The Decision to Move

It's becoming a well known fact by people in my life that my husband and I are picking up our things, our three cats, dog and horse, and moving to our recently purchased home on 20 acres in Aeneas Valley, Tonasket. Nearly every person who learns for the first time that we are moving asks "But why?" The reasons are vast and each one very important to us so I thought it deserved a blog post. 

1. Cost of Living- 

For starters, it comes down to basic math. My husband and I share one desire when it comes to house hunting - property. We wanted at least 4 acres so that I can have horses and he can ride dirt bikes. To purchase a small, decent home on a minimum of 4 acres in Kitsap County is between $300,000 and $500k. You might be lucky to find a manufactured home or something that is barely livable for $250k. The demand for property in Kitsap County is so high that each house we thought was even remotely a possibility was sold within 72 hours. Additionally, the average mortgage for a $300,000 home is around $1900 a month. That is just insane my friends! We pay less than that in rent and it would absorb about 40% of our income. In a sense, we felt forced out of Kitsap or that we would need to settle for a home with a postage stamp size lawn. No thanks

2. Population -

A second reason we both agree we want to move is the population. We both have grown up in Kitsap and think that it is beautiful here. I can see why people are flocking here, it's beautiful and there are a lot of jobs. What's not to like? For us we just get to feeling so claustrophobic. The population of Kitsap County has nearly tripled if not quadrupled since I was in high school. On weekends, if we desire to go for a hike or go camping, the parks are absolutely swarming with people. It makes the experience of being outdoors not enjoyable and quite frankly, pointless. 

3. Self-Sufficiency - 

While this next point is more my own personal goal, my husband is beginning to come around to this thought as well and see's the benefit in it. My dream since a kid has been to be self-sufficient. This means you need a lot of land for gardening, a home that is energy efficient and a place to keep livestock. The home we just purchased is wood stove burning and on a well. It doesn't have solar panels yet but we hope to put them in in the future and there is certainly plenty of sun where we will be living! Having the sunlight and land in Kitsap or any nearby counties to be able to accomplish this feat was looking close to impossible.

4. The World Is Going to Hell in a Handbasket - 

If you've read any of my previous blog posts, you know that I believe in God. I believe that the Rapture will happen eventually (know one knows the day or the hour) and until then, the tragic events that have taken place in the world are more than likely going to become more frequent. Whether you have religious beliefs or not, I think we can all agree that the world is going mad. And while I know full well you can't run from it always, and in fact I think it would be almost unBiblical TO run from it, we wanted a "safe" place that was away from the city and large enough to accommodation our families if it ever came to that. 

5. Lifestyle Change - 

All my other points have touched on this but we both really want a lifestyle change. One that values outdoor activities, gardening, self-sufficiency and a better mental state. Currently I work 40 hours a week sitting at a desk. I love my job and I love my clients but I don't really consider this the way we were created to live. My husband on the other hand has a very physically active job but it requires him to work 50 to 70 hours a week which again, is hardly living. We believe in the "we work to live, not live to work" mentality. 

6. Being Smart with the Future -

We are all supposed to be planning our retirement smartly from a young age and so  few of us do. Well I am one of those people trying to be smart about my retirement and let me tell you, it's a daunting  task! We have a retirement fund which is great, but having a house payment on a $500,000 home until we are 60 is not part of a well planned out retirement plan which is what would happen if we purchased an expensive home. The home we just purchased was sold to us for $140,000. We plan to have it paid off by the time we are 40. This means that from age 40 to our desired retirement age of 55, we can be pocketing that extra money that would usually go to a mortgage, and put it towards more retirement funds or whatever else is necessary at the time. 

Secondly, the small mortgage on our recently purchased home allows for one of us to not work if for some reason we couldn't. I often worry that my cardiac/pulmonary issues will deteriorate to the part where I cannot work. Our small mortgage will allow for us to, if absolutely necessary, get by on one person's income. This is extremely reassuring on so many levels!

This just about sums all our thoughts up. Our final decision to purchase a home 6 hours away from our families, out in the middle of nowhere, has been terrifying. But we put a lot of thought (years of thought) into it and ultimately concluded that the pros out weighed the cons, and that if all else fails, we can move back and turn out cozy cabin into a money making Airbnb. We feel it is unfortunate that Ktisap County has become so unwelcoming to people who are not wealthy. We consider it home and honestly would probably stay if there was any way it was affordable. However the landscape in Okanogan County is glorious and the weather is (in our opinion) far better, they actually get 4 season! We are so excited to start our journey. 

We did not pick Okanogan County for any particular reason, we were willing to go anywhere in Washington state that had the home we were looking for with enough job prospects to be satisfied. Our initial hope had been Spokane or Eldersburg but alas, our house hunting brought us to lil old Tonasket.

Stay tuned as we dive into our projects and homestead life. 

L