Hi, everyone.
It's me, Isabelle.
Well, actually, this is me six years ago when I first moved out here to these mountains.
I was 21 years old.
I hadn't gone to college.
Instead, I spent those years saving money working in the city so that I could move out here and build a tiny house, away from people, away from society.
I was young and very naive, to be honest.
I had no idea what I was doing, but I had a dream, a dream to live more freely.
I remember everything was just so new and fun and exciting that first year here.
But as my first winter approach, I quickly learned how unforgiving and challenging this new life was.
A lot of you have been asking how I go to the bathroom, and I'm going to show you.
I just go in the dirt like an animal.
This is gonna be so cold and miserable.
I am already freezing uh, but i'm really dirty and i need to shower.
So i haven't been totally honest with you guys.
I've been feeling lately like I regret building this house.
It's just so dysfunctional and I don't know.
I just I spent all my money on it and my car doesn't work.
I don't have the money to fix it.
I'm just feeling really alone and like I probably should have just gone to college, like everyone else my age.
Those first winters here were a struggle, I'm gonna be honest.
They were dark and cold and lonely and I thought about giving up.
But here's the thing about life, nothing lasts forever.
The sun came out and the days got brighter and warmer and slowly I started to fall in love with my life here in the mountains.
Those first couple of years here were all about learning.
I taught myself how to film and tell stories, how to plant a garden and grow my own food.
I even taught myself how to sew, and I started sewing my own clothes.
I learned a lot during that time, probably much more than what I would have learned at college.
And slowly the years passed.
Summers faded to winters.
And as much as I fell in love with my life here, I started to realize that this tiny house was not a long term solution.
It was dysfunctional.
And if I really wanted to live here long term, I had to build something else, something more permanent.
So that's when I started to develop this dream to build a real house here in the mountains, in this place I love so much.
So over these past five years, I've been slowly saving all the money I've made here on YouTube.
I have been slowly putting away, living as frugally as I can.
And then around three years ago is when I really started to take action on this dream.
So today is December 22nd, 2023.
I'm about to drive to town to meet with an architect who I might hire to help me design and make the drawings for my dream house.
So for the past couple of months I have been kind of sketching out different ideas for the interior and the exterior of this house.
I literally have like two journals full of drawings like this.
I want it to look like an old kind of vintage farmhouse.
And I think I have a pretty good idea of what I want the design of the outside to be.
So yeah, I guess we will see what the architect says.
So I ended up hiring that architect and over the course of that next year we emailed back and forth, slowly developing the drawings.
The first designs were pretty awful, to be honest.
I was so focused on the interior layout.
The exterior ended up becoming this absolute mess of a house.
I knew I needed to simplify it, but it was hard.
Obviously, I've never designed a house before and I was being really picky because I knew I was going to spend all of my money on this thing, so I wanted it to be perfect.
But eventually, after nine months of emails, we settled on a design and she drew up the final plans for this farmhouse in the mountains.
So after I finished the drawings, I started the process of applying for permits.
I'm building this house here on this property, but where I'm building it's just raw land.
There's no power, there's no water, there's no septic.
So the permitting process was very involved.
I did not realize how challenging it was gonna be, but There was so many different permits I had to get.
I had to get land surveys and soil tests and water tests and I had to get a permit through the health department to install a septic, and then I had to get an electrical permit and then I also had to get the house permit and I had to go through like an engineering department and Oh, my goodness, you guys.
It took so long because they kept coming back and saying like oh, there's errors with what you submitted.
And it was so much paperwork.
Oh my gosh.
It was actually one of the hardest things I've ever done is get these permits.
I got them and that was, oh my gosh, that was such a good day.
Oh my gosh.
Look what I got in the mail today, you guys.
Look.
Today is March 22nd, 2025.
And I got my permit.
I can't scream right now.
I got my permits, you guys.
I got my permits.
I'm going to build this house.
I'm going to build a house.
So it says on the card I have to hang this at the job site.
So I'm going to nail it to the tree.
So it's official.
I'm building a house.
I'm building a house, you guys.
Today is May 21st, 2025.
I'm walking down the property right now with some stakes and a tape measure, because today I'm making the decision of where I'm going to build this house.
Tomorrow, the excavation is starting.
Monday, the foundation people are coming.
Yeah, I kind of have to make this decision like right now.
This is going to be the corner of the house.
I started the process of planning for this house around two years ago.
The thing that took the longest was getting the permits took forever.
Oh, my gosh.
It was like a full year of just trying to get permits.
I ended up starting the groundwork for this house kind of later than I hoped.
