I get asked quite often; “how are things going with the build out of Retreat Ranch?”, and my standard response is usually, “going slow”. But today I needed to take stock and look at how far we have come (sort of). And I thought I would share that with you.
First, if you don’t know what I am even talking about, visit my first post where I announce our plans to build out a retreat center just outside of Austin on our 46 acre ranch in Marble Falls Texas.
Now, here is the thing: we are building out a retreat center, as we are also building out our personal residence. We will be living on the back half of the ranch, while all the Retreat/Event structures will be more in the middle/front part of the ranch. So all this to say it is slow going for a number of reasons, including that we are toggling back and forth between getting things done for our private residence as well as the retreat/event section of the ranch. We are feeling literally pulled in several different directions, and at times (very few times) we feel like rock stars handling it with ease and grace, and at other times we are fumbling idiots ‘pretending’ we know what we are doing.
Things we have learned when building from scratch (raw land) while doing it in the country (and why it is SLOW GOING):
- No one else is in a rush but you. My husband and I (or more I) want things done yesterday. But, although we are givingit our very best, WE are not experts in many things that need done, so we need to outsource and hire for certain things (or rent things) and our timeline is now, and theirs is “maybe next week”. Which is never actually “next week”. Not to mention the pace here is just easy going (which is wonderful, great, lovely…it’s one reason we moved here…except for WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO BUILD SO YOU CAN MOVE OUT OF THE RV..oh I digress.. sorry).
- Be ready, but don’t count on it. Regarding the first bullet above, don’t call the expert to come out, unless you have finished prepping for them (which we are doing as much of the work ourselves, hence the prepping). Because they might tell you “next week” but it could actually be in 3 weeks. Or, you might get surprised and they call you and say “hey a job canceled and I will be at your place tomorrow”. AGHHHH. For instance, we have been trenching, piping and pulling wire for days (and when I say we, I mean my husband and father in law) and we needed a plumber and electrician to finish it all up (you know, hook up the pipes and wires to the structures). We were told it would be several weeks before they could come out.So we did MOST of the trenching/piping and then got side tracked on a chicken coop (long story to be told later). About a week after we were told it would be several weeks, the electrician called and said they would be out tomorrow. Oooook, so we stop everything and spend all night (till dark- cause it gets DARK as shit here) and then again at sunrise, finishing the prep for them. In this case we don’t complain, cause USUALLY it is the opposite (they tell you it will be several weeks and it is several weeks times two).
- It will NEVER be cheaper than you think. We are trying to do a lot of the work ourselves as mentioned earlier. Not only because we have the time (hello, pandemic anyone?), but because we think it will save us money. This is not always true. Because we are learning, we make mistakes. And they can be expensive ones. For instance we were having a horse barn built but wanted to do the cement ourselves (or at least outsource it ourselves so that we could find it cheaper than the horse barn peeps). We did and WE thought we told the cement folks how it wasto be done, based on the drawings we got from the horse barn folks. Well, we don’t know how to read the plans properly (or just didn’t ask the right questions) so we had very expensive cement poured and it was done wrong (not the right size). Let’s just leave it at that for now.
- Things change. And when they change, it can be a bit painful (or frustrating, or both). For instance, a big section of fence along the back of our property was damaged and we needed to fix it for our AG exemption standing (that we THOUGHT would be for livestock as was originally zoned for the property we bought). After spending a small fortune putting a special fence up to replace the damaged section (because the fence covered a flood plane too) we then decided we did not want to raise livestock (except our precious chickens, but again, that is another story) and went back to the county to figure something else out. We then decided to switch to wildlife exempted instead (which requires other stuff we still have to do now…) but does NOT require the fancy expensive fence we put up. Well F*&$ me.
- Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda. Every project (and I mean EVERY project), we start, and then either at the halfway mark, or around 3/4 of the way in, we figure out something else we COULDA done differently to save time and money. Or that we kinda knew, but decided to do something else….. so we SHOULDA done it differently but tried to do it a way we THOUGHT would be easier. Or, after we finish something, we look around and go “well shit, I wish we WOULDA done xyz too..”. I feel like that is kinda our mantra lately. “Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda…”… we pretty much say it after almost every project. It’s our thang now.
- The list never ends. Each time we get something done (which is in itself a miracle) we don’t take too much time to admire it, we just get back to THE LIST. Which never ends and is, sometimes, a moving target anyhow. Also, sometimes things are half checked and revisited later. This usually happens for one of a few reasons:
- A) We don’t know what the hell we are doing so we start a project and then stop, thinking we will revisit it later when we have watched enough YouTube videos (or break down and pay someone else to do it, especially if it is something that another project needs to be done to continue),
- B) Something we need for the project broke (usually the tractor) and so we are now waiting for said broken thing to be repaired which follows the same timeline as #2 above,
- C) We get started on a project and then find out something else needs to take priority urgently so it is back-burnered for an unknown amount of time.
So…after all this, what is actually done?
- Our private residence is 85% done. Instead of September 1st, we are looking more like the 2nd or 3rd week ofSeptember. Hopefully.
- Most roads and clearing is done. (Still need a lot of cleaning up to do here though)
- Most trenching/piping is done. We HOPE to have this all finished this week. AND…maybe even INTERNET ON THE RANCH!
- The residence AND retreat center water well is done (YES!)
- The residence AND retreat center electricity is done (YES!)
- The residence AND retreat center septic is done (YES!)
- Retreat workshop barn is up, done, fully running! (better known as the candle barn around here, but will be our workshop barn for Retreat Ranch too)
- The water well sheds are up and done. (Still need painted)
- Service/residence entrance fence is 85% done (still need the gate, opener and painted)
- Horse barn shell is up (still need to do stalls, interior finish out and pasture fencing)
- Chicken coop is done (he he he…and our 12 chicks are so happy)… (still need to do grazing fencing here)
Whew. That is a lot when I look at it. We already had the machine/equipment barn done (was the first thing we did).
What is on the horizon:
- Main fence/gate for the entrance. This is slated for Octoberish.
- Some finish out items for the retreat workshop barn and exterior seating/gazebo. This is slated for Octoberish/Novemberish.
- Yoga deck and meditation labyrinth. This is slated for October (and my karma yoga attendees will be helping to build them out!)
- Container and trailer build out (this is so cool..can’t wait to share more bout this, but we are turning a shipping container into two rooms for the retreat center and an antique trailer into a rental too). This is slated for Decemberish.
- Dining hall barn. This is slated for Januaryish.
- Yurt decks. This is slated for Januaryish.
We have lots of other stuff coming, but that will be happening further out into 2021/2022.
Ok, I dumped a lot here. I also wanted to add something else; my husband is amazing. He hustles his ass doing virtual events & executive coaching and then is our main ranch hand the rest of his time. I am so proud and so grateful. I have been known to pick up a chainsaw here and there too, but he is definitely the driving force for so much happening here.
And now I will end this long ass post to say thank you so much. Thank you for checking on us, for supporting us, for cheering us and hopefully soon, for visiting us. We have SO much love for each of you.
xoxo
