We got some news over the weekend and, while we’re still working on the downsizing, we are starting to line up our costs for water, power, and shelter.
Here’s the big one, though: it’s time to find the property!
No, we’re not moving yet, but we wanted to get a head start so we can determine our needs, costs, and so forth. Instead of hauling everything out to the woods in, um, 23 months, we’ll start the building, etc., sometime in the next six months.
We’ve narrowed the location down to some 19 counties—don’t laugh, Missouri has a lot of them—south and west of St. Louis within about a two-hour drive.
What are we looking for, exactly? Ideally, about 35-50 acres, wooded; spring, live creek, electric to property line. Access, not landlocked. Oh, and affordable—like $50K, tops.
Believe it or not, something like this isn’t hard to find. In fact, there may be too many to choose from . . . But hey, it’s a start! Once we’re completely ready, we’ll narrow it down to a few in each area and start looking, in person.
And after we actually purchase the property, we’re going to start putting up the outbuildings and, if nothing else, will have a great place to camp over the next two years. Er, 23 months . . .
Robin Writes 
Wow, good luck with your prep-property search, Robin. That’s a really exciting project. “:) Don’t forget to look at the soils and tree types available on the properties for building materials –so it can be made productive as necessary for survival “:) –and check the history of flooding, tornadoes etc.in those counties…. Ask the old folks. Look at their gardens, see what they grow, how close the landfills are, whether there’s fracking being carried out, etc. etc. Good luck!
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Oh, trust me, I know all about flood plains! Since I wrote the post (and forgot to change it), we’ve narrowed it down further to about 10 areas and 15 or so properties. We shall see!
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Good luck with your future purchase. Keep us posted on how it goes.
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Thanks, and will do!
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Good luck! And very exciting.:)
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Thanks! And a little scary, too!
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Sounds like a great plan. You can always sleep in the “garage” while building the main abode. I know someone who did that.
MJ
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So far, from what we’ve seen, most places have no buildings – which is fine – and the ones that do, well, they’re pretty rough. We plan to tent when we move, initially, until the house is up, but we’ll have four outbuildings eventually.
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Not only talkin’ the talk, but walkin’ the walk. This all seems very exciting. Best of luck to you.
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