It was already the end of May at this point, and I was nervous about being able to get the house watertight before the first snowfall.
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Well, today's the day we start the groundwork for your house.
We got to find out how high the foundation wall can be, and then we'll work this way and then we'll have to step it at some point so that the foundation can be 18 to 24 inches below that grade.
So that's the plan, I think, because I've never done this before, so...
I don't know what's going on.
Is it pointing in a direction?
No.
Looking back on this footage from this past summer, it makes me really emotional, honestly.
Starting this project was just a very exciting time.
I think I felt similar to back when I first started building the tiny house.
Hopeful for the future, hopeful for this new life I was creating.
My four-year relationship had ended at this point and yeah, starting this house build felt a bit like starting over in my life.
Starting over alone and it felt good.
It felt really good to be honest.
So the groundwork was definitely a lot harder than both me and my dad expected.
It was quite the challenge to get the ground perfectly level and flat.
That stick thing that I'm using is a laser level.
Essentially, we would dig and pound the ground down in order to get the entire foundation perfectly flat and even.
There was a lot of rocks too.
Since this house is so close to the river, we hit an old riverbed.
So we had to remove literally hundreds of rocks by hand and with the machine.
Let's figure the plan.
I mean, what do you think?
Do you think that was for the fireplace?
That's about where it was, isn't it?
About, but not quite.
That just might be structural.
Yeah, maybe.
Because there may be a beam here or something.
So it took us about a week to do the groundwork.
We finished the morning the foundation crew got there.
We were working on stuff when they arrived.
And because I hired a company to do the foundation, it got finished and poured very quickly.
I think it only took them like five days to build the forms and pour the foundation.
Okay, so the foundation people just finished.
Today we're on our way to town to get some drain pipe.
We're gonna put that on the perimeter of the house and then we're gonna fill that in with gravel to get ready for the framers, because they're coming next week.
Curve down here and through there.
I don't really believe you but whatever.
Thank you.
I am dying.
It is so hot today.
It's like 100 degrees out.
So I'm on my way to the house build.
We have to pour up here today.
At times I've felt really frustrated about how long this whole process has taken.
Just because it feels like so many of the things I want to do here on this property and in my life require this house to be done.
My dream for many years now has been to start a bakery.
And that is only going to be possible with this house completed.
But if I've learned anything from this process, it's that the most rewarding things in life are the things that take time.
We live in a culture that is addicted to dopamine and expects instant gratification.
But the problem is that instant gratification makes us feel good in the moment, but doesn't build anything real.
It doesn't build anything lasting.
As soon as the feeling passes, you're right back where you started.
The hard things in life, the things that take time, they require discipline.
Constant and continuous discipline. and they don't always feel good while we're doing them.
Building this house wasn't particularly fun most days.
It was slow, it was very repetitive, and a lot of the time it felt like nothing was happening.
But looking back, it's crazy to see how, day by day, even when I couldn't feel the progress, I was moving closer to the finish.
See all those rocks?
Yeah.
There's a lot of rocks.
More rocks than dirt.
What a trench.
What a hole.
So really we want it about like that and then we'll see with the tape.
There was a lot of moments over these years I thought about giving up.
I thought about giving up back when I first moved here and I realized just how challenging life was in the mountains.
I thought about giving up when almost an entire year went by and I still didn't get the permits.
I thought about giving up when my relationship ended.
But I am so glad I didn't give up.
I am so glad I didn't choose the easy path.
I think the greatest rewards in life are the things that are hard, the things that take time, taking the easy path, choosing the short term gratification.
It feels good in the moment, but choosing the hard path that creates something real.
And the difference between the two is usually just whether we're willing to keep going even when life gets hard.
So over the course of this past summer and fall, and throughout the winter, i have been basically full-time managing this house being built, hiring subcontractors, buying materials, getting bids and quotes for things and just kind of organizing everything, And it has been a very I'm going to be honest a very stressful process.
Wow.
Because I've also been simultaneously filming weekly videos and taking sponsors, because I have not finished saving the money to build this house.
So I've been working full time on YouTube to try to make more money in order to have enough to finish this house.
Cause also, this house has been like so much more expensive than I thought it was going to be like double what I initially estimated.
So doing both those things at once has been a challenge.
It's definitely been a challenge.
However, being able to watch this thing that i dreamed of for so many years, like i dreamed of this house for years, you guys, i saved up religiously for years and years and years um, and then i dreamed of this house design, i design this house, you know.
I designed every corner and room and window, and then to be able to watch this thing become a 3D reality has been one of the most incredible experiences of my entire life.
