous view our home would enjoy years later and a place to put our first creature comfort. A wood fired hot tub.
DIY Wood Fired Cedar Hot Tub
Submitting to the idea that our current living situation could for an extended time period, we agreed to give ourselves a little comfort to help us be patient for the big marshmallow. Our next building project was a DIY wood fired cedar hot tub to bring our new deck to life.
Being off grid our only option was wood heat. We purchased lumber for this project since we don’t have any cedar and it needed to be clear wood. Staves were cut, we outsourced the joinery and finally assembled the tub and installed the stove. This project taught us so much about finer wood working and the power of being resourceful. Skills that would serve us well on the coming home build.
Testing Designs & Reading Books
Heading back to the drawing board and now with time on our hands to think through this “dream home” that we had discussed, but never defined we started tinkering with design ideas. There was a strong desire to build a timber frame. Not for reasons you might assume.
Timber frames are gorgeous! Yes the beauty is a very strong allure, but the real driver was economics and debt avoidance. The idea that one can add tremendous equity through converting raw materials into a home with an enhanced market value. The trick is doing so without triggering any sort of tax on this added value. Enter the timber frame. Convert a very affordable, locally abundant, resource into a highly desirable, and valuable, structure through hard work.
Past the inspiration stage our path lead to books which focused on the “how to” of timber framing. As we digest whether this dream is even feasible given our skills and knowledge.
Learning via Timber Frame Battery Box
Needing a place to store a battery bank used for solar power we decided to try our hand at a timber framed battery box. A napkin sketch was made of the structure and having some recent windfall timbers laying around we went to work crafting our “timbers” and laying out joinery.
Anyone with any real experience timber framing will cringe at pretty everything about this project from design, joinery chosen, tools used etc.
We got two huge blessings from this project. A pretty fun and cool battery box and a sobering gut punch that we have no clue what we are doing. If we plan to build a timber frame on the scale of a home there’s gonna need to be a major leap in every department.
Our First House Plan
Thinking we simply needed to start with a “real house plan” or a design, we contracted with a company who specializes in timber frame homes to help us bring our vision for a home to life.
Originally we had favored a monitor style design to maximize natural light. Design focuses included snow shed, natural light, covered decks and walkways, large garage/workspace, walkout basement.
Honestly, it’s a beautiful design, but the design felt doomed. The square footage seemed large by the numbers, but the floor plan had many struggles. Like most plans the stairs simply didn’t fit. It felt too complex, a poor use of space and overall we felt like while it was a cool looking house, in the words of Pat from Shelter Institute, “it looks like it’s trying to be something”.
As you will see later the final design incorporates many of the same design considerations, but drastically shifts the build-ability and the use of space with just a few main design changes. Mostly getting away from the monitor style building, the integrated deck and the cupola.
Timber Frame Workshop
Looking to gain real experience and learn skills needed to construct a timber frame home we searched for a classroom environment that teaches these skills on a proper home size structure and discovered an amazing opportunity.
A week-long course that looks at home design, teaches tool selection and proper use, wood joinery basics and a tour of timber frame homes. A tour of homes in the area created a lot of excitement and inspiration.
The relationship created at the timber frame workshop would lead to a design and engineering relationship. This would help rethink our design using our knowledge and experience gained at the workshop.
A Better Timber Frame Design is Born
The curriculum of timber frame workshop went far beyond timber framing. The first full day of the class was in a proper classroom where we learned to draw. Something few consider, but we found incredibly helpful! In this discussion we learned a LOT about home design, building materials, building science and other huge ah-ha’s that helped shape our ideas as well as our design. Came for the timber framing and got a lesson in “homes”!
After revisiting the floor plan from our original design and considering the “stable gable” and engineering concepts we learned we revisited our design. The result was a total square footage similar to our original plan, but a drastically simpler building, a better use of space and a plan we could actually get excited about building and owning.
Building Science
This home applies many of the tenants of high efficiency construction including minimal thermal bridging, tight building envelope, backside drainage and ventilation of cladding, energy recovery ventilation, closed loop heat system, external source on demand domestic hot water and primary heat.
Use of ICF, SIPs, Argon Filled Triple Low E glass and insulated doors brings the energy demand down dramatically and the comfort up dramatically. The south facing exposure helps the home gain free energy during winter months with large windows to allow in large amounts of natural light. This large glass is shielded from sun exposure in summer months by the 4′ roof overhang reducing heat gain at the solar maximum.
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