At some point I realised I spend my whole career designing how people learn, and I had outsourced almost all of my own hardest learning to other people.
Building a house is, on paper, an irrational thing to do yourself. It's slower, it's harder, and there are professionals who would do it better and faster. But that's exactly the point. I didn't take it on to save money or to prove anything. I took it on because I wanted to be a beginner again, to feel what our learners feel when they are handed something difficult.
Learning by laying bricks
There's a kind of understanding you only get with your hands. You can read about load-bearing walls, watch ten videos, nod along — and still be completely wrong the first time you try. The wall doesn't care how well you can explain it. It only responds to what you actually do. That feedback loop is honest, and it is the best teacher I have had in years.
I wanted a project I could not fake or delegate my way through. A house is exactly that.
What I'm hoping to learn
Patience, mostly. The willingness to do something badly before doing it well. And a renewed respect for craftspeople, who've quietly mastered the thing I'm fumbling through. I'll be writing the rest of it up here as I go — the milestones, and the mistakes. Especially the mistakes.
This is the first entry. If you want to follow the build, check back — there's a lot of concrete ahead.