Cabin work begins

So, how's our cabin plan going? As you may know, we are attempting to build a cabin in Idyllwild purely with money earned from real estate investing. We're doing this because we love the mountains, but we're trying to do it without usng any of our wages to prove a point. The point is that you can use real estate to buy real estate.

Of course, the plan has not gone smoothly. We are on the 9th revision of floorplans, because their are pros and cons to everything. The lot has a great view, but building on a slope has many challenges. We also discovered an easement that was not on the title report, and that is causing us grief.

Besides that, the declining market in many parts of the U.S. has taken a bite out of the equity we were going to use to build. And this is a second home, not an investment property, so to get the money we have to sell appreciated property, and then pay capital gains taxes on it. It is not easy!

To help us visualize where the house and the driveway will be, we needed to move some dirt around. So today was the day to let the dust fly!

The bobcat carving a parking space at the bottom of the lot...

and the dump truck bringing the dirt to the top.