Our House Raising Update!!!

Dear Friends, 
We are so thankful to you for all the prayers and support!!!
Words cannot express our gratefulness to you all!
The Youcaring.com fundraiser has been a true blessing for our family and you all have made our home building possible! Thank you!

As you know winter is coming and we have little time to start  building before colder weather comes.

So we changed from the original plain of building the entire small house ourselves
to getting a much needed start...

After much prayer and thought, and with a portion of the funds,..

A down payment was made for the first part of our house to be constructed by the local Amish, who build mini barns & storage sheds.
The construction should begin soon and the builders told us they should have their part of the job completed by the 24th of October. YAY!!



                        FIRST  PART - DRYING IN: Two "sheds" become a house!!


There will be two, 12'x36'  structures built (with one long side open on each.) After they are built  they will be moved to location and then the two structures will be put together making them into a small house, about 864 sq. feet.  The porches will also be built and attached to the house as soon as it is moved to location. These porches will serve as our outdoor/summer kitchen, laundry and storage.
The little" house" will be a stick frame with cedar siding. The roof will be green metal.
The structure, delivery, set up, plus taxes should total somewhere around $14,000 give or take a few. :)
Because of the blessings you all have given us, this can be done!! Thank you all so very much! 
There is more to do, of course because, thats just the "shell" of the house...

                                            ... To make it livable we go to the... 

                   
                         .....  SECOND  PART -  THE FINISHING ......House becomes a Home!!!!
                                   (after the structures have been moved to the location)

..The plan is to finish it out ourselves (along with help from kind friends).
This should help keep the cost down. We will do some simple wiring & pluming, put in   insulation, walls, ceilings, floors & interior doors.

We  hope to keep the cost low- between the small size of the house and by using reclaimed and donated materials as much as we can. Normally for that size building the cost could run $4,500 to $5,000 to "finish".  
   
                                     .....  THIRD  PART  - HOMESTEAD NECESSITIES

To make our little home efficient it will need:

• deep cycle or forklift batteries ( for our small solar panels )
•   one energy efficient freezer (we will convert it into a refrigerator that will run from our solar.)
•   one 150-200 gallon water tank 

 This will help us set up our new homestead that we will be starting from scratch.
​
Folks have graciously  given sinks, cabinets, a few doors, tin, some wire and a few other household items that will be so helpful!!! What a blessing!

Cleaning one of the salvaged doors. This will be for the pantry!

A kind neighbor let us pick through his remodeling leftovers- found this cast iron sink, several doors & other odds & ends! The sink will be for the summer/outdoor kitchen!

We are so very grateful to each of you for all of the love, prayer & support you have given! Mom made this wreath with Honeysuckle, & graced it with Herbs & Flowers she dried from the garden!!!

Hope this gives y'all an idea of how all your fantastic giving, wonderful thoughts and much needed prayers have blessed us so much, and how our soon-to-be little house, which we will gladly call home, is coming along!!

​Because of your thoughtfulness and giving and a lot of hard and fast work on this end, we hope to be, Lord willing, in our new home by Thanksgiving!!! 

Thank you for spreading the word!!! Many Blessings,
​The West Ladies