I always liked building and making things.
When it came time to own a house, we decided to build one. Both of us had worked in Africa and saw how the mud houses worked there – very well. So we decided to make a mud house (adobe).
First we had to figure out how to make the bricks easily (making them individually is nuts) This took around 6 months. Then we had to figure out how to make a house. That’s not so difficult, and two years later we had our own house. The sense of pride and achievement in living in a house made by oneself is something special.
I started teaching others how to do it, and built a few others too.
No mortgage, no banks – no worries.