How did I get here

Like pretty much everything of any significance in my life it started out in a bookstore. This was in the beginning of 2007 and I'd been casually thinking about getting out of the renting game. As is typically the case I started out by trying to read up on whatever information I could get my hands on. Initially I was only looking to buy, thinking that building would never be within my price range, but while wandering around a Barnes and Noble I came across a magazine called 'Small Homes that Live Large.' At the time I knew anything I'd be looking at would be small, given my budget relative to local home prices, so I picked it up and started paging through it. Turns out every home it described had some aspect that appealed to me, so I ended up buying it to read later.

The most important idea that I took from reading the magazine was the fact that building didn't necessarily have to be expensive. They showcased a series of beautiful and expensive houses, but they also covered several houses that had been built with a definite budget in mind. I looked at the cost/sqft values listed in the magazine and began to wonder if I couldn't afford that myself.

Once the idea was in my head the real reading began. I have this bad habit of buying book after book based solely on positive Amazon reviews, so I went through a lot of junk at first. At some point I came across a reference to Susanka as one of the most vocal voices for the small but growing "quality over quantity" dialog in home building. I ended up buying 3 of her books and they're really the inspiration behind this entire thing. She was able to formalize and clearly describe some of the ideas that had been kicking around in my head about housing in general and cost/value relationships in particular. At that point I decided this was an idea I was going to seriously look into.