Laura's Maine

Today was a big day and if I might say a bit overwhelming. Today was like when you step off the cliff.... there is no turning back. Things need to be decided today and I made some decisions. If this house is going to get built (aka if my Dad and I are going to build this house, we need to get going.) 

I needed to decide exactly where the house is going to go. Everything is like a jigsaw puzzle. Every piece must fit together. I needed to decide exactly where the house is going in the field because I need to get a soil test and septic system designed. You can’t get a building permit without a septic plan. We can’t really do anything without getting the building permit. I think that I have also pretty much narrowed down on a design. 

Oh and let’s back up to permits....a driveway permit, a lot permit, a building permit. All to build on your own land on a dead end road in rural Maine. So, I made a decision where the house is going. We marked off the lot and on Monday the person is going to come and do the soil test and design the septic system. I don’t need to have the septic system in to get a building permit, but I do need the design. 

After marking off where the house will be, we pretty much decided which power pole we will come in off of and where the driveway will go. All I keep seeing is dollar signs in my head. Building a house is so expensive. Several thousand for a septic system... a thousand dollars just to put in a power pole (no power included), a well - which I am sure is several thousand as well. Some of the reasons I am overwhelmed. 

Last night, my Dad and I sawed some of the logs that we cut down last week. He has a sawmill down at what we all refer to as “The Farm”. He had put three huge pine logs on the mill last week and we began sawing them.

It has been a long time since I have sawed logs with my father so I felt very inadequate a lot of the time. I learned quick that once you saw a piece of wood it goes to one of three places.... the scrap pile, the pile to saw later or outside to dry. We worked for about three hours and got one and a half logs sawed. 

There is a lot that goes into sawing a log. First you have to square the log which means turning it several times to get it square. For a log with a 17 inch diameter, that is a task. It takes about 12 cuts to get the log square so you can consistently get boards. 

After the boards are cut, you take the wood you put into the “later” pile and cut the jagged edges off and then these become boards as well. 

Ten days ago these were pines growing in the woods. Now they are boards drying for my house. I asked my Dad what these boards would be used for and he said probably the roof. Awesome! 

To say my Dad likes to saw wood is an understatement. He showed me several piles that he has at ‘The Farm’ that he has mentally put aside for things in the house. He showed me a pile and said ‘these will make wonderful kitchen cabinets’

About a year ago, I was completely burned out from my dream job. For as long as I could remember, I wanted to be the Athletic Media Relations Director at the University of Maine. Athletics was my passion! After 15 years and seven years as an Assistant Athletic Director I was burned out. Traveling every other weekend, working every weekend from August to May had taken its tole on me and I needed change. 80 hour work weeks were no longer any fun and I realized that there was more to life that this. 

I resigned my position and set my sights on something else. I accepted a marketing position at Unity College, America’s Environmental College, in my hometown. After commuting for nearly an hour each way for nearly a year, I have decided to build a house on some land that my parents own. I am so excited! 

And by build, I mean really build. My Dad and I are going to build the house ourselves. I am going to use this blog to document the process. Going from an assistant athletics director to marketing coordinator at Unity College. Going from living in a townhouse in Old Town to BUILDING MY OWN HOUSE. 

I want to homestead. I want to live more off the land. I want to eat veggies that I grow myself. I want to eat eggs from chickens that I feed daily and I want a dog to run with. I want to own some sheep and frolic with little lambs in the field. I want to protect them from the coyotes that roam at “The Farm” as it is known. 

I am so blessed that my parents have a ton of lands and have let me decide where I want to put the house. After meeting with the power company this week, I think that I have decided on a location! It was a big decision. 

Yesterday, my Dad and I cut down trees for my house! We cut down two huge pines! There logs will be my house. On the first tree, I worked the winch on the tractor after he cut the tree. On the second one, he just used a chain saw. (It was amazing. He dropped the trees in the precise location that he told me he would.) I even got to cut off some branches with the chainsaw! 

We then pulled the logs out of the woods with the tractor and will go back and put them on his sawmill in the next day or two. How cool is that??? Cutting logs that will be the foundation of my new house!