Steps to Building a Homestead – Our Thoughts

Steps for Building a Homestead

Are you a dreamer? Me too!

I’m one of those people who Googles things like, “How to build a homestead,” “Preparing to Homestead,” or “What do you need to do to one day homestead?”  I’m also the person you see walking out of the library with an armload of books on homesteading or self-sufficiency. After doing all of this reading, I’ve started to get an idea of what we need to (would like to) do to prepare for the day when we do buy our piece of land (part 1). I also have a backbone’s idea of what we need to do once we’ve acquired that land (part 2). Part one is less a step by step list, and more a comprehensive to-do list divided by categories. Part 2, on the other hand, looks like it should ideally be step by step, but we’ll see how it plays out once we get there!

Here is my idea of the steps to building a homestead:

Part 1

Practice skills needed for self-sufficiency

• Example: learn how to can fresh produce, learn how to make cheese, bake your own bread, garden, etc.
  • This is the stage that we are at right now and a huge reason for this blog. Hopefully you’ll journey with me as we go through each process in realizing our homesteading dreams and everything in between.

Know what we want

• In a house
• What kind of outbuildings
• How much land
• What kind of land
• The types of livestock we want to raise, and where we want to start
• Knowing what we want to plant and roughly how much to maintain self-sufficiency

Become financially ready

• Find alternate sources of income
• Become debt free

Part 2

Buy the land

• Know what still needs to be done to it in order to build
• Have an idea of how we want our homestead to run
• Know generally where we would want outbuildings
• Know where we want to place the house

Build a house

• Not always necessary, but this is our goal

Year 1

• Ideally, we would be observing the seasons on our new homestead to better prepare for those goals listed in step 2. However, I could see us planting a few things in temporary locations and possibly getting some animals before the year is up.
• This is also a good time to plan where we want any outbuildings. We may not be able to build them all at once, but the key is to have a plan.

Year 2+

• Re-evaluate

• Build outbuildings and add livestock as time and resources allow
• Add gardens as time and resources allow

• Work the homestead
• Remember to enjoy the fruits of our labors

Making outlines like this helps to make our dreams more tangible.

I am probably missing a few things, but that’s the beauty of dreams – you can customize them as you go!

What would you add to my little outline? I’d love to see your thoughts on what it takes to build a homestead in your comments below!