When we first walked this property, it was everything we wanted—wild, wooded, and full of potential. You couldn’t see more than twenty feet ahead without running into thickets, sticker bushes, or fallen trees. And yet, somehow, we could already picture our future home nestled between the evergreens.
I started recording video that very first time we walked on to the site, just in case it ended up being the one. And I’m glad I did, because now we have footage from the past year, showing all the work we had to do.
Because before we could build anything, we had to clear the property of thick bramble and trees, legacies of Washington trying to reclaim old logged forest.
This is the story of that first year: a slow, muddy, sometimes frustrating, always rewarding start to building our home from scratch. Part 1 of our land-clearing video tells this story on film—this post is for everything in between.
Watch the video here: A Year in Review – Buying and Clearing Our Dream Property
Clearing Raw Land With No Road, Power, or House Pad
There was no road in. No power. No cleared pad for a house. Just raw land. We were excited and overwhelmed in equal measure. The property sat down a long gravel easement, about 800′ away from any power or other city utilities.
We knew it would take time. We knew it would be hard. What we didn’t know was how much pride we’d feel from each little bit of progress: a cleared patch of ground, a burning pile of brush, a newly visible slope we hadn’t even noticed before.
We worked around full-time jobs, parenting, and everything else life throws at you. Weekends were spent with boots in the mud, hands on chainsaws, and our toddler watching from the edge of the clearing—usually with a stick in hand, pretending to help.
In the bitter cold of the winter of 2024, we brought our baby out with us, snuggled up in his buntings. He loved watching dad hack down trees and cut down brush.
In the summer of 2024, we made progress, clearing enough bramble and alder for what will be our final driveway, into the “home site” as it was referred to on the plot plans.
Through the fall of 2024, we continued to spend every weekend we could afford, as long as the rain wasn’t coming down too hard. But we were met with challenges – such as our son starting daycare and the constant colds that come with that.
Land Clearing by Hand: Burn Piles, Brambles, and Brush
We didn’t have heavy equipment (yet). Just hand tools, like a Facebook Marketplace Husqvarna chainshaw, but then eventually a restored vintage Massey Ferguson tractor, and then a one ton mini excavator. At times it felt like we were barely making a dent. We’d spend hours clearing a single tree’s worth of brush or wrestling out one stubborn root ball.
But little by little, the land started to change.
In our YouTube video, we included timelapses of brush clearing, dragging logs, and those slow, steady burn piles that marked the passing of the seasons. What started as chaos began to feel like a blank slate.
The Lessons You Don’t See on Camera
There’s a lot we’ve learned that didn’t make it into the video.
We learned that you can clear all weekend and barely look like you did anything—and that’s okay.
We learned that trees and bramble make a ton of debris, reflected in the piles of branches stacked in various spots around our property. Dealing with those piles will definitely be a problem for future us.
We learned how much wind, rain, and daylight affect what you can get done.
We learned that sometimes the best progress you make is sitting down and watching your kid poke a worm with a stick.
And eventually, we learned that to keep going… we needed help.
Sometimes the best progress you make is sitting down and watching your kid poke a worm with a stick.
Renting a 10-Ton Excavator for DIY Land Clearing
After a year of chipping away by hand, we finally reached the point where it was time to bring in the big guns. We rented a 10-ton excavator, and it changed everything.
We didn’t get to all of that in this video—Part 1 ends just as the excavator rolls onto the property—but let me tell you: Part 2 is going to be a very different pace.
What’s Next?
Now that the land is mostly cleared, we’re moving toward grading, building a driveway, and prepping for utilities. It still feels a little unreal to be standing on solid, cleared ground and imagining where walls and windows might go.
But we’re getting closer. One weekend at a time.
In future posts, I’ll try to explain what steps we had to take to get this far, such as early permits, health department approvals, and even talk about the building permit process.
If you’re just finding us—welcome. We’re documenting the entire process of building our homestead here on the blog and over on YouTube. This has been one of the hardest and most rewarding things we’ve ever done, and we’re so glad to share it.
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