Higher Octave: Homesteading Simply

Counting the costs is the critical process of creating a budget from our homestead features list. This budget can help us avoid the risks of overpaying for a property and skyrocketing expenses.

In the previous episode we discussed our core values and homestead features list. While looking for an image for that blog post, I came across an article that may prove helpful in defining our personal core values: Define Your Personal Core Values: 5 Steps. Check it out.

See notes below.

Starting Our Budget

A spreadsheet (like Excel) should become your best friend. Begin by copying your homestead features list into the spreadsheet. You can simplify the spreadsheet building process by downloading this Free Construction Project Management Templet. It may also give you additional things you hadn’t considered. Your features list has now become the outline for your budget within Excel.

Two Things to Consider

* Add 30% to the bottom line of your projected costs to cover the unexpected. This may even need to be 40 or 50 percent for the inexperienced. We don’t know what we don’t know. We must take that into account.

* Don’t forget to include sales or value added tax to your costs.

Counting the Costs of Time & Intangibles

Time is our most precious commodity. Our options for purchasing a homestead range from raw, undeveloped land to a complete, turn-key solution. Consider a finished homestead. This can save us years of time. It can also save money in the long run, even if your up-front costs are greater. Consider farm estate sales and ex-homesteader properties. Building a house from scratch comes with many frustrations:

* Permits & inspections

* Contractors not showing up – even more so in rural areas

* Injuries

* Cost overages

* Missed deadlines

* Dirt & mess

Counting the Costs of Capital

If a potential property has most of the features on your list, you know the costs up front. Take into account your features list and add the costs of adding these items to your homestead. Some to consider:

* Land

* Roads: excavation, gravel, pavement, culverts

* Fences

* Permits

* Buildings: house, barns, sheds, pump house, green house

* Septic or compost toilet

* Well

* Irrigation

* Fuel tanks

* Appliances

* Off-grid and/or utility hook up

* Fruit trees

* Landscaping

* Tractor and other tools

* Livestock

Counting the Costs of Expenses

Can we afford to live in our homestead? Our ongoing operational budget is also important. What will be your monthly expenses? Some things to consider:

* Debt:

* Mortgage

* Vehicle

* Credit cards

* Utilities:

* Fuel: LP, oil, wood

* Electric

* Internet

* Phone

* Water

* Food

* Animal feed

* Maintenance & repairs

* Real estate taxes

* Health insurance

* Home insurance

* Seeds & fertilizer

* Emergency fund

* Auto fuel, maintenance, insurance

One More Thing

Be careful when purchasing a homestead from a family member. It is a business transaction and needs to be treated as such.

Coming up

Continuing the Selecting a Homestead series, we will cover Choosing a Region.

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Why Should We Consider Our Core Values?

Our core values will determine what we will actually do, not what we hope or say we will do. They are often unconscious, but influence us nonetheless. They do not change easily, especially when we are unaware of them. Ensuring our homestead selection matches up with our core values will help lead to our success in our selection of a homestead. Core values are not something tangible that one can put a finger on. They are internal. They can be a little slippery.

See notes below.

Sample Core Values List

* Authenticity

* Achievement

* Adventure

* Autonomy

* Balance

* Beauty

* Compassion

* Challenge

* Cleanliness

* Community

* Competency

* Creativity

* Curiosity

* Determination

* Entertainment

* Faith

* Friendships

* Fun

* Growth

* Happiness

* Inner Harmony

* Justice

* Knowledge

* Learning

* Love

* Meaningful Work

* Optimism

* Peace

* Perfection

* Pleasure

* Recognition

* Respect

* Responsibility

* Security

* Self-Respect

* Service

* Spirituality

* Stability

* Success

* Uniqueness

* Wealth

* Wisdom

* Work ethic

Core Values are Not a Dream

The Importance of Experience

Our desire to build a homestead must be more than a dream. A dream is not a plan. What we imagine often does not correspond to reality. Romanticizing the homesteading lifestyle and ignoring all that goes into developing a homestead is unrealistic. It’s a sure path to failure and unhappiness.

How much actual experience do you have with homesteading? Did you grow up in the city and read or watch “Little House on The Prairie”? Get some reality therapy. Get some experience. Actual experience will help eliminate the idealization of homesteading.

Better Now Than Later

I’m not trying to discourage anybody from the homesteading lifestyle. In fact, I’m hoping this little “conversation” will help manage your expectations. This should help your success in the long run. And if you are already discouraged, then all the better. Better now than after three years of owning a property that you absolutely hate.

