The Mud Dream

I dream of Mud. 

As odd as that sounds, it's a dream I'm proud to have, and one that I am setting into motion right now.

My name is Amanda. I am 21 years old, and in 5 years time I will own land and have built my own house with my two hands. That's the plan.

It all started because my boyfriend is a crazy dreamer. He planted this seed in my head. At first, I thought it was silly. My generation... we don't own houses or land. Hell, I never even thought about it for the long run at all, it seemed really unattainable. Me? Own a house? I've always seem myself renting, forever, which of course is also a very daunting idea.

But Brad showed me this really beautiful house, and then told me it was made out of clay, dirt, hay and other natural cheap products, AND cost less than $3,000 to make. And suddenly... it seemed like this could be a reality. Cob houses. I could own one!

From that moment, it's silently mulled in the back of my mind, building strength till all I could think about was this house that I could build. I started looking up Cob buildings and houses, reading blogs about people who have built their own or are part of a cob community.

The next thing I know, I'm sitting at a cafe with Brad writing down numbers and calculating, and convincing him that this is possible. This is totally possible!


This is my dream; The Mud Dream. 

The plan right now is to save away some money each month for 5 years until we have saved about $20,000! About half of that will go towards buying a plot of land, the other half will go into the cost of building the Mud House.

The idea is...

• to set aside 10% of our income after taxes, roughly $40 a pay check each, or about $160 a month into a savings account. That translates into about $1,900 a year, just by taking 10% off the top of what we already make. 
• In addition to that, we'll also be saving away half of our Tax Returns each year, which adds roughly another $500 a year.
• On top of that, we already have a little saved away, thanks to a settlement from a car accident we were in, so we are already starting off with about $7,500.
• Add in any extra money we can afford to set aside.

 All that eventually adds up, and if my calculations are correct, in...

• .5 years, we will have saved roughly $8,950!
• 1.5 years, we will have saved $11,350!
• 2.5 years, we will have saved $13,750!
• 3.5 years, we will have saved $16,150!
• 4.5 years, we will have saved $18,550!
• 5.0 years, we will have saved $19,500!

The hope is that by Year Three, we will have already found and purchased our land and start construction on our Mud House! Though.. I'd love it if we could buy our land in a years time! I'm sure we could find our goal of a half acre for under $10,000 and since we'll have that in about 6 months if all goes by plan, it would be so awesome to start early! But I realize that it's probably best to just take it step by step and get extra money into our savings before going too crazy. By the end of Year Five, we hope to have our home completely finished!

I'm so excited for this idea, because five years doesn't seem like a long time at all! This plan makes me believe that the power is in my hands, that I can do things I never thought I could!

This blog will be the place where I post ideas and building plans, related links, and talk about how things are going for us! Thank you for reading this far!

All my Love,
Amanda