2024 Reflections: Our DIY Shouse Journey #SundayStills

Reflecting on our life in 2024 has made me realize we accomplished much more than it feels. At the end of 2023 our shouse was dried in. A large amount of work and money resulted in a framed and sheath shouse. This set us up for a busy 2024. Our goal was to make enough progress to get a Certificate of Occupancy. We hoped to move out of the camper and into house’s small studio. From there we could continue working room by room finishing our shouse.

Life has taught us goals are not always achievable. Many times the reasons are not even in your control. We are still living out of the camper. However, we feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. After our mini break for the holidays we’re ready for a flurry of activity in early 2025.

Fortunately 2024 wasn’t all about the building. We escaped here and there and enjoyed our retirement life outside of the building project. Here’s an 2024 overview in pictures.

January – March

We did have some time back in Southern California more than once in 2024. We spent all of January and February in the warmer winter. While there we enjoyed a day trip to Torrey Pines State Park near San Diego. Maximus, the DIY Adventure Rig’ had major water damage. Steve spent time doing the repair while I recorded as much as I could. We were able to release that one video in 2024. I wish we had more Youtube releases but, I suspect our video making days will remain stagnant pending our return to a RV lifestyle with RV projects.

2024 was a snowy winter for our area in Idaho. With no heat there to really work , we both made travel plans. I headed to Cancun and Steve headed to Austin for another project. Can you see the difference in how we prefer to travel? We both returned back to Idaho a few days apart. Later in March my puggle, Cooper, had to be put down. Kidney failure finally got him. He was 16 and with me for 13 years. Such a cutie!

April – June

We anticipated returning to the shouse build with energy in March. The first desired activity was to get our roof installed. However, the weather was still too wet and cold. Steve got going on smaller tasks while we waited for a dry stretch of weather.

The 43′ panels required a 4 man crew, a really long trailer to deliver them and patience. Steve was part of the crew and left our roofer, Casey, to do his magic. Admittedly, it was quite a project to watch from the ground.

Siding and painting quickly followed. Steve also got busy installing all the interior plumbing lines and water equipment. Eventually he moved onto the electrical runs. Both plumbing and electrical activity continued through summer.

July – September

Summer had me slowing down on the Shouse activity. Steve continued his systems build out and completed our plumbing and electrical rough-in inspections. I took a mini trip to Orange County for a friends birthday celebration and enjoy the beach activities.

In the meantime time, tomatoes were grown, trees were planted. August is rodeo season around here and the fairgrounds became a busy place. Our daily walks intrigued some curious calves. September had us landing back on Southern California for house repair work. While there I met our owls. We discovered the owl nest about 4 years ago. What a treat to see two of them very active in the orchard.

October – December

Fall weather was a welcome change for a few weeks. Unfortunately, it soon become apparent that finishing our HVAC by end of the year was not happening. We expected equipment in September. Following several aggravating exchanges with the supplier we learned the fan coil units (FCUs) would not dock until November. The company did have both the heat pump and a buffer tank on hand. After some pushing, they finally released those two items and shipped them out to us.

Steve took the opportunity to give me my first welding lesson and we built the heat pump stand together. Wall insulation was installed everywhere allowing Steve to finish the shop walls and ceilings. At least something was getting closed in before winter. We bought a diesel heater to chase the chill away. Best investment in productivity and enabled both of us to work in the building.

Winter has us working on whatever areas we could in the shop and pool room. The pool room got some attention. We completed the ceiling and hooked up the lights. Having lights and the heater running let me do concrete prep work to get ready for the wall panels. We decided the house really needed to be fully dry walled and insulated. So with an OK from the HVAC inspector to close up the ceiling we scheduled the dry wall crew. All the dry wall was hung and the final ceiling insulation completed before Christmas.

I found another opportunity to take a break in the winter. This time Steve traveled with me. We enjoyed Thanksgiving in the Seattle area with family.

HVAC update is we’re still waiting on those fan coil units which will be installed in the attic and the master controller unit! Hopefully it’ll be on a truck before the end of January.

Here’s a very recent winter shot (from my back security camera) of the new shouse.

Notice how we have power in the building and lighting powered to work through those short winter days. The shop (right side of photo) is all electrified. The pool room ceiling lights are now all powered. However, the house side (on the left side of this photo) only has a handful of LED light bars plugged into temporary power boxes. I can’t wait until painting is done and we can start wiring in the switches and overhead lighting in the house.

Shouse exterior progress from end of 2023 to end of 2024 is only half the story of our year, but, it is a great story.

Now if only I can decide what colors all those entry doors should be!

About the Photo Challenge

A weekly themed photo challenge hosted by Terri. Check out her Blog and come back to visit for more SundayStills and traveling posts!

More Sunday Still Posts

Thanks for visiting our Retired Life & Travel blog and I hope you enjoyed finding the #SundayStills Challenge. You can join the weekly challenge by visiting our hosts blog Second Wind Leisure. and checking out Terri’s post for this week, Memorable Moments of 2024.