We have some exciting news to share: We have moved!
We have been contemplating this change for a little while. We decided that we wanted to expand our businesses and homesteading adventures and wanted a bit more acreage to accomplish this task. Here's our story.
We had been discussing the future for a while but didn't really take any steps to make it happen. We perused the typical home sites but never took any major steps. Until, the day that we found a large property that had two houses on it with a shared driveway. We knew that my brother and his family were looking to move and build a house so why wouldn't they want to be our neighbors?! This property sold before we even had a chance to look at it but it was the kick-in-the-pants that we needed to take this idea seriously.
We consulted a realtor and discussed our options. We were very specific in what we wanted and it didn't exactly fit the "norm". We wanted the land. We had experience fixing up the cosmetic and some medium-skill level portions of homes in the past and felt comfortable with a fixer-upper as long as the land and the outdoor structures fit our needs. Apparently, this was more difficult to find our current market than we had anticipated. In addition, my brother and his family couldn't wait around forever on us to find something together and made their own plans to build their dream home, thus removing our collective buying power.
We found a farm with more acreage that we were considering (almost 100 acres) and above our price range. After touring the property, I loved it and the hubby could see the potential. We knew it would be a financial stretch. We began negotiations and listed our current home to show the sellers that we were serious. Our house sold..... but the farm sellers took a cash offer from investors instead.
We found ourselves in a bind. We were back to square one and now we had a timeline. Our realtor was great! She maintained a positive attitude and never gave up in this difficult market. We agreed to visit a property that on paper really didn't fit what we were looking for except that it had the actual acreage. I was straight off of an evening shift at the hospital, tired and grumpy. I barely gave it a chance. The hubby saw what I didn't and fell in love. It took a bit of convincing but I came around and I'm glad that I did. We are now officially moved to our new home which turned out to be a better fit for us!
Lessons learned:
1. Be prepared to be open-minded to your wants for a home.
I was sold on the idea of a fixer-upper home with the infrastructure on a property. I felt that we could fix the house over time but that the fencing, buildings, etc., must be in place to ensure future success.
Instead, the house is pretty spectacular with only one thing for us to really fix. The land was mostly used for hay and hunting but otherwise a blank slate. The lack of buildings and fencing is less of an issue with a huge basement for the hubby's work space, a lower buying price to give us the flexibility to build the barn, and adjusting our methods after further research to those that will better fit the land.
2. It is much more difficult to move a family of 6 and the animals and two businesses and the homestead equipment and...
This wasn't our first move. Our families had joked the last time that they were no longer assisting in our moves again. They did help us but with an increased amount of joking about how this was the LAST time that they will help us to move. At least I think they were joking....
Our kids are older this time and we didn't have the baby items and the nap/feeding schedules that we had to deal with in the past. I actually believed that this move would be easier. I was wrong. It was exhausting!
3. We couldn't do it without the help of family and friends.
I packed some things prior to moving day but not all the things. I took a lot of things to charity stores but not as much as I should have done. Our crews picked up the slack and all for the payment of a simple "thank you" and some food.
4. It is not impossible to move furniture up a circular stairway, but it is interesting.
5. Finding the silverware is an exciting event when you have been using plastic for a week.
I don't think that others appreciated the excitement that exuded through the house when we finally found these basic household items. It was the highlight of the day!
I once read that most millionaires have at least eight sources of income. I don't know if this is true but it reinforced the idea of not being reliant on only one way to take care of our daily needs. We need to continue to expand our sources of income, our skills and our knowledge. This move will help us to do that.
We do not want our outlook on life to be dominated by the decrees, edicts, mandates or other declarations by government officials. We learned in 2020 that even a "safe" career like healthcare can be unpredictable when your income plummets amid a pandemic. We want to create a buffer for ourselves in a world of financial uncertainty. We are not naïve enough to believe that those outside forces will never have an impact on us, but we are working hard to minimize it.
We don't have it all figured out. We know that we will fail at some things, maybe even most things. We want to share these successes and failures with our children. We want to learn these skills side-by-side with our kids. We want them to know that they do not have to have all of the answers to create a successful and happy life. We also want to demonstrate to our children that you don't have to follow the path of others and inspire them to make their own choices, even if they seem weird, unconventional or outrageous to the "normal" world.
Are you making any changes in your life? If so, we would love to hear about them.