We almost built before we sold our old house in the neighborhood. But, I got nervous. So, we ended up buying a mobile home, moving out to the property and selling our old house. There was one on the property before so we just put ours where the old one was. The septic and water service were still in good shape, that saved us quite a bit of money. We've been in it for about 2 and a half years. The house site is about 100 yards from the trailer site. We will move directly from the trailer to the house and sell the trailer, hopefully very quickly. We can't close on the mortgage until it's gone.
We are all SO ready to get out of the trailer. When we moved in it was me, my wife, and youngest child (14 at the time 16 now), a weenier dog, and a cat. We were tight but relatively ok. Then about 3 months ago our oldest daughter (21) went through a divorce and now she's back with us, with a whole house of stuff and 3 extra cats.... We are bursting at the seams and quick to get at each other's throats. It's a challenge but we are making it.
Shop is done short of big door and electricity. It has been helpful for sure. Most of the oldest child's house stuff is in it. I've also been plaining the cypress we are using for some of the trim that I got at a sawmill in there. I'm just running a big extension cord from the temp pole for now. I do have the conduit run and breaker panel ready for wire. I'm just having to use my time on the most pressing deadline at the time so it's just going in stages.