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Our 2022 Goals
2022 is shaping up to be a completely crazy year for our family and our home! What a journey we have ahead of us!
– Purchasing and customizing our house plan
We have finally settled on a house plan that will work for all of us. It’s large enough that Grammie and Pops can comfortably live in their own section of the house. It’s a modern Craftsman style, which I’m not super crazy about. Thankfully Dear Friend knows how to walk back the modern look and get it feeling a bit more classical. There is space for lots of kids AND room for Husbando to have an office! We’re very excited to purchase the plans and begin the customization process. This is honestly one of the easiest ones of our homestead goals. It’s always good to start off with something easy!
Our Homestead Goals for Utilities
– Dig and Install Water Well
– Install Septic System
– Having electricity brought onto the property
Completing basic land prep is a must. Grammie and Pops cannot move onto the property without it. The well has to be dug, the septic system installed, and electricity pulled from the closest box. Finishing these steps must be done before the barn can go up. Weather permitting, this stuff will happen in April but these are crucial pieces of our homestead goals this year.
– Husbando and I packing a bunch of stuff to take out to South Dakota in Spring
This is an ongoing project and has been for about six months. We’re using a staged method of moving. This means I’m taking down small things like knick-nacks. The focus is on making sure they’re ready to go into storage when we move Grammie and Pops out in the spring. It’s easier to do it this way than it is to move all our things into the Big House. If I do that I’ll have to pack and move them a second time.
– Grammie and Pops making the move to South Dakota
– Husbando and I moving Grammie and Pops out to South Dakota
Two items in this section because, while they are a part of the same basic step, they have very different requirements. Getting Grammie and Pops ready to move to South Dakota involves helping them downsize and figure out what will fit with them in the motor home. Right now, the motor home is going through some refurbishing, and then when it gets back we have to pack it all up and get it ready to go.
Once all that is done, Husbando and I get to pull our things out of our attic and pack them in Pop’s pickup truck and Grammie’s car. We then are renting a car trailer, loading up Grammie’s car, and hauling all of it out to South Dakota behind the motor home! It’ll be a whirlwind trip with us unloading everything into our storage unit, dropping off the vehicles with Grammie and Pop, and grabbing a rental car to come home.
– Getting the house here in the PNW ready to go for my sister and her husband
My sister and her husband will be taking over responsibility for the property here in the PNW once we’re all out of here. Husbando and I are the overseers of any repairs. Even though we’ve hired contractors to complete most of the work, we will still be responsible for getting the rooms ready.
– Getting the house plans approved by the county
The preliminary steps here have been done making this one of our homestead goals much easier. We checked with the county to make sure the plans and customization changes we wanted to make would run afoul of any ordinances. There’s no point paying for special building plans if you can’t get the permits to build them after all. However, the county must officially approve them before we can get permits and begin building. It’s not a HUGE priority as we don’t intend to begin construction this year, but it is still definitely up there.
– Figuring out when we’ll be able to begin construction and creating a construction plan
After the plans are approved by the county, we need to sit down and create a construction plan. We already know finances will greatly affect when we begin and how we continue construction, however, we also know there are time limits on how long we can take to build once we start the process. There are a lot of little steps making this one of our homestead goals tricky. Dear Friend has suggested that we start by just laying the concrete pad for our basement this year and it cure until we’re ready to get started. This may be the route we decide to go.
– Packing up everything else we own so it’s ready to go into storage
The things that aren’t already in the storage unit will need to be packed up. We’re ‘switching places’ with my sister and her husband. As they move into the Big House, we are moving into the trailer Grammie and Pop have given them to live in. Whatever won’t fit in there will have to go into storage when we get back to South Dakota. Timing is everything for this one of our homestead goals.
– Making sure Grammie and Pops’ stuff is safely packed up to be moved
At the moment Grammie is planning to come out to oversee this as well, but professional movers are being hired to handle packing up Grammie and Pops’ furniture and everything else that isn’t already in storage.
– Saying Goodbye to our friends and loved ones here and making the move out to South Dakota ourselves.
Saying goodbye is always the hardest part of moving away. We are leaving behind friends that are like family and actual family. It hurts my heart to know we’ll be moving away from my nephew. He is a light in our lives and I appreciate so much how hard my sister-in-law works to make sure that he knows who every member of his family is. She and my brother have made a book with everyone’s names and pictures and it is one of his favorite books! You can tell they read it with him often because he recognizes all of our faces as soon as he sees us in person. It is a gift that we will be sure to repay with our own children someday.
And lots of other little things in-between that take up time and energy. The goats, chickens, and ducks are still going to be here with us and still require lots of energy. Plus, we’re hoping and praying that in the midst of all this upheaval we’ll finally be blessed with a baby. It’s a time of big, exciting changes. But our homestead goals this year are pretty big, and pretty crazy.
But. We are so excited.
We are ready. And I’m looking forward to sharing all of it with you!
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Grammie here. I love seeing the future through your eyes! It helps me look forward instead of dreading it.