DH's last day was Friday

[enfp]

I've been a lurker for a while. I thought I'd introduce myself. DH and I are 40 and have a 7 and 4 yr. old that we homeschool. We are simple livers, or how ever you would say that. OK fine, call us cheap. We don't care

Dh's last day was friday. It'll take some getting used to, but we have a lot of house projects to finally complete before we can sell, and a new community to find and land to buy and a sustainable, natural (read cheap and green) house to build, and 2 kids to rear, so I think we'll have our hands full and keep ourselves busy. I think it'll be about a 2 year transition time, which I'm not thrilled about, but probably not a bad thing in this housing market.

I don't really have any questions, I just wanted to delurk and say hi now that we're officially ER. I should say my DH doesn't like the word retire for us because that seems to imply a lot of money and the ability to do whatever you want. ( And everyone gave him a hard time ((meaning lots of questions and not much comprehension)) at work when he used to word.) We are doing this on the cheap to get out of a time consuming career and be able to live our lives with our children for the short time they are under our care. (ANd yes, we've got the spreadsheet from hell and the spreadsheet guru to get us through. DH was in budgeting and we've been planning this for 10 years, though it's seen several changes along the way.)

Thanks for the wonderful forum. I've enjoyed all the reading about others.

 

[Niko]

Congrats. Hopefully I'll be there as well when I hit 40.

 

[Martha]

Keep us up to date on how it goes! What part of the country are you looking at to build?

 

[bssc]

Hi and welcome

Thanks for delurking and let us know how it goes. We use the terms, frugal, thrifty and conscientious spenders

 

[growing_older]

Congratulations. Kids are only these ages once, and it goes past fast. Enjoy.

 

[kumquat]

Well done! You beat me by 18 years.

 

[enfp]

we are looking in South Georgia and Ky around Berea/lexington. We are looking for land that is 3k or less. We want to stay in the southeast for weather and access to family. We did consider Asheville, but likely too expensive and in danger of overdevelopment. We need a homeschooling community and a catholic church within 20 miles. A college or university close by would also be nice. And we need no enforced building codes or inspectors friendly to alternative building.

 

[Twinkle Toes]

we are looking in South Georgia and Ky around Berea/lexington. We are looking for land that is 3k or less. We want to stay in the southeast for weather and access to family. We did consider Asheville, but likely too expensive and in danger of overdevelopment. We need a homeschooling community and a catholic church within 20 miles. A college or university close by would also be nice. And we need no enforced building codes or inspectors friendly to alternative building.

Welcome to the board! What type of alternative building are you planning?

 

[papadad111]

Would love to do the same. Congratulations

Curious how large your "war-chest" is?

And is part time work after the house updates/sale/move out of the question for you or DW?

 

[enfp]

We are looking at building a cob or earthbag house, off the grid with solar. Straw bale is the most popular natural house, but it doesn't do to well in high humidity. We want to spend under 60k on land and around 30k on the house.

My DH is concerned about what I share on the web, so I won't be specific, but we are doing this on much less than the 500k that many people said wasn't enough for another poster. We are willing to live on very little, but still comfortably to have our freedom. We are very frugal. In fact reading the thread about "what won't you scrimp on?" made me realize that there's not much on which I won't scrimp.

No, part time work isn't out of the question one day if we need it for extra cash or group health insurance for some reason. I am hoping that eventually I will earn some money writing, but I'm glad I don't have to depend on it. We can get by according to the spreadsheet if we keep our expenses in line and get close to what we want for the house. According to DH the first six years are the most crucial. we'll see how we do.

 

[Sarah in SC]

ENFP, welcome! And hey, don't rule out SC for that alternative house--I was the general contractor on our house, which admittedly was stick-built, but I think you may find some communities where they'll be tolerant.

One of the things I did to cut our costs on the conventional house is get salvaged stuff from houses being torn down, which would be harder to do in an alternative plan. And don't forget timber--if you buy land and mill the logs, you can make a handsome log home like our friends who live on the bucolic Edisto River with no mortgage. They also used geothermal (water) heating and a wood stove.

Welcome and glad you joined this ISTJ and INTJ laden crowd to give us some diversity!

And congrats on homeschooling, what a wonderful commitment to your kids--we have many homeschoolers in our area and we were delighted that a homeschooler was just put in the top education post in SC--very forward-thinking indeed!


Sarah

 

[enfp]

Sarah,

We haven't completely ruled out SC. I don't think we could get close to Chas. because of land prices. My brother said they know people have had to go out to Cottageville to get affordable land. (I remember going to Girl Scout camp out there) I went to clemson, so maybe something up that way.

I plan on doing salvage for whatever I can. I'm excited about that. We haven't made a firm decision on the type of house yet. I'll be narrowing that down while DH finished the house repairs that are needed. And we could decide on timber. I've seen some nice owner built ones. You can buy a thingee to go on the end of the chainsaw to mill it.

We love homeschooling. Now that DH is done, we are ALL free. It's amazing.

My DH is an INTJ, and he keeps asking me why I'm always on the computer reading this forum. He isn't the slightest bit interested. Go figure.

 

[Puzzley]

ENFP, Central KY is a great choice, in my opinion, but then I live there. I will say that if you're looking for land that is less than 3k an acre, the farther from Lexington and the closer to Berea you get, the more likely it is for you to find acreage in that range. Land around Lexington is generally very dear, due to the horse industry.......

 

[Gazingus]

Your house plan sounds very interesting. DW and I have a well-insulated metal building on our farm and we have begun a small apartment inside. We have our own water well and I would like to get enough solar to pump it. Wood stove will be our only heat. Being in Texas, we will have to have a small A/C for sleeping. I haven't read Mother Earth News in years, is that a resource for you?

 

[enfp]

Absolutely. It really was one of the main things that moved us along this path. DH always wanted to have a sustainable house, but I had to see all the info in Mother Earth News before I could say "we can do this". Give us a couple of years, and you'll see us in one of their first person accounts.

I am considering something like this for AC as we will need it as well. Free Home Air Conditioning! - Save Money on Air Conditioning Bills