This little camp of ours

A year after purchasing our project (a CBS house with all rough inspections passed and about 80% complete), I got the idea that we needed to move, sooner rather than later, if we wanted the project to move along toward completion at a more steady pace.

400-mile weekend trips to spend a single day working on a project, which we never had enough time to finish, was exhausting and inefficient.

Worst of all, halfway through 2021, I got the sense that there was a lot I wasn't doing because I was waiting. Waiting for the house to be done so we could move, so we could start homesteading, so we could start spending more time with our kids and give them more freedom and space to explore.

We were in New York City for our son's 5th birthday, the five of us in a tight NYC hotel room when the idea solidified. If we could do that, we could do life in a camper!

We got advice not to. To wait. To rent a house, instead. To live with my parents, who already had a home in the area. But I was determined this was the best alternative. It would avoid the stress of two marriages set in their respective ways living in a single household. Also, in the short term, it was the most affordable because it would free up a lot of our housing budget to use on the house that was clearly going to go over budget (thank you Covid for the price of a 4x4 wood post going all the way up to $16!). So in late November 2021, we left our beautiful home in Cutler Bay (which we had also gutted and redone with a lot of help from my dad) and the yard our kids knew and loved for 10 acres near the springs in Suwannee County.

Again, with dad's help, we got electricity and a light post up (the house already had a well!) and started the adventure. For at least the first four months the kids thought we were on vacation! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that their playroom now resided in a tent next door to the camper. Maybe it was the fact that our backyard, at least to suburban folks, looked more like a forest. Maybe it was that they got to do fun things, like ride the ATV around to do chores, work on the house, and pick up the mail.

Nick and I knew, all too well, that we were not on vacation. The reality of living in such a tight space was shocking to a U.S. family of five that is fairly privileged. There were bugs, quickly-filling gray and black water tanks that needed emptying, and a tiny fridge that required restocking every three days, to contend with. Oh yeah, and I am senior counsel for an education company, so a lot of my days are spent in meetings and the same small dining table that the kids needed to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks was what served as a desk for me to take calls from. As my husband had warned me, life was a lot harder than I was really fully prepared for and stress was high!

Even worse, I often still found myself waiting for the house to be done so we could start our homestead and enjoy the kids. It got so bad that, at one point, I gave up. We moved into my parents' house from about May through the end of September this year.

Then, just a month short of the anniversary of our move, I woke up. What was this waiting? This is it. This is our life. I have to live it! So we're back at the camper now. Homeschooling in the mornings before work, part of a homeschool co-op so the kids can enjoy the company of other kiddos and experience other teachers, and working on our homestead (starting or continuing with the house first) slowly, patiently, and with love. One step at a time while enjoying daily life.