How do you pay for all this?

People occasionally ask how I can afford to build at the scale I do, rent heavy equipment, and spend the time I do on these projects. First off, I am not rich but I am able to make enough money to fund these projects, barely. I work my ass off. I am an entrepreneur and I've been lucky enough to have several successful businesses, the most recent of which is called RE-CO BKLYN. We harvest felled old growth trees from in and around NYC, saw them into lumber and make furniture from them. Check that out at recobklyn.com. None of that came easy and I have a couple decades of working 80+ hours per week behind me. I find ways to weave business and work into my personal life and spin a complicated and delicate web that supports that lifestyle. I have been willing to sacrifice massive amounts of time with my friends and family to make this all happen. I lived in a tent for nearly 3 years while I built the Earthship to save money. My fiance and I spent 8 months of last year in a tent upstate while we were building the road for the same reason. But things are changing now because we are getting ready to start a family and I am getting a little tired of working so hard. I want to slow down, stay in one place and build something permanent at a slower pace. That's what this build in NY is all about. Truth be told, I am out of money now and pushing forward out of pocket, month by month. I put every cent into the next load of gravel or the my savings account for the well we need to drill. We are moving into an 18' camper in January and are going to live on the cheap keeping our fingers crossed that the bank will give us a mortgage. I'm not saying this for pity, quite the opposite. I LOVE THIS. It's all worth it when you can look at everything you've done and say to yourself, "I built this". I'm just trying to let everyone know that it takes sacrifice and hard work to bring your dreams to fruition. Just ask my fiance. I don't think she really knew what she was getting into when she agreed to go on this adventure with me :)

Some of you are probably thinking, JUST BUILD A TINY HOUSE OR AN EARTHBAG HOME FOR NO MONEY AT ALL. First of all, no house really only costs $500 to build. And second, that's just not what I want. What I want is going to take a lot more, and I am willing go through all the pain, frustration, heartbreak and sheer happiness of the process to get there.