She stood in the piece of land, looking to the dark skies now clearing above her. The rain had left her plans in shambles, turning a once beautiful stretch of land into the knee-high water she now stood in.
Knowing she couldn’t stop now, she doubled down on her efforts. With her tools in hand, she continued working. Stopping would mean a fate worse than anything she’d ever experienced.
Mindy was a twenty-five-year-old mom from Colorado. As a recent college graduate, she had one of the biggest problems many graduates face.
Despite a degree and the experience that came with passing through higher education, Mindy couldn’t find a job in her hometown. With her son depending on her, she had to find a job and fast.
Mindy’s job search moved her to a different state, where she found a starter position in her field. Although everything was starting to pan out for her and her son, she had one glaring problem.
Mindy didn’t have a good place to live. She’d already burned through most of her cash on motels and apartments. After a year of this, she knew she needed a permanent solution.
Mindy began looking at ways she could find a home for her little family. She had little luck finding a mortgage forgiving enough to help her land a house at her age and pay range.
She’d already had the worst experiences paying rent in college, and her first year as a working American hadn’t been kinder either. She couldn’t continue living under those conditions.
Mindy’s search for a home wasn’t as successful as she’d hoped. She’d looked around for countless weeks without landing on an affordable house or a plan that would accommodate her budget.
She was on the verge of giving up when one sunny day, while walking through an old construction site, she ran into something that would change her life forever.
The trailer looked old from afar. Its blue paint was chapped, with the areas unlucky enough to have no paint covered in rust.
Mindy stared at the trailer for a while, taking in every tiny detail. She was about to walk away when an idea burst into her mind. She wiped her mouth with wide eyes, knowing she was about to solve her housing problem.
Mindy had spent the last seven months looking for a home. She stood before the trailer as its owner went over prices with her. “Five hundred,” he said, pulling her mind back to the construction site.
“Five hundred?” Mindy asked, quirking a brow. Wasn’t five hundred too low for such a magnificent trailer? The owner nodded with a smile. What he’d show Mindy would explain why he was letting the trailer go at such a low price.
The owner took Mindy on a tour of the trailer. She found out its interior was empty. To make it worse, the owner informed her she’d need to own a piece of land to put the trailer.
Already in love with what she saw, Mindy told the owner to hold on to the trailer for her. She exchanged contact information and called her dad to inform him of the situation. The answer she received left her speechless.
“A trailer?” Mindy’s dad exclaimed, commending her for taking such a massive step in her life. Being a homeowner wasn’t as easy as many thought, but he promised to guide her through it.
Mindy’s dad came to see the trailer the following weekend. A week after, he and Mindy were moving from plot to plot, looking for an affordable piece of land for Mindy. Would this plan work?
Mindy and her dad, a retired engineer, managed to find an excellent ten-acre piece of land within their budget. The land was in a safe neighborhood, with a great view of her town’s rolling hills.
After making the purchase, Mindy closed on the trailer and moved it to her land. It was an empty hunk of metal now, but it was the start of her lifelong dream.
With the help of her dad, Mindy began the needed renovations on the land and trailer. Tallgrass had covered everything when they started their work.
There were also several holes that Mindy and her dad had to fill up before they moved on to renovating the trailer. A month passed, and the dream that made Mindy settle on the trailer was slowly coming to life. But then came a massive problem.
The rainy season was around the corner, which was terrible news for the father-daughter duo. They’d worked so hard to make the trailer habitable, and now the rains were forcing them to press pause on their progress.
Mindy held off for a few weeks as the rains washed through. But with every downpour, an enormous problem was slowly rearing its ugly head.
The rains exposed a critical flaw in Mindy’s piece of land. Her plot was situated in a depression, which meant a lot of water collected around her house.
She thought about the issues that usually accompanied stagnant water, such as pests and diseases, and hissed in a breath. Could she take care of the issue before it claimed her dream home and left her homeless?
Mindy and her dad stepped back from renovating the trailer so they could build a sound drainage system around the piece of land.
They also built a higher foundation for the trailer to ensure the water didn’t reach it. This new list of fixes came with its set of problems. Would Mindy power through them to build her perfect home?
Mindy and her dad finished the trailer eight months after buying it. After a lot of sweat, hard work, and almost fifteen thousand dollars, Mindy and her son had a home they could call their own.
The house came with a proper plumbing system, internet, and electricity. It was also well ventilated, with a thermostat to regulate the temperature. What started as a dream for Mindy was now a reality that was hers forever.
