The Beginning

  A little over a year ago we decided to make a big change. We were tired of the rat race and desperately needed a change of pace.  It had always been a dream of mine to live on a farm in the country.  Joey and I had daydreamed about this often, but it always seemed so distant and intangible.  I think we were just scared of the change and needed a little push.  When my husband's parents bought a piece of land in the country for their retirement, they invited us to join them and build a house.  We discussed and prayed about this decision and ultimately knew this is what we wanted.  You see, we'd been working towards getting out of debt so that we could be free to help others and experience true financial freedom.  This was our opportunity to do just that.  So, we sold our house and a lot of our stuff, I quit my job and we headed to the country.

  Originally we thought we would build our house immediately.  We had some money saved and were planning to do things ourselves, so we thought it would be doable.  Well, plans change.  Joey was nervous about pouring the foundation ourselves, so we made the decision to hire someone.  Halfway through the project, we were not happy with the results and called it off.  This was a big hit to our momentum, but we got back up, brushed ourselves off and made an important decision. We decided to slow down a bit and make sure we did things right.  After all, we want to live here the rest of our lives.  We decided to purchase a used 5th wheel camper and install a septic system and a well.  While Joey's parents were more than gracious to let us stay with them after we sold our house, we needed our own space.  Also, we were still making progress because we needed a septic system and a well anyway.  We also figured if we needed money to finish the house we could just sell the camper.  This seemed like the best next step.

  After getting the camper, we discover water damage.  This was devastating, but we looked on the bright side.  I wanted to remodel it and make it our own and now this was going to force us to do it right away.  This took a lot of work during one of the hottest summers I have ever experienced.  We learned a lot about how to remodel a camper that I will have to write about in another post.  The result was a beautiful, comfortable living space.  And even though we had to spend money that we weren't planning to spend, we got such a good deal on the camper that if we wanted to sell it today we could make a little money or at least break even.

  Fast forward a few months to today, we are happy, content, and have great hope for the future.  Even though we haven't worked on the house any more, we are making progress toward our dreams. We are focusing on growing our business so we can save more money and remain debt free.  We don't have a mortgage and our bills are minimal.  We enjoy working on the property and enjoying it with family.  We will not give up on our dreams because this is just the beginning.