Job Change Means Hurry Up!

I had been worrying about the job still being in the small town we lived in that was an hour from the new location, but since I work for the post office, transfers are possible but not always available.  The position that I worked in was actually considered a temporary position so I was considered "non-career" even though I ran the office and was as temporary as could be.  Just as things were gearing up at the new property this year, I got a call from a central hub office offering me a career position 12 minutes from our new property.  If I turned it down now, I may not get anything close for a long time or ever.  It would also be a pay raise and offer the benefits I haven't been able to get due to being non-career. What could I do but take it?  I would have to commute for a little while but soon it would be close by again. I told my husband I didn't want to wait for the metal building which is still in process at the plant and since it was spring, I don't think we would have to battle pipes freezing or any of his initial concerns so we agreed that once we get the camper in, we would go ahead and move in.  We are close to being ready and only waiting on electricity to go in but when I finally put the order in, the guy was on vacation for 10 days (yes the only guy they have).  My husband couldn't believe that once again I got a job so close by but for now I would have a nice long commute just like my husband.

Where Does Our Stuff Go While Living In A Camper?

A storage unit is not very big and it isn't very cheap.  We would eventually have a large metal building but we didn't want to have to work around a lot of stuff while building.  Much of the furniture I started selling off and some still needs to be sold. If I am not attached or love it, I will be letting it go and much of it was left to us and is due for replacing anyhow.  However, we still needed a place for what we wanted to keep but we really didn't want to pay monthly for a small storage unit. So, we decided that most of our stuff would go in a metal storage container that we would buy.  The shipping cost the most but we didn't have the option of picking it up so we paid $1300 for the container and $700 for freight, but now we had a large, lockable 40'x8'x(I am not sure how tall but it is tall) storage container that we could use in the future.  We wanted it hidden on the side of the barn but of course it rained for the entire weekend before it was supposed to be delivered and it was slick everywhere.  Luckily the man who was putting in our septic and water lines was there with heavy equipment because he was at least able to guide the delivery guy to a location that was not in the middle of the driveway and then pull him out because he was certain to get somewhat stuck. I was really stressing for a little bit! Now we have a large metal container in not a very good location but it functions for now and we will get someone with equipment to move it later.

In addition, I thought of my kids and their toys as well as some other things that we want to be able to pull in and out more.  The metal container kind of needed to be packed in tight to allow for optimum storage use.  Luckily, we have the old barn and my daughter had already started making a stall into her club house.  We found the stall had a door and sort of a window that propped open and even a concrete floor.  We used totes and old chests we had that I was going to get rid of to store toys and set them up a "play room".  Things like our kayaks went into the hay storage area above the barn.  We can pull up my husband's truck to the opening and my son and him can move them pretty easily in and out. I know this won't be the end of the storage issues but I feel like we have pretty good plans so far.

 Door, "window" and "playroom" pictured.

Water and Waste

We are lucky to have options when it came to septic versus sewage and well versus city water, but it still doesn't make things easy sometime.  We had this old well with an above ground pump that we knew nothing about so after much debate, we decided to start with it to see if it was even a viable resource.

We called out a well company to see if they could determine if it would work for our needs.  They came with a generator (no electricity on site yet) and a pump.  However, they should have been able to pull out the piping but it wouldn't budge.  They tried to pry it out and it snapped.  They offered another option but it would be costly and would likely ruin the well.  The well guys said a new well would likely cost about $5k but that didn't include piping it to the new house.  Our water in the end could cost us close to $10,000 and that was just too much.  We called the water company and affirmed that there was a water tap already on site and we would just have to run lines.  It would be expensive due to the location we wanted the house, but much lower than a well.  This route cost us 1/10th of the possible cost of the well.  We were also told the city water was actually a treated spring and supposedly was some of the best city water around (we will see).  The person we hired to do our water lines (a friend's family member) also installed a tap for our camper at a pretty low cost.

Then, we had to decide sewer and septic.  There was a $3500 sewer tap already on site but we were told by multiple people that sewer prices were quite costly in that area and required its own electrical feed from the power lines.  Then, we would have to run lines that long distance like we did the water. However, since we were far enough back from the road, we could go with a septic as long as the site perked.  However, at $500 for the permit, it was a bit of a gamble that could lead to us still going back to sewer with $500 less to spend.  In the end, we went ahead and got the septic permit which had zero problems and the drainfield was approved in a location that would save us quite a bit.  The same guy who did the water lines also did the septic and since our son was dating his niece, he was very reasonable.  It cost us about $5000 for water, septic and the water yard faucet for our camper to tie into.

All we need is electricity for the camper to be functional.

Land to Live on

We have different views on importance for what our land features were. My husband wanted plenty of land, the more the better and to be isolated somewhat.  I wanted flatter land (trying to commute off a mountain in snow isn't easy), to be in a good vicinity of a grocery store, access to high speed internet (we homeschool, it's important), and I really wanted cheap.  Somehow we found the perfect land which didn't tick off all those checkboxes but it made everyone happy.

There was land within 30 minutes of DH's work with an old barn and a for sale by owner sign on the land that we had seen for years.  It was 3 parcels that amounted to over 100 acres, which we knew would be pricy for the entire sum.  We talked about calling just to see what the prices were but really kept talking ourselves out of it because it had sat for a while and it must be expensive.  Finally, thought, one day I called while we drove by and found out that the price wasn't ridiculous for the parcel we liked which was in the middle, cleared, had a driveway, a barn, an old well, and because there was once a mobile home at the road, there was already a water hookup to city water and a sewer hook up.  This land had a lot of potential and even had road frontage that could later be profitable for a business of our own or to sell, while we could build way back off the road.  There was also a beautiful mountain view.

