New home!

Another step has been taken. We purchased our future temporary home today - and 36 foot fifth wheel! It is hard to believe that we will be living in this RV for quite some time starting May 1st.

This is not the exact one, but it gives you an idea!

Lots have happened over the last month. Jason and I have decided not to build this year and wait it out, giving ourselves time to experience living in a way we have never lived before, getting to know the land, and taking the time to just enjoy our land before diving into building and investing money into it.

We also decided not to build the straw bale house we initially bought plans for. We really had to think about our priorities, needs, and wants. It came down to two things. Either we:

1. Build this larger straw bale home and have a mortgage (payments every month for quite sometime) and therefore not having the funds to become self sufficient anytime soon (solar panels are very expensive).

2. Build a small cabin type home (very small mortgage or none at all) and have the money to do the other things we hope to do during our lifetime (including traveling, saving for the girls post secondary education, saving for retirement, giving to charities, recreational activities). As well as getting to being self sufficient much more quickly.

Option two sounds much more appealing. Why do we need a big house? So what if the girls need to share a room - most kids in the world do. What is really important? Having more space per person or having the ability to do more things together and having more options?

As much as we would love to build a straw bale house, it isn't the only way to build "green"; there are so many other options. Bring "green" has so many sides. Building a smaller house that takes less material, less energy, and produces less waste is green too.

This is the plan for today. We'll see what follows...