Welcome back to Part 4 of The $20k Homestead! In case you missed them, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 are here for you to read.

🌅 The "Before" 🌅

Wanting to document this process as much as we could, I drove up our property along what we planned to be the driveway while holding the camera out the window. Here's a short clip showing our property before any grading or changes.

📞 Quest of Quotes 📞

This was a great milestone in our adventure, and one that received with great anticipation. Getting to actually do something on the land was so exciting! We had to grade the house site and the driveway and set off calling local companies to get quotes.

Most grading companies in our area included gravel and septic as additional services, and their quotes were given as "combos". Sticker shock again set in when the quotes came back in. They were all within a few hundred dollars of each other and we tried three different companies to get the best deal.

💰 $10,000! 💰

Holy Moly! Sticker shock hit us hard on this one. This was half our budget! The quotes generally broke down as follows:

Grading - $1,500 - Driveway & House Site
Drain Culverts - $1,000 - Driveway Drainage
Gravel - $1,500 - 300 ft. Driveway Surfacing
Septic - $6,000 - Complete Install of Septic System

🏈 Backup and Punt 🏈

We had to step back and think if there was another way to get this done without blowing half of our money at once. I spread the word through social media and with family that we were looking for anyone who did grading and wanted a side job or could help out. About two weeks later my Aunt called to say she found a guy at her church who was willing to help us out!

Another week or two went by lining up our schedules and the day arrived...

🚧 Grading Day! 🚧

Now, it just so happened that this day also aligned with the 🎉 Baby Shower of our 2nd Child! 🎉 Luckily, my wife was a eager to get our home built as I was, and was happy to allow me to stay at the land while she partied. Yay! Here's the video montage of our land grading:

Of course, any construction project is not done until it is inspected... luck was on our side as the inspector was very lenient that day:

And here's the view again from the road. This time, with our new driveway and house site! 😁

❓ So, What Did It Cost ❓

Being a friend of the family, he only charged me $250 -- the rental fee for the dozer. Being fully prepared to pay much more (as I did not know the cost ahead of time), I ended up giving him three times that to make up for his time and work, and to show our appreciation.

🔮 What's Next? 🔮

While the quotes from companies wanted to lump in grading, gravel and septic, we had a different order to follow at the advice from others. Our next step...

🚚 Move the House! 🚚

But you'll have to wait for our next post for that one. Don't worry though, it will be here soon!

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The $20k Homestead - Part 4 - Grading the Land 🚧