A Series of Fortunate Events
2018-2019
The Before Times
Wondering if staying in the rat race and constantly wanting “more” was right for us, we began to look at land out west and ask ourself some important questions. How much acreage would work? What kind of house would we live in? If your neighbor decides to set off fireworks, how far away do you have to be before it won’t scare your dogs?
The Florida House
Instead of buying land out west, we bought a fixer-upper closer to Brian’s job to shorten his commute. While we knew we’d have to put in work, we weren’t exactly prepared for just how much work needed to be done, and how much we’d learn along the way. It ended up setting us up perfectly for thinking, “Hey, maybe we can build our own house…”
2019-2021
Summer 2021
On The Hunt
With enough gumption to chase the dream and only 60% of the plan laid out, we started looking for land! We brainstormed building a tiny house or buying an Airstream to live in during the build, but settled on a little more space right from the get go.
We flew out to Colorado a couple of times, trying to find a place that feels like home. In May, we drove up and down the Front Range, exploring Colorado Springs all the way up to Estes Park. While the area around Rocky Mountain State Park was stunning, it wasn’t the right fit.
In August, we explored Park County and met with a land broker to see what our budget could get us. With land being snatched up left and right, we decided not to put in any offers. But we could tell that we were getting closer.
After a search for counties that allow for living in a tiny house permanently, we stumbled upon Custer County, south of Colorado Springs. In September, we met with another land broker and put in an offer on 35 acres!
It’s All Ours!
On November 5, 2021, we purchased 35 acres in Westcliffe, Colorado! It took several weeks of inspections, appraisals, and getting everything organized to get to this moment.
While 35 acres sounds like a lot, it is 35 acres of raw land. No utilities, no trees, just miles of mountain vistas. It’s a great blank slate for building our dream house and designing a functional homestead.
November 2021
January 2022
“Mobile Home”
We kicked off the new year by solidifying our plans to live temporarily in a travel trailer after selling our house and while we’re building our homestead in Colorado. We decided to go with a 2022 Jayco White Hawk 27RB as it will best fit our needs (#WFH, two dogs, storage for living full-time).
The Big Move
On June 21st, Brian went into work at MacDill Air Force Base for the last time. A week later, we packed up the RV and began the huge adventure of our cross-country relocation road trip. We traveled from Tampa to Tulsa to visit Brian’s family. Then we headed to Taos, New Mexico for a week, a place we’ve always wanted to visit before making it to Westcliffe, Colorado on July 11th.
June 27, 2022
August 2022
Utilities Installed!
While we stayed in an RV park for our first two months in Westcliffe, we got our driveway excavated, septic system installed, water cistern system set up, and our solar array up and running. It was a very busy month! We also officially became Colorado residents (CELEBRATE).
The Great Winter Migration
With the solar system finally up and running, high winds delayed the start of the home’s foundation. With safety becoming an issue, we decided to embark on a six-month full-time traveling adventure across the southwest: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma, and Nevada. Experiencing new places was a major driver but it also gave us the time to finalize our building plans and prepare for Spring 2023 fully recharged.
11.2022-
4.2023
May
2023
Laying The Foundation
At the beginning of May, we laid out our “foam blocks” for our concrete pour. In Mid-May, with the help of a concrete truck (or three), we poured and set the concrete for the foundation/crawl space.
Family Matters
Both Chelsea and Brian’s families stopped by over the summer months to help build. With the extra manpower, the floor joists, subfloor, and framed walls were built and set into place. Also, our monster-sized front doors were installed and immediately became hazardous to the local bird community.
June-July
2023
Aug
2023
Sheathing Is No Joke
After endless weeks of lifting each piece of sheathing one by one, we got all the walls covered! (We had to do it this way because of the wind and lack of machinery.)
Raise The Roof
With the help of Chelsea’s sister one weekend, we hoisted all 30+ roof joists up on to the wall framing. This wasn’t an easy task in the slightest! We also set to work getting the roof sheathing installed.
Sep
2023
Sep 2023
Picture Views
At the end of September, with the help of our delightful neighbors, we used the might of 4 adults to get in the giant windows! On our own over the next week, we installed the transom windows.
Dried In!
On October 10th, we officially dried in our house! With the roof, windows, doors, and walls installed, it was time to give the interior of the home some attention.
