Roughing it for a house

My husband and I have talked about some alternatives for saving money to purchase our own house. A few of the ideas I considered, yet some were just too “out there” for me to give them any serious thought. Some of his ideas included camping for 3 or 4 months in our tent. I enjoy camping, yet this idea seemed a bit too difficult given the fact that my husband’s business is computer based. Where would he set up his laptop? Where is the closest campground so that I could still make it to work on time? What would we do with all of our things? Logistically, there were just too many variables and unanswered questions to contend with. However, what doesn’t work for some, works for others. An explicit example of this is a neighbor around the corner from us.

Every morning, on my bike ride to Starbucks I pass his house, well… what use to be his house. About 3 months ago, he bulldozed his 50-year old corner house and set up a tent in the back corner of his dirt lot. Prior to bulldozing the house, I had noticed during the tear-down process, that it had been separated into about 3 living areas. I can only gather that the 3 vehicles I used to see in his 2 driveways were renters, which allowed him to possibly save up some money for this rebuilding process.

After the house was completely bulldozed and only one wall remained (see the orange arrow in the photo below), I’m again assuming this left over wall has something to do with permits, a slow transformation process began. First, he and a few others leveled the ground. Over time, pipes appeared to stick out of the dirt and a wooden frame marked off where the foundation would be poured. Two months after this process started, the foundation was poured (I really wish I had taken a picture of the house at this stage). This entire time, the single owner of the home was living in the tent with a porta-potty on the opposite end of his lot. To me, this is true dedication.

The frame is now going up, and quite quickly I might add. My husband has said that I totally missed out on some great photo opportunities earlier in the pre-construction phase. My guess is that my neighbor is still a few weeks, if not another month or two, away from being able to live in his newly rebuilt house. Luckily, our region doesn’t experience thunderstorms during the summer months. The only uncomfortable weather we experience in our area is heat, and this summer was pretty mild up until a week ago.

I have wondered where all of my neighbor’s belongings are stored, one reason I grimaced when my husband brought up the camping-for-3 months option. My neighbor’s car is still parked on the street in front of his property, but he must own more items than would fit in a mid-sized car trunk. I’ve also wondered about the whole bathroom thing; he has a porta-potty to take care of business, but what about showering? Or cooking? There is a shed to the right of his tent, so maybe he’s been able to use it to prepare food. Unless I’m wrong about him living full-time in his tent, he surely appears to be roughing it and for a good reason.