Building Our Dream

Simple By Lacey
Sep 6
5 min read

The Foundation of Our First Home

There’s a moment— when the dust settles and the tools are down for the day— where you just stand still, look around, and realize: we’re doing this!

For us, that moment came at the very beginning— before there were walls, before there was a roof, when we were living in the container and calling that home. It came when we broke into the Tennessee Earth for the very first time to lay the foundation of our future.

Richard cutting into our land for the first time, augering the holes for our cement posts.

And this…. Is the beginning of that story.

Living Between The Lines of a Dream

Before a single post was in the ground, we were living on the land —literally.

Our first “home” here was an uninsulated trailer that we toughed sleeping in for a week! After that, we transitioned into a shipping container, which we prepped to be a bit more livable while we worked on building our house from the ground up.

Our un-insulated Shop trailer, where we slept for a week

My mom was setup in her tiny home bus, we created for her before we arrived. The long term dream? To build her a cabin of her own right next to the one we were about to create for ourselves. We were full of hope and working to accomplish a dream!

My Mom’s Tiny Honey Bus interior view

We had already cleared the land, cut in the driveway, and we were set up enough to get started. It was time! Time to dig in….. literally and start our house build!

Cracking into Raw Earth

The land we chose isn’t flat. In fact, it’s dramatically sloped—a hill that drops nearly 12 feet from the front to the back. It’s clay and rock, stubborn and solid. And yet, it’s breathtaking. The kind of place where the sun spills over the mountains in the morning and deer wander quietly at dusk.

Richard picking up the augering machine from the tool rental, loaded on our open trailer

To get started, Richard rented an auguring machine—a Bobcat with a digging attachment—and hauled it back to our property with our open trailer and our pickup. Then we unloaded it right onto our stage one driveway (the one where our container sits), fired it up and drove it up to the top of our hill, where our home would be sitting one day.

Measuring The Frame of Our Future

We took our time laying out the grid for where the post piles would go. Four rows of posts, 26 in total. Three rows would support the structure of the house itself. The fourth row would tie the front deck into the home, bridging indoors and outdoors and uniting the whole build.

Each post hole had to be precise, even though the land was anything but forgiving. Digging through solid clay and embedded rock, while accounting for the slope, was grueling. But slowly, surely, the pattern began to emerge—a skeletal outline of our future home.

Sonotubes mocked up, before pouring the cement.

Pouring the Posts, One at a Time

Once the holes were dug, we added pea gravel to the bottom of each one to help with leveling and drainage. Then came the sonotubes—those cardboard cylinders that would form the structure of each concrete base.

Richard hand mixing cement and hand scooping cement into sonotubes

At first, Richard mixed the concrete by hand. Nine posts, nine full sonotubes, nine full concrete pours by hand. It was time consuming and honestly not great for anyone’s back. So….we went to Lowe’s and bought a cement mixer—a decision that helped our momentum speed back up!

But right when we felt like we were picking up a rhythm, the rain came.

The first of many rain storms, that came down on our foundation.

After a full month without any rain at all, the ground had been bone dry. There was even whispers of a drought in the area. Then, almost as soon as we poured our first nine posts, the skies opened—and they didn’t let up.

The problem with clay is that it doesn’t absorb water like other soils. When it gets wet, it doesn’t just soften—it liquifies. Suddenly, we had slide-outs forming on the property. Several of our dug holes filled up with water. We lost pea gravel, the soil shifted and even the posts we had already poured began to lean off-center.

It added a whole new layer of challenge. We had to rethink leveling, remeasure and account for imperfections caused by that unexpected rain storm. But we kept going—because we had to. This was our future and it was already in motion!

Raising the Beams That will Hold Us With all the posts cured and the brackets ready, Richard cut the 6x6 posts to length and installed them into the brackets. Then we carefully leveled each one, running string lines from post to post to ensure perfect alignment—even across the dramatic slope.

On top of those posts, we placed our real support: four rows of sistered 2x8s— three boards thick, 40 feet long, running the entire length of the house a deck. These beams became the spine of the entire structure.

After framing the perimeter with the cross beams, we began placing floor joists—overlapping them at the center and reinforcing everything with a line of bracing called CATS, running straight down the middle. That bracing became the heartbeat of our foundation, tying everything together with intention and strength.

Over view of our cement post and wood beam foundation

Insulation, Taped Seams and One Big Bruise

We added blocking and cross-bracing between the joists for extra support and then came the next layer—rigid foam board insulation, cut precisely to size and placed between each joist cavity.

Courtney falling through insulation

We taped every seam with insulation tape to protect against drafts and moisture. Somewhere in that process, I fell through one of the insulation cavities. Big bruise. Bigger laugh. A reminder that this journey is physical and messy—and unforgettable!

Our First Real Floor

With the insulation complete, we laid the subfloors—sheet by sheet, across every inch of the frame.

Richard beginning to install our subfloor

Then we installed the front deck boards, finally completing the platform that would become the home we’ve dreamed of for years!

The View From Our Porch

Stepping out onto our deck for the first time was incredible, a moment we will never forget.

From our front deck, we look out at rolling hills, open fields, the foothills of the Cherokee National Forest and the mountains of the Appalachian. It’s quiet. Sacred. Full of potential.

And every bit of our home is held up by the work we did in this phase—from auguring and mixing concrete, to leveling beams and placing joists. This isn’t just the literal foundation of our house—it’s the symbolic start of everything we are building: our home, our family’s future and the life we came here to create.

Built with Our Hands. Rooted in Our Hearts.

We didn’t pour a slab. We didn’t hire a crew. We started with raw, imperfect land—and we built our dream on top of it. This first step, this foundation, is what holds everything else up.

There’s so much more to come, but this?