I've been sitting and thinking next to the washing machine for a while and decided to really think about what big steps I need to take. There are steps to rebuild my life, which is required before I can move to the big steps relating to this project. I'll give an overview here for my own records and for anyone curious about building a new life from scratch. 

For reference, here's where I'm at: Lost everything(thanks Covid and other people) and am renting a truck bed camper in the driveway of a friend. Running out of time to stay here. Left two of the worst jobs I've ever had in the past 6 months. Just started a new job I enjoy about 2 weeks ago. Not great pay, but pleasant and I'm learning new skills. I can buy my old pickup back from my friend for $1,000. I've already paid $200 on it. Planning $250 a week until it's paid off. It needs a few hundred in repairs as well as registration and insurance. It actually runs and drives right now. I'm broke, tired, and sore, but slowly getting caught up and rebuilding. It's not pleasant, but I've been through worse. This dream is keeping me going. 

Here's the current plan to rebuild a very basic, cheap, and mobile life.

I'm going to rent a room and garage from a different friend as soon as my truck is on the road again. I'll start building a custom truck bed camper and finish that project I started on here. I'll move to a campground near work with my camper and just drive the truck with camper on it to work every day. I'll keep saving up money to get other projects done and collect tools and materials to get the truck ready for a long distance move across the US, towards the west coast. I'll be building up my camera and audio gear to start building up my YouTube channel. It's for fun and passion, but may eventually help fund other projects someday. Once I have enough money in the bank, I'll start looking for work out west and see where I end up. I'll move out west and start building up more money towards land.

Here's the current plan to start actually building The Village 

Rebuild my credit, save up a significant amount of money while travelling and scoping out land. Keep working on projects and the channel to keep me busy while I save. I may even move to San Diego and find work on boats so I can learn how to care for and operate one. I'd like to chase my dream of sailing the world at some point soon. Once I have the funds and find the land, I'll purchase as much as I can. If it makes sense to move onto the land right away, I will. Otherwise I'll stay where I'm at and start saving up money again for supplies and equipment. I may use my Hilti account to order a fleet of essential power tools, or I may just buy them with cash. One of the first things I'll do is get a small electric grid built up. Some solar panels, a charge controller, inverter, and large battery bank. I may start off with used forklift battery packs or just save up for lithium if possible. After power would come water collection. I may hand drill some wells, set up rain collection, run dehumidifiers to pull from the air, or any combination of the three. If needed and feasible, I'd use the truck to haul in water. After water and power are sorted, I'd build a workshop for storing materials and tools. I'll likely do aircrete or earthbag construction depending on the land and budget. Once a workshop is fully built, I'd start stocking it with tools. The tools will depend on the resources available on the land. A small tractor would be one of the first tools I'd buy. With it I'd set up a small fuel station to hold extra fuel and haul it in bulk with the pickup. Food would be store bought at first, until gardens and livestock could be set up. A composting toilet would be set up right away, and eventually replaced with a large biodigestor and systems to capture, compress, and store the gas for future use. Once gas stores are built up, I'd set up a generator to supplement the solar, and start getting gas powered implements and appliances, such as ovens and heaters. 

Once power, water, workshop, tractor, and food stores were sorted, work on the rest of the village could begin. The base infrastructure would have to be designed and tested before any major construction began. I'm planning to run electricity, water, gas, and sewage to all buildings, just like a city would have. I plan to do things properly and to code, with full documentation as to avoid dangerous and costly problems in the future. This means proper burial and documenting of various supply lines, as well as monitoring systems. I'm considering a water tower and pumps to fill it, with central UV sanitation and good filtration. Copper pipes would be preferred for their longevity and antimicrobial properties, though expensive. Grey water would likely be used to water plants, and toxic chemicals would be banned. Sewage will be handled by biodigestors, either centrally located, or at each building. Gas will be collected from the biodigestors and sent to a central compressor, where it will be stored in tanks and sent back out to each building. If this system is not feasible, a tank for each building would be used and a special tanker vehicle created to haul the gas to each building. It would be powered by the gas it hauls. Another option is to have each building produce, collect, compress, and use its own biogas. This depends on enough waste being produced at each building to meet it's demand. Testing will need to be done to determine production and usage rates per building. Electricity would be carried by underground cables to avoid overhead wires, or generated at each building if a central system is not feasible. Heating will either be provided by electricity, wood, gas, direct solar, geothermal, or a combination of them. Cooling will be handled through passive designs, thermal mass, and possibly high efficiency heat pumps if possible and needed. 

These systems are often complex and expensive, as well as dangerous. I'd bring in experts as needed to keep things safe.

The plan is to start with a single building as a test site for all systems. This would be my home where I'd live and test things long term before implementing the designs on other buildings. Once proven, I'd likely build a community center next. It would feature a large multi purpose dining hall, commercial kitchen, living quarters, office space, and entertainment such as simple movie theater, game room, perhaps a gymnasium if possible. Such a large building would be very expensive and complicated, but would give me a place to host large events, rent out, teach classes, and just play and work like I've always wanted to do. I would like The Village to be able to generate funds for future building projects, and starting off with something profitable right away would jump start the project if done well. I hate the financial world and even using terms like "profitable", but I understand it all well enough to know how important it is in the long term. As much as I don't care for money, I know it will be needed. Being able to host events and rent out the spaces will help tremendously. A small tavern may be a better first option. 

