• When it comes to money, I'm a big budgeter, and my husband prefers taking risks.
• Now that we're building a house together, our differences are causing some disagreements.
• We've learned to stay flexible and balance each other's approaches.

My husband and I have very different ideas about financial responsibility.

When we're feeling stressed about money, my instinct is to run the numbers and account for every financial what-if. He's a big-picture dreamer who sees what something could become and is more willing to say, "We'll figure it out."

His attitude has paid off before. He had the vision for our first home, which we bought for under $100,000 and recently sold for a decent profit after 13 years of renovations.

I know some of the best things we've done together wouldn't have happened without my husband's willingness to take a chance, but our differences have still caused some friction over the years.

Now that we're building a new home together, we're trying to balance my need to plan for the unknown with his belief that we'll find a way forward.

After 13 years, we took a risk and sold our home

For 13 years, we'd lived in the same place. My husband had moved frequently as a child, and he wanted his two daughters to have a consistent place to call home.

Leaving this house behind was bittersweet, but my oldest stepdaughter had just bought her own house, and my younger one was heading off to college. We were ready for what came next.

We could have bought an existing house needing renovations. Instead, we found land in southern Maine that felt worth taking a risk on.

We've always loved the area. My family has an annual reunion there, where we spend a week at the beach. Our new property will hopefully give us that lifestyle without the summer crowds: It's more than 2 ½ acres with hiking trails next door, a nearby kayak and paddleboard launch, and the ocean just a short drive away.

We decided to go for it, and by the end of August, our old house was nearly empty. My younger stepdaughter left for college on a Wednesday, we moved the rest of our things to a rental on a Thursday, and officially sold the house that Friday.

Every estimate comes with an 'unless'

In September, we began building our 1,500-square-foot house.

We're now paying $3,000 a month for a rental home — with a construction loan on top of that — and keeping track of a lot of numbers, from lumber and labor to excavation, plumbing, electrical, permits, and finishes.

My husband is doing most of the construction himself, which is what makes this project possible. If we had to pay for all of the labor, we probably couldn't afford to build right now.

However, that's not to say this hasn't been a very stressful time. We think we've accounted for everything, but every estimate has an asterisk: Unless lumber prices go up. Unless a contractor's price changes.

Unless we hit ledge — that is, solid bedrock beneath the soil that can be expensive to excavate. We might have to rethink the foundation or adjust the entire plan once we see what's underground.

I find that uncomfortable, but my husband doesn't.

We're leaving room to adjust

My husband can picture what this property could become over time, and has big dreams for it.

He wanted a garage, a small cottage where our family could stay when they visit, a little more space, and nicer finishes in some areas. I kept bringing us back to what we could afford right now, and how much we wanted to keep in savings rather than put everything into the house.

After a lot of discussion, we decided to start small. We're building for the life we have today, while — at his request — leaving room for the one we might want tomorrow. The garage and cottage can wait. For now, we're focusing on getting the house right without stretching our budget too far.

That means staying flexible. For instance, my husband wants a finished basement, and I agreed, knowing this would give us the option to add a third bedroom down the road.

Though the cost difference between a basement and an unfinished crawl space isn't huge upfront, hitting ledge could put us thousands — or even tens of thousands — over budget.

We're willing to give the basement a shot, but if excavation costs start climbing, we may have to scale back to a crawl space and save the extra bedroom for another day.

We have a plan, but we know it might change once we get further into the build. I'll keep making the spreadsheets and asking for the numbers. He'll keep looking at the big picture and reminding me why we decided to do this.

This project, and my husband, have taught me that financial responsibility isn't necessarily about eliminating every risk, but knowing which risks are worth taking and staying open to changing course.

Housing Law 187, published this Wednesday in the Ordinary Official Gazette No. 86, expands property rights in Cuba and diversifies mechanisms for building, financing, and accessing housing, with measures aimed at protecting vulnerable individuals.

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The new regulation is part of the economic and social transformations approved in the country and will enter into force seven days after its publication. Its release coincides with the 66th anniversary of the Urban Reform Law—a pioneering measure in the sector—which aimed to transfer home ownership to the families living in them, prohibit evictions, and guarantee a home for every citizen.

At a press conference, Marvelis Velázquez Reyes, Director of Legal Housing Affairs at the Ministry of Construction, explained that individuals may own up to two homes. This provision extends to foreigners, who will have the same rights and responsibilities in this regard as Cuban citizens.

The official detailed that property owners may grant the use of their home free of charge via a loan agreement, transfer rooms or part of the built structure to an adjoining property owner, and transfer their residence to individuals or legal entities through donation, among other flexible options.

Administrative authorization is also no longer required to transfer—whether for a fee or free of charge—partial or total ownership of rooftop space for the purpose of expanding or constructing living areas, nor for the transfer of privately owned vacant lots.

The text reads, “New Housing Law: more rights and new management models. With this legislation, #Cuba has a comprehensive legal framework that seeks to make the right to adequate housing a reality.”

Key aspects of Law 187 include the elimination of housing confiscation due to emigration and the guarantee of inheritance rights. Furthermore, in purchase-and-sale agreements, the parties may agree on as many terms, clauses, and conditions as they wish, provided they do not violate legal provisions, social order, or the nature of the contract itself.

The regulations establish that the Municipal Administration Council may finance the cost—or a portion thereof—of housing built and allocated to vulnerable individuals unable to afford it. In this way, the law reinforces the protective approach toward sectors facing the greatest difficulty in accessing adequate housing.

Law 187 introduces real estate agencies and housing cooperatives as new, fully guaranteed management models. These modalities aim to diversify participation in the production, maintenance, and management of the housing stock, in line with the country’s economic transformations.

The regulation also reaffirms the State’s responsibility for developing construction programs designed to address the housing shortage. According to authorities, the law governs the production, quality, financing, distribution, access, use, maintenance, and transfer of housing.

The publication of Housing Law 187 is accompanied by General Regulations, as well as specific rules regarding horizontal property ownership and housing cooperatives.

Search works for the missing people in the rubble of the building that collapsed after an explosion in historical center of Athens, Plaka continue until late Friday night. According to latest information, the number of the missing people has risen to six from five as initially thought. The number was officially announced by the Mayor […]

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By the time I encountered the fifth photo in Matt Seaton’s contemplative essay about New England’s stone walls, I found myself participating in the image, trying to figure out the maneuvers that had made the structure cohere. That’s a lot of the gratification here—”striving for coherence,” as Seaton, a former Atlantic editor, describes the work of walling. This is a quick read, and Seaton makes every word count, fitting a bit of Robert Frost and a lot of rock knowledge together just like he was building a . . . well, you know.

Bit by bit—which is the way with walls—my interest and knowledge deepened until what had begun as recreation morphed into a hobby job, mending other people’s walls. Eventually, I realized not only that I liked building walls, but also that I could scratch a subsistence living at it. In what probably struck friends and family as an act of lunacy, I quit my day job as an editor at this magazine and became a part-time waller.