We were able to purchase it with income from the sell of the rental property and due to an inheritance from the very unfortunate loss of my sister.  We did have to finance some of the land purchase but we hope that will be paid off quickly and will be the only debt from this endeavor.

Picking the Camper

I really questioned if we could actually live in a camper without killing each other even if we had additional space in a metal building shell.  We probably jumped the gun by getting the camper before almost anything but I really needed the reassurance of the possibility.  We looked at quite a few that wouldn't really sleep 3 children very well or give us much for storage.  Most also meant lounging would always be at a dinette which lacked appeal significantly.

My husband and I on a date night with nothing else to really do, ventured over to a far away RV store that was extremely large and had a large expanse of used campers.  There was one RV we kept asking to see but it was closed up (the slides were in and battery was dead) and it was far from a plug in, etc.  We looked at all the other possibilities on the lot with no avail.  Finally when we described what we wanted, a sales guy ran back to the office for a bit to search for what we wanted.  He came back with a portable energy source and went to the very RV we kept asking about.  It was perfect!

It is a fifth wheel with multiple slideouts and it is used so we could save some money.

There was a combo couch and eating area that has a removeable table and a comfortable chair which ended up being upgraded to a small recliner because someone removed the chair in the picture.  It was the best "living room" we found.

This is what makes the camper amazing.  There are two bunks on each side, separated by a half bath.  An extra bathroom and basically 2 bedrooms beyond the master bedroom makes this a lot easier for a teenager with 2 younger siblings.  There are drawers under the bottom bunk and a closet between them.  We found nothing else close to this layout.

 The master was pretty spacious and was more of a bedroom than just a space like many other campers were.  The storage was amazing on this camper with so many drawers and cabinets, we could actually function!


It was so perfect we hesitated to walk away and wait.  We decided to just discuss the options but we kept saying we were going to wait in the end.  Finally, the dropped the RV price by $10k, threw in a $3k hitch installed for my husband, promised to fix a couple items, and put in the nice recliner (not pictured).  I guess that shows how much markup they have.  We conceded which did meant we had to store it for a little bit but it did give me peace of mind.

It Starts with a Decision

For just short of 11 years, my husband (DH) was an electrician in the oilfield.  Recruited at the end of his Naval Service as a Nuclear Engineer Electrician, he found a lucrative career was available that allowed us to live a very comfortable life.  We finally decided to spring for the dream house about 3 years ago and were living a great life in the mountains of TN.  I was a homeschooling stay at home mother actively involved in volunteering and other activities and my husband worked half the year making six figures.  However, as the oil in other countries surged and oil prices dropped, we began to see the industry take a major downturn and layoffs of entire crews began to ensue.  We decided that we could wait for the rug to be pulled from under our feet or we could get ahead of the situation and make significant life changes.  These were the decisions we made:

1. I would get a part time job.  Homeschooling had really improved our oldest child's education outlook and we hated for him to go backward (he went to public school until 5th grade and really struggled) so I wanted to continue for his benefit and the benefit of the other 2 children.  I hoped I could find something that I could still continue teaching them but help with the income deficit we were facing.  We lived in a very small town with very few possibilities for income but I had the thought of the little post office suddenly one day and wondered if there was a chance they could be hiring.  I searched and they weren't.  That search however caused me to be notified 2 days later when the job for the clerk in that office was posted.  After taking tests, interviews and all, I was awarded the position which was certainly the best paying job in the area and only had a 5 minute commute.

2. DH would look for a position with a particular income we figured he needed for us to sustain.  We knew he had to go toward one of the nearby cities for that level which meant a commute or move. He got the position with the income level we needed but the commute would be rough.

3. We would sell timber from the land around our home and the land at our rental property. If you have a large amount of land with timber, you can always ask for some timber companies to peruse the land and give you an estimate of what they think it is worth.  You do not have to do a clear cut and we can hardly tell that anything is missing except we have some small clear areas and we have trails we didn't have before which was an asset.  The timber sale would give us some money to pay down some debts to help us financially and later money we needed to move.  We were worried about the taxes we would pay on this income but we set aside a lump sum for a while.

4. After getting income from the rental property's timber, we would sell the rental property we had because it was more of an expense than income and we would get our equity and 20% down payment back out of it.  By sheer miracle, the loss we ended up with from depreciation, maintenance and more, offset the income enough from the timber sale. We ended up with a tax refund rather than payment. 

5. We would move.  We weren't sure exactly where or how other than closer to DH's work but he doesn't do "city life", it seems to kill his soul after having grown up in the forests and mountains of Washington State and being a very outdoorsy guy.  I was willing to take much less of a home, but it still was hard to completely give up a lovely spacious cabin for a home like the ones we kept seeing for sale.  We really saw no possibilities.  I kept asking my husband if we could build a home.  He grew up helping his father build houses and he has such an engineer-type mind.  Finally, after seeing most of what was for sale all around us (and being very disappointed), he proposed that we could buy land, live in a camper while building.  He would have a large nice metal building shell constructed that the camper could be parked in.  The back part of the building would still be a shop and garage while the front would be converted to a cool living space for our whole family.  I wasn't sure until I did some good pinterest digging and found some cool homes that had plenty of potential, so I agreed.  We would get to a certain point and put our house on the market to free up more income and funds from equity.  Also, we would do as much as we could out of pocket to hopefully increase the room in our budget tremendously.  

So this is where we have come, building a home ourselves, living in a camper with 3 children and trying to not do a restrictive construction loan that would put us on a time schedule and in a standard mortgage.

Here is a link to see more about metal building homes: 

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/metal-building-homes/