Oct
2023
Nov
2023
Office Space
While waiting for our metal roofing to be delivered, we got to work building a separate office space. While this slowed down our pace on the home build, having a spot for Chelsea to do her day job and Brian to game with his friends at night proved to be an immediate quality of life improvement.
Exterior Done (Minus Cladding)
By December, the metal roofing was installed, any air gaps around the windows and framing filled, and just in time for the cold weather to sink in.
Dec
2023
Jan
2024
Plumbing
Nothing witty here. This was the start of a long and extensive plumbing installation process. After being unable to find a local plumber to help us, Brian took on the extensive task of DIY-ing all of the plumbing in and out of our house.
It’s Electric
By the end of February, it was time to start running electric wire. Brian has some experience with electric work and this went much faster than the plumbing.
Feb 2024
March
2024
Inspections
March brought two rounds of inspections. While the course corrections we made for electric were pretty minimal, there was a lot of work redone on the drain system for plumbing to make sure it was all up to code. But in the end, Brian passed!
Time to Close Up The Walls
Once Brian connected the house to the solar system and we had our well pump hooked up, we put our new washer/dryer combo unit in the bathroom and set to work doing some laundry. Oh, we also started installing drywall and ceiling insulation.
April
2024
May
2024
Snow in May?
We battled high winds, a Mother’s Day blizzard, and problems with our new inverters communicating with our batteries, but in the end, we got all the drywall up, the shower framed, and even started painting the walls in the mechanical room and half bath!
The Dog Days of Summer
Through June and July, we worked on getting the vinyl plank flooring installed, the kitchen cabinets in (it was a disaster lol), the appliances functioning, and the ceiling coverings up. It’s honestly all a blur but at times, it felt like we were moving as slow as molasses. But progress was made.
Summer
2024
August
2024
We Have A Shower!
It took nearly a month to get the shower waterproofed, tiled, and grouted. It was painful. It was not something we’d ever do again. Next time, really think about if you need a double-headed shower with over 600 tiles in it. Use large-format tile. Trust us.
Phase 1 of the Build is Complete
Through the rest of September, we completed the full bath attached to the bedroom. This involved tiling and grouting the floor, installing baseboards and trim around the doorway, getting the tub in place, and lugging the vanity in all the way from storage. Honestly, it all felt pretty easy after the hell that was tiling the shower. Not that it WAS easy.
Sep
2024
Oct
2024
Preparing For Final Inspections
With Phase 1 of the house complete, we turned our attention to the projects we’d been putting off for a long time and didn’t want to do. An exceptional amount of work was required to get the solar system (arrays, batteries, wiring, etc.) up to code before calling the inspectors. Almost every wire outside of the house was either rewired, put in conduit, or both. Mostly both.
You might be wondering how we got here. With that, we have
The Whole Story.
It all started…
Brian and Chelsea (that’s us!) met in 2016, married in 2018 (for tax purposes), thought briefly about buying land to retire on in our old age in Colorado in 2019, and got stuck in quarantine in Florida in 2020.
Like many people who were faced with large swaths of time to consider their life choices, we spent most of our quarantine lamenting not buying land in Colorado before the quarantine, as all the land in the mountains near Denver and the ski resorts was snatched up faster than toilet paper sold out. Why hadn’t we just done it?, we asked ourselves.
So we went back to the drawing board. Did we really need to wait 40 years to retire to live the kind of life that we wanted to live? What parts of our lives did we miss from the Before Times and what were we happy to leave behind? Little by little, we put together the future vision: Our Dream Life.
But we couldn’t just take action. Brian’s contract with the Air Force wouldn’t end until the summer of 2022, so we had a year and a half to come up with a plan. We discovered other people on YouTube that were doing something similar to what we were envisioning. We had examples to follow, we had a path forward!
Moving Forward
The first step was to get our house in Florida ready to sell for top dollar to kickstart our life in the mountains. Renovating our 1947 bungalow was the perfect sandbox for Brian to learn valuable construction experience. We started to think of names for our journey.
Line Up The Stars comes from the active form of the phrase “waiting for the stars to align.” By moving our retirement dreams up much earlier in our lives, we decided to do more than just wait around for the stars to do their thing. We’re lining up our own stars to make our dreams happen.
And we’re documenting our story so that we can look back on this one day and laugh about that chaotic time in our lives when we moved halfway across the country, bought land, set up off-grid, and started building our own house.