Got land, but no house?

Many people dream of having land, but don't think as far as where they will actually live if the land doesn't come with a house. Others look for land with a house, but it is usually very expensive. The beauty of having undeveloped land, is that you have a clean slate to do whatever you want with. You can design your home, it's materials, orientation, features, as well as its surroundings.

Our 51 acres of land cost $19,000 maashaa Allah. It is all grassland, for over 30 years simply being used for grazing cattle. That means that we need something to live in while developing it and building our permanent cob homes, inshaa Allah.  We looked at all the options for temporary accommodation, including building tiny houses, converting shipping containers, and barns but found that they all worked out to $10,000 each minimum. We realized that travel trailers (caravans) are the least expensive and most practical form of year-round, temporary accommodation for a family while building their permanent home.

We bought a 28 foot travel trailer for $1,800.00 our first summer at Healing Earth, and it served us well. However, knowing that we will need to live in it year round while we work and build, we just bought a newer one. It cost $2,800 and everything works in it, so we can be comfortable inshaa Allah.

We plan to buy another with 4 bunk beds and a master bedroom, inshaa Allah. To protect them from the elements and prevent any issues with roof damage or leaking, we plan to put them underneath carports. In this way, they can be used as guest, student, teacher, Woofer, or Poosher accommodation long after we have built our home, inshaa Allah.

When we look at the huge amounts of money people are spending on tiny houses, most of which are not particularly natural or non-toxic, we can't help but think that they could have a travel trailer for a fraction of the cost with all the facilities and still live small. Even the ones with slide-outs can easily be found for under $5,000.00 maashaa Allah. While it is mobile and can be moved wherever needed, it doesn't need any planning permission, unlike a fixed structure. In addition, anytime we want to go on vacation or take a trip, we can literally take the whole house with us, eliminating hotel expenses and eating out. Not "Trailer Trash," but rather, "Trailer Treasure!"Al hamdul'Illah, it works for us!