TIMELINE:
Early 2015 - Owner contract on land : A family friend owned land in the exact area we wanted to build our future home. Next to the Schmid Farm, close to the Jim Creek Naval Station and close to Normana Park (Pool and a Lake!), close to family etc . . the list goes on. We entered into an owner contract on the land. At the time it has 2 wells, but was not able to be financed by a bank without 20% down.
A few photos showing why we love it here:
Late 2015 - Slow progress w/deployment : Mike was deployed from Sept 2015 to May 2015. Aleesa was born in December and we found out about her heart defect Jan 2016. Mike was gone and I was busy with kids and the business, but I do remember submitting for permits when I was very pregnant - Maybe November 2015.
2016: This was the year of wetland studies, getting research done on installing utilities, Aleesa's Heart surgery, and Mike's mom's passing. It was a whirlwind.
April 2017 - Sold the Deer Creek House : We decided on March 2017 to sold the Deer Creek House - for sale by owner. The plan was to be further along on the pole building/mother-in-law apartment. The house sold quickly and the builder on the MIL was delayed on another project.
May 2017 - Dec 2017- Lake Shoecraft : We ended up needing to scramble to find someplace to live. We ended up living in a friend's mother in law apartment on Lake Shoecraft from May 2017 to Dec 2017. We enjoyed lake life for a while but needed to be closer to the build, and also in Oct 2017 Mike started with Seattle City Light in New Halem, so moving shortened his commute as well.
Dec 2017-July 2018 - RV : We rented a friend's RV in order to live on the property on Lake Riley Rd for over 7 months. Way longer than we had planned, but it turns out when you are trying to build on your free time it goes quite slowly! The kids were 2 and 7, so it was difficult to have them playing in the building. Mike ended up doing a lot of this work on his own due to this.
RV LIFE: 
January 2018 - Started planning floor plan with Architect! All along we had planned to build a custom home so we started the planning process with a local architect.
Photos of work on the MIL and life on the property:
July 2018 - Moved into MIL : We had to extended our permit for the MIL was we had reached 18 months at June 2018. We passed final inspection at the end of July!
We decided at that point we wanted to take a break from building. We had planned to do an owner build and manage our own project and needed some family time before we took on this large of a project.
June 2019 - Make decision to go with a spec home builder: We make the HARDEST decision of all in this process. After having our custom plans bid by a custom builder we decided this project did not fit our budget. We also found that banks are hard to come by that will allow owner build. We decided we go with a spec home builder. This meant scouring the internet looking for layouts that fit our needs. This was so hard considering we had custom plans sitting there staring at us!
August 2019 - Signed with a volume building: We ended up choosing a heavily customizing a cabin plan with a volume GC and entered into contract.
Here was the stock plan vs our modified version:
New Layout:
We added 3 feet of depth to the foot print, added an island, moved the sink, added 2 kitchen windows, increased the window size in the nook and master, added a 12' slider in the living room, gave up space in the master for a larger master bathroom, moved powder room understairs, utilized old powder room space as a pantry. Later we will enclose a small office space between the stairs and living room!
Nov 2019 - Submit permits!: We got through the design process and submitted for permits with the county on November 16, 2019.
Nov 2019 - Well Issue w/Washington Federal: We found out that the bank we had planned to finance through would not accept a dug well, they wanted a drilled well. We had to find a new lender. Reality Homes hooked us up with Umpqua Bank who had no issue with the well. We were able to move forward with them.
Early 2020 - Carport: We hired Spane Building to add the carport to the mother in law building. This will later be enclosed as a shop.
Mar 6 2020 - PERMITS!: We actually got permits issued on March 6 while we were on vacation in Arizona.
Late March 2020 - COVID-19: Due to the shutdowns the builder was not able to start the project, we were on hold. So frustrating.
May 2020 - Excavation: We had excavation done on May 19 after the governor opened construction back up in WA
July 2020 - Foundation . . . Finally: Construction was now allowed in WA, but the builder lost a lot of staff & subs during closure. For this reason they were unable to find a foundation company until mid-July.
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