“Things do not change; we change.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Between the two of us, Scott is the researcher. I’m pretty good at following directions, I often immerse myself in something (knitting, yogurt or bread making, chickens, goats) but if I ever want to track down the real story or the best of something, Scott’s my go-to.
It was at the point that he described what instantly became my dream property that I started to laugh inside at how different my wants and needs are today than they were a mere few years ago. No elevator. No doorman. No indoor gym, parking spot, public transit accessibility.
32 acres (!)
Trails (!!)
Building Lot cleared (!!!)
Only a few hours from the city (!!!!)
10×10 ft sleeping cabin (!!!!!!!!!!)
Yes, that’s right. I’m not missing any zeros. I’m actually staring dreamy eyed at a listing for what would put us in living accommodations the size of a small bedroom. With a babe who will be somewhere between 1-1.5 years old once we arrived.
Ten feet. By ten. Whole. Feet.
No, this wouldn’t be a long term arrangement.
Yes, it would test our resolve to live this life the way we want to.
Would it be worth it? Perhaps.
What we want is land. What we need is a place to live before we can built the house. The restrictions on what you can build vary greatly depending on the municipality that you settle on…but they usually get rather uptight about trailers, mobile homes or accommodations perhaps slightly larger than this going up before you construct the principal residence.
Oh the principal residence. Be wary of minimum size restrictions if you happen to be like me, pining for your dream home in acres, not square footage. Rachel at Off Grid Homestead lays all this out really well on her blog.
Granted the cabin is a nice to have. Yes, a nice to have. We’re costing out all season tents (that are about 2-3x the size of the adorable hand hewn nook of a cabin that’s stolen my heart), yurts…different options.
We want to be there so we can focus on the property. Not be paying a mortgage and renting someplace else until the home of our dreams is ready for us to move in.
You can keep your highrises. I’m beyond over all the amenities the city has to offer; we don’t need (or want) much, however remain anxious to find the spot that calls our name.
Calls us home.
6 Comments
Beautiful photos, and lovely to share in your excitement at a teeny tiny home! I find myself craving a small home too, one that forces us to get rid of everything we carry around with us and perhaps encourages us just to live and be.
Exactly! I’m addicted to my weekly purges. It’s so satisfying to be able to go through the kitchen cabinets that are ‘sorted’ and actually find things. Not have random pans/pots/jars/containers/etc falling out every time I need something. Less is more!
I love your blog! 🙂 I would love to have a little homestead…. my husband and i currently live in the city, in an apartment. Something in me wants to get back to the basics of providing our own food instead of beong dependant on the current food system. My hubby thinks im a bit crazy bitbhes supportive.. I want this badly and he is only slightly on board. I need him all in though. I fully realize the life I want will require a partnership and some man power. So I dream and talk with him about it. And pursue it in small ways. We try to eat organic and local and I make nearly everything from scratch. We eat a moslt whole foods diet and try not to eat out- though we arnt perfect at it but its been a year since a light bulb went off and I cleaned all the junk out of our pantry, freezer, and fridge and we are making tons of progress! This past year ive been getting rid of toxic cookware and cleaning supplies, and slowly adding skills ill need. The past few months ive been learning cheesemaking (my first hard cheese was ready yesterday but I havent tried it yet because im so nervous!! Lol!!). And on the list for this year is canning and preserving, growing some food in pots on our deck (im terrified and dont know where to begin, lol), and soapmaking! And lots of cleaning out our small apartment to size down even the small space we have. Lots to research and to plan for this year. I dont thibk land is on our radar yet, but I do search and dream of course! 🙂
Anyway, I tend to ramble when I get excited. I just wanted to say I love following newbies that came from the city because I gives me hope that it is doable! It just seems to require so move money we dont have!! Lol.
But I would love to hear about your decision to move out of the city!! Where did that dream begin, did you sit on the idea awhile, what made to finally take the leap, and what steps did you take? I want to here it all!! Beciase right now my dream seems so far away… so Id love to hear how you got where you are!! 🙂
Blessings from the states!
Hi Emily! I agree with you wholeheartedly – everyone’s got to be on board to make it work. We were just talking about that today – what if one of us had hated it out here? What if we’d never taken the plunge? It was Scott who first started talking bees and gardens and chickens way back when I was 31 floors up in a concrete jungle. Keep campaigning! 😀
I wrote a very lengthy 3 part post on the ‘interim’ blog that was set up while we really figured out what we wanted to do with this domain name/blog/idea…which is still evolving. We weren’t ready to really call ourselves farmers and Scott wasn’t sure he wanted to blog yet anyway (he assures me, one of these days he’ll write something down!) so I captured a few musings here. 🙂
http://rhubarbchampagne.com/about-me/ (all the background posts are listed on this page!)
I’ve thought about migrating these posts over now that I feel firmly attached to this new blog ‘home’…still might!
Thanks for commenting!
Hello! I follow you on Instagram and said the other day I was yet to visit your website…and now I have! I love love love it! The design is beautiful and I love the way you write, I’ll definity be back! (Oh dear, this is starting to sound like a spam comment
Not spammy at all, Sarah! 😀 Much appreciated in fact!!