Another dream that my friend and I share is to build a large concert venue and get our favorite metal bands to play there someday. It seems like a massive and difficult goal, but may not be as hard as many people think. The goal is to make the venue so interesting and fun that bands would want to come play. Offering excellent accomodations to the bands would go a long way, even if it only consisted of putting in a paved drive and parking area for their tour bus, and keeping it separate and private. A large diesel fueling station would make it fairly easy to convince someone with such a large vehicle to make the trip out, as it eliminates a massive hurdle. I'd love to put on live performances of various sorts here as well. I love live theater and want to support it as much as possible. Even if that meant building a workshop and housing for a theater company and paying them well. I don't suspect it would be too hard to start a good theater company once the base infrastructure and lifestyle are established. If possible, I'd happily fund the theater company year round to just write plays and tell wonderful stories throughout the year. There's something very magical about a night at the theater I wish to share with many people. I think this venue would need to be enclosed and climate controlled somehow. Making it under ground comes to mind. 

An even more fun idea comes to mind: a tavern. Proper medieval style building, heavy wood working all around, large fireplaces and wood stoves, custom brews of all sorts, rooms for rent, and regular events like live music and entertainment such as stand up comedy, and even fights. This would be a dream come true for me. I don't really know of any places like it that still exist. Depending on how many people would live in the village, I may keep it closed to the public much of the time, as with most of The Village. Having yet another venue to rent out and open to the public would be just another source of income, publicity, and good times. It also supports my love of cooking for others. I love healthy food and feasts. I don't like the waste of most commercial kitchens, so this would have to be addressed. I have a good friend whom I worked with at a steak house who would likely cook with me again at the tavern. I could go with modern commercial gas appliances, but I might just custom build the cooktops and use wood as fuel if available. If not, custom gas appliances might be in order. Regardless, I'd love to have a 10 foot+ flat top. Custom pottery would likely be made to stock the kitchen, and cast iron cookware is preferred. Hand forged utensils would be ideal for prep work and dining. These may require a little more care than stainless steel, but I love forged iron enough to put in the extra work. With a gas system in place, I may even run gas lighting all around, in addition to electric. Much safety testing has to be done with burning biogas indoors to ensure safety. Modern fire suppression would be required, I'm sure. There is much that would go into building a proper tavern, but I've got the time and vision. I'd love to spend my life working, travelling, and then resting at the tavern, cooking up a feast, and throwing parties for people I care about. I'm not a wasteful man, so I have to find ways to eliminate the kind of waste large gatherings usually generate. If it means making absurd amounts of pottery and doing huge batches of dishes, so be it. 

The thought of hosting a large event and doing dishes makes me want to go sit in the hot tub. A public bath house comes to mind here. This is a complex and interesting problem to be solved. Once water and personal hygiene come into play, things have to be done carefully to avoid things getting gross and people getting sick and injured. The amount of energy required to maintain comfort in large spaces and bodies of water is also immense. Just heating a small hot tub requires a substantial amount of energy. A bath house would likely be one of the last things built, and only after a substantial excess of energy is being produced and stored. I've used an electric water heater as a solar dump load in a previous off grid camper build, and the principle applies here as well. If enough power is being generated, the pool, hot tubs, saunas, and steam rooms could all be used as dump loads. Insulating the bodies of water from the ground would help stop all the heat energy from being sucked into the ground. This would mean elevating a pool and hot tub off the ground. For a full sized pool this could be a very expensive endeavor. I may just go with a natural in ground set up like David Pagan Butler has perfected. I may not be able to heat something like that very effectively, but I could build a large greenhouse over the entire area. Such a structure may not blend in with the other structures with so much glass, but it may be possible to make it as natural and pleasant as possible. The greenhouse built by Kris Harbour on his YouTube channel comes to mind with it's large timber frame and large glass panels. The bath house wouldn't have to be as big as most public gym facilities, so it could be done at a reasonable expense. I suspect the glass would be incredibly expensive though. The heat and humidity would be problematic for most building materials, so this must be taken into account right from the start. Stainless steel, glass, tile, stone, and very durable wood is required. Steel requires too much maintenance and plastic is an environmental nightmare. An earthbag structure with a glass roof would be acceptable. Aircrete would likely work as well. I spend countless hours at the local YMCA in the pool and hot tub, resting and playing. The hot tub is where I've done my most important thinking and has led me to take my self and dreams seriously. I may build a small hot tub house right away when I get established on the land. Either way, everyone needs a place to play and relax in the water. Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron Ohio has a full sized pool from 1909 or so that has always fascinated me. It is filled from underground cisterns and filtered with sand. It sits empty now as it's a museum, but they had no need for toxic chemicals. I may add in UV sanitation if the power budget would allow. I still have much research to do on hot tub filtration without chemicals. It will be well worth the effort. 

As could be imagined, this is a project on a massive scale. It's essentially a small village with the amenities of a city. I plan to own it outright from the start, and run it as I see fit. If no one ever comes to stay, I'll enjoy it and keep going. Renting the spaces out would be a wonderful thing for me. Once built, it shouldn't require much, if any money to maintain. Just labor, much of which I can automate as I go. I'm well aware of all of the possible negatives of this project, and I accept them. My hope is to build my dream and live a good life, then pass it down to someone else.