It's been so cool.
Just so incredible and so cool to be able to watch and every day I walk by this house, I cry.
I just feel so incredibly grateful to have this opportunity to build a house.
I can't even believe it.
I don't really have words, to be honest.
I feel really grateful for all of you, for your support, and every one of you has basically contributed to me being able to do this, which I think is so cool, and I feel really grateful for my family, especially my dad, who has helped me so much throughout this process.
And so yeah, even though it's been a challenge and a struggle and definitely one of No, not one of
Definitely the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.
It's also been the most incredible thing I've ever done in my life.
And I just feel so grateful and so excited.
And also I'm excited going forward.
I think I'm going to start filming more of this house build project, and especially now that I'm working on the interior.
I think the interior is going to be really fun, watching it come together and being able to show you guys the process and tell the story of the inside and designing it.
And yeah, I'm just so excited and grateful and also so stressed out.
So yeah, that's been the process of the house build.
Then slowly, over the summer and throughout the fall and into winter, the house got closer and closer to being completed.
I didn't get much footage during this time.
Life was busy and oftentimes I forgot to document the process.
Oh wow.
Halfway.
Nice.
So by fall, the framing crew finished the framing and then the metal roof was put on by a local roofing company in early winter, and then the windows got installed and the house was wrapped, and then they installed the siding and the house was officially watertight.
Also, i'm gonna paint the house, don't worry, it's not gonna be this gray, that's just the color the siding comes in.
Um, but yeah, this is the house basically completely framed and the outside done.
So today is February 15th.
We are going to start doing the electrical on the house, which is the last step before the installation, which I'm really excited about.
I've hired my dad to do the electrical um today.
I'm gonna go and help him.
We're gonna go to town, i think i don't know.
We have to get some stuff for it and yeah, take it all out.
Well, i'd rather have a fence there than all the trees are gonna get damn huge.
Today it is 20 degrees out.
We're about to go.
We're about to go work in the house.
There's no heat in there.
So it almost feels like the house is colder than outside.
Totally is.
It's like a refrigerator.
Almost close to a freezer.
We had a heater, but it didn't work, so we might go buy a heater today.
Nice light.
Yeah, it's better than nothing.
How's it feeling here?
Cold.
Really cold.
Oh, the door's open.
That's why.
I closed the door.
Does it feel a little warmer?
Yeah, that really made a difference.
Oh there's a name.
I had to think of my handy dandy apron.
Dad got this yesterday.
It's got everything you need in it.
Oh it's like one of my like cooking aprons.
So I don't know if electricians typically wear these, but it's nice so when you're doing wiring and everything on the stuff.
But if you bend over, everything falls out.
So the only problem is there's two problems.
One, the center of the room is a beam and i don't know.
We'd have to ask the inspector what we can do.
If we can not, i don't think that we should.
We've run a wire up there like that light and maybe these lights.
We're going to town right now to go buy a heater.
It's too cold in the house.
No rational person would work there.
Except us.
So we came here yesterday and I thought maybe I would go into the nursery and look for some trees.
And there was literally not one thing in there.
It hasn't opened yet.
I know, we could use it and then return it.
This is the best one, I guess it's the only one.
What about this?
Would that work?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, they have two different...
What's the difference?
70 pounds.
Fixture up to 150.
24-inch joist span, 50.
I think we have a 24-inch joist span, but you're not going to have a 90-pound line?
I don't think I need that.
You could hang a car off that.
How are you today?
Groovy, how are you?
Just press on?
Yeah.
Oh.
Oh, my God.
What's his gut at?
55, do you think?
I don't think so.
I'm sorry that I kept this house hidden from you all, but it was hard to tell this story, just because so much had gone into this project and I didn't even really know where to begin, how to accurately tell a story that has been so many years in the making.
So it was just kind of easier just to not um.
But i want to start sharing the rest of this process with you all.
I think it will be fun to watch the inside coming together, to design the inside together, to get all of your input.
In my next video I want to do a house tour, kind of show you guys the different rooms and the layout.
Let me know if this is something you're interested in.
But yeah, right now we're working on the electrical, then the insulation will happen and then the drywall And I don't know it's nearing the final stages, which is crazy to think.
It's crazy to think that by the summer, or possibly the end of summer, I will be living here in this house.
I will be filming here.
I will start my bakery here.
Oh my gosh, so much is going to be changing and shifting this next year and I'm just, I'm so excited, you guys.
Anyways, thank you all so much for watching this video and thank you all so much for your support over these years.
This house is only possible because of you guys and Yeah, I just feel really grateful.