A Process to Help Ensure Homesteading Success

1. Make a List of Your Core Values

Put the thoughts of homesteading on the back burner for now. What truly drives you? What makes you tick? Have a real heart-to-heart with yourself. Don’t judge or condemn. Just write them down.

2. Review

Review and prioritize your core values. Then identify conflicts. Eliminate cognitive dissonance.

Then share and discuss them with your spouse. Lack of shared core values is a huge problem in relationships, especially marriages.

This is a slow process. Give it a month at least. It will be worth it in the long run. And it should be an ongoing, lifetime process.

3. Create Your Property Features List

Do this only after you have made your core values list and become thoroughly familiar with it. Again, write down and prioritize your homestead features. This list should be organic. It can and should change over time.

Don’t get stuck on specifics. Consider different property features for fulfilling your core values.

Next Episode

Continuing the Selecting a Homestead Location series, we will cover Counting the Costs.

Please subscribe, comment, like, share, rate and, most importantly, be well.

In this episode, we ask, “What is Homesteading?” A few of the answers may surprise you.

See notes below.

* A short, unrelated anecdote

* This is not the be-all, end-all

* Just a word from George Carlin

* Historical context: Homestead Acts

* Tends to be rural, but can be suburban or even urban

* Convert home ownership costs into productive income

* Sustainable agriculture

* Livestock

* Off-grid/renewable energy

* Self-sufficiency, independence & freedom

* Interdependence

* Back to Earth/Nature

* Apolitical

* Survivalism & prepping

* Making a house into a home

* Socialization

* Homesteading is mainly a philosophy, lifestyle & value system

We would love to get your comments. What is homesteading to you?

Upcoming Episodes

A series on selecting a homestead location, beginning with Core Values.

Please like, subscribe, share, rate, comment and, most of all, be well.

Let’s Go To Idaho!

It all began in 2011. My wife, Mary, started a blog entitled Let’s Go to Idaho. We lived in central Alabama at the time and we decided to purchase (site unseen) a quaint cabin on Black Lake, located a little under an hour outside of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The cabin was only to be temporary until we found our more permanent homestead. We purchased it mainly for the giant pole barn to store all our stuff. Mary chronicled our journey to Idaho and continued to share our experiences getting settled into our new abode. Although the cabin wasn’t ideal, we decided to put down roots there. We really enjoyed the neighbors and the Black Lake setting.

See additional notes below.

KahnVurj.Me

After about a year, the title of Mary’s blog no longer seemed relevant, so we changed it to KahnVurj.me (“Converge Me”). I joined her in blogging.

The summers in Idaho are fantastic! But the winters are brutal, especially for my sun-loving wife. After a couple of years, we began having discussions about moving to a more temperate climate, somewhere closer to the kids. In the spring of 2013, after a visit from our daughter, Kristie, we learned that we would become grandparents. That cinched it.

Back to ‘Bama

I scrambled to get the property ready for sale, listed it, got a contract and had it sold within 4-5 weeks. It was hard to leave a homestead that we had put so much into, including:

* complete off-grid solar system & backup generator

* lifting the entire cabin to replace the insect eaten wood posts with a concrete & block foundation

* completely new and expanded bath

* excavation & landscaping

* complete updating of paint, hardware, light fixtures & fans, appliances, wood stove, kitchen countertops & island, on-demand water heater – the works

* a full 1,000 gallon propane tank

We made arrangements for temporary living and storage of all our stuff in Alabama. The trip back was an adventure all its own. A four day trip turned into two weeks.

For the next five weeks, the hunt for a new homestead was a full time job. We finally settled on 23+ acres of raw, hilly, hardwood covered land in the Talladega National Forest. Later, a purchase of 3+ adjoining acres would give us road frontage across the entire property and bring our new homestead to nearly 27 acres.

Project Petra Begins

We broke ground the day after closing. The mighty oaks and steep hills were quite the challenge for Terry, our excavator, and his Caterpillar D-9 loader. As Terry cleared the property, we kept moving the build site as the lay of the land became more evident. Taking into account the needs of both the house and solar array, we settled on a build site. Said site ended up being rock, hence the name we gave it, Petra.

The house is earth-bermed on three sides. It is constructed from Quadlock insulated concreted forms (ICF’s), including the roof. Most of the 10 months of construction was covered on this blog and my YouTube channel.

Hiatus

I’d flipped houses in the past and had some experience with remodeling and construction. But this was the first house I had ever built from scratch. We used contractors very little (septic, well, initial excavation and minimal concrete and block work). The majority of the effort was performed by us. As it turns out, building the house was just the beginning of the work.