Built in Strike's wake.

For the uninitiated: we have been looking to move for about 4 years now. That is a rollercoaster of a decision to make when that limits you to listings in or near New Iberia. My requirements have not changed:

• minimum 1 acre
• no subdivisions
• willing to live in a box as long as it's a well-built box that can withstand a storm
• wired internet, preferably AT&T over cox
• preferably LAWCO over BTWW
• mold/AC problems must be manageable

over the past 3 years, I have taken very serious consideration on MANY homes that do not meet those requirements, and priced out how to make them meet those requirements. The wild part about it is: I've learned that I come from a section of world/life that has too high of expectations for the quality of the build. I live in a very small but well-built home. Something to learn to accept is homes are slathed together with no care of building codes, the purpose of those building codes, and add-ons are done wtihout permits that cause catastrophic consequences. It has been a second full-time job researching potential homes and pricing out fixing them to remove mold caused by negligent/ignorant decisions.

On one hand, it should never be the case that building a brand new home is cheaper than preparing existing homes for move-in. But every home that's for sale that hits my land+privacy requirements does. I have had an eagle-eye on properties in this region for 4 years and I can say that with my full chest.

So it's even more frustrating to be taken for a ride by the homeowners and their realtors. I've become a person who stares into their eyes with a smile, waiting for them to finish their pitch, while I'm calling up my crew of contractors and inspectors to run in behind me and find everything we'll need to do. The last home that I invested so much into was such a disappointment that it broke my will to keep searching. Their realtors were boasting about its clean inspection from December and how great of an investment it would be, and truly, the lot the home is on is PHENOMENAL. But this home is the poster-child for why you cannot hire just anyone to do your inspection. I felt real pain for the homeowners who purchased it last year not realizing that their 4th bedroom could not be legally classified a 4th bedroom (for access reasons), but much more tragically than that, the 4th bed was an add-on that was built into their attic without being properly insulated. An error that not only made the 4th room a mold box, it ruined the rest of the home's insulation. LA has very high insulation requirements for a reason, but this was basic negligence that ruined a home and possibly one of the nicest bayou-front properties in the City. A whopping $100,000 cost to return the attic to its original state and replace the AC that had been completely molded out. And a listing that needs to be updated from 4 BR to 3 BR.

And somebody gave this a clear inspection less than a year ago. It wasn't the first time I've found enough wrong with a home to walk based on its lack of financial sense, but this one was cleaned up so well that you had to look pretty deep to find it. And we really wanted the land it was on.

Alongside all this disappointment, in January of this year, I made the decision to begin work to build my own home, even with costs at an all-time high. I started off more traditionally, considering resale. I went the normal path of hooking up with a draftsman. I had no idea this would be a case of 1 revision every 1.5 to 2 months. After about 7 months, I finally had a working version of my first home, but the price was way out of what I'm willing to allocate to my living space.

if it wasn't for hurricanes, I would gladly live in a manufactured mobile home. We have no desire for the American dream of a huge 3br2bth with your 2 kids and golden retriever. Given how long it took to get the plans done, I decided to take matters into my own hands and price out from the bottom up: building only exactly what we need. 1BR, big kitchen, comfortable living room, an office, and our workspaces.

I finished that 9/30, with the goal:

if it somehow ends up too cheap, I'll revise the plan to add more comforts.

but I've been waiting for a price for over a month now. I can't even begin to set this project in motion until I know where we're starting out. I thought I might even have found a house to live in by the time Strike was coming home. That was a joke of an expectation.

Here's all to say: This process takes absolutely forever. it's soul crushing if you have any preferences and standards, not to mention the anxiety that pricing it out gives you. We are here and ready to DIY any part of this that we can and I could still throw up at how much everything costs. Nothing about this is fun. I'm a decision maker who is being KEPT FROM THAT.