Why Build a House?

Sunday, January 22, 2006

On days like this I definitely was asking myself  'Why am I doing this again?'

This is sure to be a question that we ask ourselves from time to time as this process unfolds. I guess there are some tangible reasons to consider, the main one being cost. Houses in our price range (well under $200,000) fall into either two categories: glorified trailers or complete wrecks. As we saw more and more listings for existing houses, we slowly came to realize that we were not going to find what we were looking for in the current house market. Heck, we couldn't even find anything to settle for. Glorified seasonal cabins, crooked old buildings with ancient wiring, decrepit windows and insufficient framing, and 700 square foot cubicles were becoming all too common.

Additionally, we were lucky enough to find the town we wanted to settle down in. The elusive sense of place many in our generation struggle with eluded us no longer. We chose Nelson, NH as our corner of the Earth to call home (more on Nelson later). Of course, restricting your search for housing to a small town of 630 people doesn't exactly bolster your chances of finding what you are looking for. We were looking for a house to raise a family in, and something that would be a joy to come home to for many years to come. We also wanted something that would be incredibly energy efficient, so as to limit our dependence on oil for heating while at the same time leaving less of an environmental footprint over the course of time. As we looked at the numbers, our goals and aspirations, and the inflated price of real estate, building began to make more and more sense.

Of course, I would be lying if the tangible reasons were the only things we considered. Let's not forget the romanticism of it all. For much of our past, people have built their own places to live. It is a classic American tradition, and it perfectly captures the New England ethos of self reliance. I had visions of a crisp fall afternoon, the maples and oaks behind me ablaze in a riot of color while I straddled a beam, my hammer flashing through the air as I fastened roof rafters with abandon (I wasn't kidding about the romanticism). The more I considered it, the more I cemented the image in my brain, and I began cultivating a completely baseless confidence that we could do this, and do it right.

When we moved to New Hampshire five or six years ago, I chose a completely different career path and signed on as a laborer/apprentice in a residential building crew. Even then, I had ideas of learning enough skills over the years to be able to rise to the occasion when the time came and build the house we would live in forever. I worked on numerous crews and performed all types of tasks, garnering knowledge and techniques from the craftsmen I worked alongside of, as well as slowly amassing a collection of tools. The time is finally upon us. My confidence is still high, but I have learned enough to realize how much I do not know and how much we will be learning on the fly. God, I love a good adventure.

Currently, Anne and I are spending our free time studying things like passive solar heating, point-source water heaters, proper woodstove selection and placement, and green building materials. We are convinced that the land we have chosen and the design we are working with will get us closer to our dreams than we could ever have afforded otherwise, and we are excited to be actively creating equity in our future. It is empowering in a very grounded way. It feels right.