Life Uncontained (2018 - 2018)

Part 2 in our renovation of an old barn and converting it into a solar powered workshop. Once this workshop is done, we will then begin building our shipping container home that will also be powered by the sun.

The time is now. We sold our home, quit our jobs, and are risking everything. In this video, you will hear why. Also, you will get an update on our barn renovation. Progress equals happiness.

See the progress on our solar powered workshop. We are learning to take things day by day. Building your dreams is never easy, but neither is pimpin’! The whole reason we are doing this is so we can personally build our dream home and be a part of the whole process. Finding happiness in the little achievements is what it’s all about. Watch as we finish the floors and start putting the walls back up. Also, you’ll see our electric vs human-powered bike race. We can’t wait to build some mountain bike trails on the property!

The exterior walls are up and the windows are going in. Follow us as we continue this building process of our solar powered workshop. Once we put the interior wall in and get a door up, we can begin working on getting solar power.

This week was our toughest week yet. As we finished up the interior wall on our solar closet, we ran into a little trouble with the generator. That’s no bueno when you’re trying to build off grid. We bought a Harbor Freight Predator 4000 generator. Money well spent! We also ran into some car trouble. Our Toyota Prius started having some issues during the move here to Texas and it just kept getting worse. Therefore, we decided it was time to get ourselves a new farm car. We chose a 2000 Honda CRV that Spenser can do all the work on due to his past mechanic experience.

The walls and door on our solar closet are all up. We are still working on the screening and making it bug tight, but we are getting there! Just a few more finishing touches and then we can begin working on getting solar power. We have been out here for a little over three weeks now and we have completely transformed this barn already. We can’t imagine how amazing it will look when it is completely done!

We have finished making the one side of the barn into a sealed solar closet and are now working on harnessing the power of the sun! We hope to have solar power very soon. We can’t wait to have a shipping container home, workshop, and farm that are all completely powered by the sun. Also, you get to see where we will be living during the entire building process of our off grid home. The space we are living in is giving us a taste of what it would be like to live tiny.

With the solar closet in the barn complete, we have started making the solar panel mount. Watch as we make the footings for the wooden frame that will soon hold our 12 solar panels. These panels will power our workshop and off grid shipping container home. Once we get solar power, we will begin building our net zero shipping container home!

The solar panels are now installed on our diy ground mount. It is now time to start wiring them up so they can meet all of our power needs! This solar array will power our off grid farm and shipping container home that we will build ourselves. We are one step closer to becoming energy self reliant. We saved up our money before we moved from Florida and had bought these solar panels so this entire project is being done debt-free!