Construction

Site Selection
People are in many ways defined by the land they live on, and selecting appropriate land for your individual or group is very important and a good selection will make life much easier.

Food production being a key element of survival as well as enterprise makes agricultural considerations such as temperature, rainfall, water supplies, flooding, slope, sun exposure, length of winter, and elevation forefront. Access to convenient services, goods, medical care and local markets for products makes moderate proximity to population centers quite helpful. Security of the location may also be a factor.

Planning
Once a site has been selected, extensive long term planning will make the work much smoother. This process includes allocating level ground for farming, housing and other structures, accounting for terrain issues such as flooding, investigating additional major costs such as well drilling, as well as locating and plotting significant systems such plumbing, irrigation, sewer, wastewater treatment, storage tanks, power transmission, security devices, food crops, greenhouses and other elements. Another major element of the planning phase is house design - this will ideally be accomplished through selection of modular design components (wall segment, roof segment, floor segment et cetera) to create a blueprint matching user requirements.

Site Preparation
When planning is completed to a satisfactory extent, groundwork may begin to prepare for building. Marking of major features, leveling, grading, compacting, excavation of water features or foundations, trenching for water and electrical lines, and construction of any retaining walls or terracing. This is likely to require heavy machinery or a large hand labor force (10-20+) unless your site footprint is very light.