Building From Scratch: Purchasing Property

​I’m excited to begin a new series about our latest and biggest family project. I haven’t blogged in quite a while, but I am not going to waste the opportunity to chronicle the ultimate “from scratch” project-the building of our new home!!! I have been posting a bit here and there on Instagram and Facebook, but here I’ll get you caught up to speed and give a more detailed journey through the process, starting from the very beginning... 

​Caleb has been a carpenter, building mainly custom homes in the Moses Lake area since he was in high school, quite a few years before we met and married. Despite my having grown up in the Seattle area my dad had always loved Eastern, WA. We took annual summer camping trips to Eastern, WA and dad always mused about buying property and building a house on the East side of the state. I joke that my dad’s musings had perfectly prepared me for a life with Caleb, raising our family in Eastern, WA. Within the first few days after we met, Caleb was pleasantly surprised to learn that I would have no reservations whatsoever, about moving to Moses Lake, and that I would love to build a home with my husband and children someday. He seemed to be a guy that not only had the ambition and ability to make that happen but welcomed the opportunity. Did I mention we met while building a house, on a mission trip to Mexico? That’s another story for another day…but that is exactly how our story began.

The first house Caleb and I built together, Mexico, 2004. Neither of us had any clue we'd be married just a few short months later.

After 15 years of marriage we’ve learned that we get a lot of things wrong. God often has something different in mind than we had planned. We thought we’d sell our first home within the first 5 years…we’ve been here for almost 14! We’ve looked at property off and on, over the years, always thinking we’d buy a few acres outside of town, however there was a lot in town not far from our current home that was making a lot of sense to consider. So, we made an offer. 

Sure doesn't look like much.

We started getting attached to the idea, driving by it frequently, praying about it, talking it over with the kids, sketching up floor plans- the whole nine yards. Our offer was declined. Feeling defeated, we figured that was that. Maybe we’d wait a couple more years to purchase land and build. We decided to leave it up to God, after all we had prayed about it, so it made sense to trust Him in the outcome.
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One month later, Caleb got a random text from our real estate agent. The owners of the lot had countered. “Can they do that? Are we still in this?”, I remember asking Caleb, rather amused, as if it were a joke. It was surreal. So, we did what any crazy “are you for real?”, asking real estate negotiators would do and countered their offer. Since we thought the opportunity had passed and had already made our peace with that, we really had nothing to lose. Our agent noted that the owner seemed delightfully amused with our boldness in countering and we settled on an amount within just a few hundred dollars of our original offer.

Just the beginning of our new adventure together.

Although it would be awhile till the lot was paid off and we started to build, we began to prepare the property right away. There would be a lot of work to get done before we could start building. Not to mention that the property we purchased was basically a big hill. As it was one of the last remaining lots parceled out from the original Montlake neighborhood many years ago, there was a much that had been dumped there from the other lots, presumably while they were being developed. Mostly dirt and brush but also lots of concrete chunks. There was also lots of sagebrush and a few smaller trees, that would all need to be cleared so we could see what we had to work with. This didn't bother us. We were excited to get started and the kids and our parents were all excited to help.

Joseph and Jacob, ready to get started clearing the property.

Caleb got to work right away measuring elevation with the laser.

Jacob and Jesse digging up rocks and roots.

Joseph enjoying the great working weather.

Grandpa Tim helping Caleb cut down an alder tree.

Caleb clearing the tree limbs.

Grace and Jacob working hard.

We found what appears to be the original for sale sign buried on the hillside!

Caleb having fun running the excavator.

Joseph and Jesse prying a big rock loose. There are so many big rocks!

We cleared quite a bit those first few weekends. There would be so much more to do, from keeping the weeds and growth down, to digging and moving so much dirt and rocks. Looking back through the pictures now remembering how much work it all was is pretty incredible. We'd hardly even scratched the surface at this point-literally! What a project we had begun, but how exciting to be able to finally move forward, with our dreams and goals of building a home together as a family.

Caleb surveying the property.