Just you and your wife I imagine you could put together a 200 sq foot shack/home fairly easy. 10X10 bedroom/living area. The rest broken up into bathroom and kitchen.
For example:
Simplify and get rid of excess stuff. (maybe make a few bucks)
Head south and set up camp. (got tents and plenty of gear)
Get water and electric running. (now at edge of lot line.)
Find work. (I really don't think this will be a problem, we work hard and have skills)
Plant a garden
Build a small cabin. (with money we don't have yet before snow falls)
Build a house for ourselves, do metalwork, pottery and weaving for sale and trade with work on the side.
I think it can work but I might be missing something. I could use some advice. Thanks.
Any opinions?
Our summers down here in TN have been brutal lately... and the mosquitoes... D’oh !
Before moving out of your current home, I'd think you ought to have a proper roof over your head ready at your new destination.
Garden - needs advice ping
Buy firearms and ammo.
You can often find cheap used building supplies at Habitat for Humanity Restore locations.
http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/restore_detail.aspx?place=83
Sounds like you’re both OK with it, and actually might enjoy it, so no problems there.
Setting yourself up for WTSHTF but being dependent upon electricity is a weak spot.
You may want to investigate what the jurisdiction over this property might have to say about your plans and living arrangements, too. Digging a privvy isn’t going to fly in many places.
Other than that, it might be a good idea to have employment there before you make the leap.
You are smart. I think you have a little time to build a house there before you move, though. Maybe a year. Don’t stress yourself out getting everything ready at once.
You are jumping the gun.
Why live in such third world conditions in the U.S. when you can move to a third world country and live in much better conditions compared to how you plan to live in the U.S.?
I don’t have any advice, just to wish you and your lovely lady the very best of the Lord’s blessings. Take care and stay blessed.
Better to stay where you are, arm yourselves, and WTSHTF take what you need from all those liberal college types, who’ll be running around waving their little spaghetti arms begging you for protection.
“o down south, pitch a camp and dig a privy then go forth to find work. We will be planting a garden and trying to get a small cabin weathered in before winter. I want to build a home as we earn the cash money to buy materials and do this without a mortgage.”
Check your state and county codes....be sure you can build on your land, or at least camp on it. Here, we can only camp for less than 6mos of the year and a septic tank runs about 20 grand, if you can get it.
Just you and your wife I imagine you could put together a 200 sq foot shack/home fairly easy. 10X10 bedroom/living area. The rest broken up into bathroom and kitchen.
For example:
What is the plan B if you can't build a cabin before snow falls? I've seen cabins built within a week, but with 10-15 people working. You two may not have enough manpower to work with heavy materials, and not enough experience to organize the work optimally. I also read that you plan to work for someone else during this time...
Could it be that a trailer instead of a cabin is a better solution, especially if you rent it? You'd need a good deal of money, and a year, to build a permanent house. I don't know what prices in TN might be, but in CA you probably need $200,000 to have just bare necessities - foundation, walls, roof, water, septic, and likely some driveway.
This is a standard problem with land - it costs so little exactly because you need to pour plenty of cash into it before it becomes usable. I know people who, instead of ordering the house built, decided to build one themselves. It took them at least 20 years to get to some semblance of completeness, and by then pieces of it started falling off. To find out what costs you will be facing you need to talk to a local architect (since you can't build anything anyway without plans prepared and signed by a licensed architect.) Also you'll need to research the soil at the lot because the foundation has to be built accordingly, and in some places you can't get a permit without such a research. You also need to have water investigated, because a well is probably your only source of water. Test the water sample in a lab for chemical and biological contaminants.
Another option, of course, is to just buy land with some house on it, already built. This will cost you more, but you take no risk on construction. This depends on getting a mortgage, which might be tough these days, considering that you will need a new job when 10% are unemployed...
If you need affirmation from someone else, you may find it very lonely when the reality sets in.
I wish you the best of luck, whatever your decision.
Find the work FIRST.
Rural life is "neat" because there aren't any people around to bother you.
But, at the same time, because there aren't any people around, there is much less opportunity for economic activity - in really rural places, there aren't any other people at all with whom you can engage in commerce.
She is 30... Her parents have told us they admire our courage and want to know when to expect grandchildren. ( Sorry gonna have to wait Mom )
Start making the babies NOW.
In just a few short years [like as early as when she turns 35], her womb will start going barren, and the window of opportunity will be lost forever.
At this point, EVERYTHING has to be subservient to the making of babies.
Parts of Tennessee experience tornadoes. Be sure to check out the area where you plan on settling so you don’t wind up in Kansas.
She was a level-headed dancer on the road to alcohol
And I was just a soldier on my way to Montreal
Well she pressed her chest against me
About the time the juke box broke
Yeah, she gave me a peck on the back of the neck
And these are the words she spoke
[Chorus:]
Blow up your TV throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own
Well, I sat there at the table and I acted real naive
For I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve
Well, she danced around the bar room and she did the hoochy-coo
Yeah she sang her song all night long, tellin’ me what to do
[Chorus]
Well, I was young and hungry and about to leave that place
When just as I was leavin’, well she looked me in the face
I said “You must know the answer.”
“She said, “No but I’ll give it a try.”
And to this very day we’ve been livin’ our way
And here is the reason why
We blew up our TV threw away our paper
Went to the country, built us a home
Had a lot of children, fed ‘em on peaches
They all found Jesus on their own!
John Prine
Stay at work another month or so and buy whatever junker trailer or motor home that you can get away with parking on your lot for a year or two.
There are plenty of old beat up motor homes (even if you have to tow it to your lot) and trailers that would go for next to nothing (and are worth about that much), the advantage is that they already are set up as a glorified shack with a propane stove and sleeping quarters and such.
That and one or two of those tent like temporary carports will give you working and storage space out of the rain.
If you do use a tent, put it under one of those $160.00 carports and it will make the living much easier, you will have a dry tent and plenty of spillover room for cooking, sitting and working, and keeping your stuff dry.