Drumroll... Our New (Huge) Project!

Lately we have been planning, thinking and talking about starting a rather large project. A project that definitely would improve our living situation, provide us with more space and give us a really fun new set of tasks to learn and sink our teeth into. A couple of days ago we literally broke ground. Let me give you a hint of what I'm talking about:

Get the idea? We're building a small house in the backyard! 

Exciting, isn't it! Exciting, as well as slightly scary because it's a rather large project and it's important to get things right. 

We're thinking of this as a tiny house for the backyard. An office, a little hideaway. A way to expand the living area of our house without expanding our actual house. And we're planning on doing it all ourselves. This is a large undertaking. Putting in built bookcases and a new kitchen counter pales in comparison. 

When we were first looking for houses we were in particular looking for property that came with a little extra cottage, a house that could be used as a separate office. When we saw this house, we only considered it because we figured you could enclose the carport and thereby get a little house. At that point we were thinking of hiring that job out, but then we thought - maybe we should wait a little, see how things go, get a feel for things. And during this year that carport has been such a useful space, it's woodshop central around here, so idea of enclosing it became rather unappealing. Where would we do wood stuff then?

So we have been trying to decide what to do - enclose or not enclose the caport? Or... why don't we just build a new structure, on the other side of the backyard and keep the carport the way it is. The backyard is not huge by any means (depending on what you compare it to it can be considered tiny!), however there is definitely space for building a little house, and we kind of like the idea of sectioning off the backyard further. To have a little building zone around the carpot, a living area / office around the small house and then also create more of an outdoor hang-out at another part with a large table and chairs. So that's the general idea.

Since we have been working with wood so much this last year and built furniture, fences, gates etc... it just makes sense to tackle this project ourselves instead of hiring it out. Imagine how many different parts of building we'll get to experience this way, that you wouldn't otherwise! And isn't it just kind of cool to build your own little house!

So we will be busy for the next coming months. Busy, tired, probably frustrated and hopefully happy digging and nailing away. Ideally, we'll learn a whole bunch and come out of this situation in one piece and with a complete, practical little house! And yes, we will share this whole journey. Materials, methods, costs and experiences... That is starting with breaking ground and digging holes. House building, here we go!