I hope this email finds you doing well and looking forward to a wonderful Christmas. As we are approaching the end of the year, I want to give you a detailed update on the construction at the tiny home village we are building. I’m going to make this as detailed as possible so you can have all the information you need to pray specifically for us.
New office
Let’s start with the new office building. This has been our focus for the past three months or so, and we are very close to completion. The only things left are the heat and air system, carpet, cabinets, baseboards, installing half of the lights, a final coat of paint, underpinning, and new steps.
We already have the carpet and the lights and have started the installation. The biggest need is the HVAC system. We have already selected a contractor and everything is lined up, but we need the $13,000 before we give them the go ahead to install.
We desire to do brick underpinning because it will last a long time and give our modular office a more permanent foundation. If the funds are not available at this time for the brick, we do have metal on hand and will use that for now. Almost all of the work that’s been done on the office has been done by ourselves. Of course, it has taken a little longer, but we have saved thousands of dollars in labor costs. This is important as we want to use our donated funds as wisely as possible.
The power company has already set the power poles for the office and we are now waiting for them to run power underground from the last pole to the office building. All the electrical work inside the office is complete.
Infrastructure
As we look at the infrastructure such as power, sewage, roads, etc, we are very close to completion. The remaining phase one infrastructure work is as follows;
Make the connections to the first sewer system that has already been installed. The lines are already run, we only need to make the final connections to the tanks and to the first two tiny houses.
Connect the water lines to the first two houses and the RV spot.
Install the second septic system. We have had permitting issues with the health department on this system due to a rule change they made. We are awaiting final approval so that we can get bids from contractors. We expect this system to cost somewhere between $20,000-$30,000. It will be expensive because when it’s installed, we will have to go ahead and tie in the sewer lines for all eleven houses that will use this system. This has to be done now to avoid the larger expense of digging it all up in the future.
Run power to the first distribution panel for the first five homes. We will need to continue on with setting power poles to go from the last pole at our office, all the way back to where the phase one houses are. This is a distance of about six hundred feet and some of it will be overhead power and some underground. We have already initiated the work order for this.
Run power to the first two homes. After the power is brought to the distribution panel by the power company, it’s our responsibility to go underground to each house. We will also be setting each house up with the ability to run with a generator in case of power outages.
Front and rear gates. We will be installing an electric front gate to assist in our security measures. The back gate will be a privacy fence gate.
Concrete for the main entrance. The state is requiring us to concrete the main entrance where it meets US highway 278. The entrance is currently rock, as all our roads are. The first forty feet or so will need to be concrete.
The houses
The Unity Cabin and the Eastlake cabin are about 75% complete. The next steps are flooring, final trim, Cabinets, bathrooms and appliances. Funding is in place for the Eastlake cabin and we are still in need of a little more for the Unity cabin.
We have a third, smaller cabin that is already complete. We have used it as our model home and we plan to move it to the phase one area and utilize it. Because it’s much smaller, it will need to be at the end of the cul de sac, the last home in the line of homes on the first road. Due to where this house needs to be placed, we will have to wait until we get power to that area before we can utilize it.
For phase one, we need three more houses. Two of them are 14x32 and one is 14x36. These have not been purchased yet and we are praying for sponsors so that we can order them.
Other details
Of course, as with any large scale project, there are a few other things that will have to be done along the way. For instance, the roads are complete, but we will have to dig across them to make sewer connections. Because of this, we will have to buy more rock and do a little more work to get the road back to where it needs to be.
The new office will need furnishings when we are finished with it. We already have a nice conference table, but we will need everything else.
We also plan to install security cameras throughout the property as well as security lighting. In the spring we will lay some more sod around the office, the homes, and the RV site.
Funding
We have been funding this project with private donations that come in separate from our regular operating budget. At the writing of this update, we are in the red about $5,800. We have still been able to make lots of progress because many of the expenses are smaller and some materials have been donated. We will however, need to have more funds come in before we can order the more expensive last work like the HVAC and the septic.
You can help us by praying specifically for the Lord to provide all the funds for the remaining needs I have detailed above.
Thank you
If you have read through all this, then you are pretty up on everything and I sure do appreciate your interest in this project. Many of you have been giving generously and that’s how we have gotten this far! Thank you!
As always, if you have questions or would like to speak with me about giving to this important new ministry project, don’t hesitate to contact me.
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