At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

My wife and I live in a camper. We have lived in a camper for most of the past 12 years. We would like to live in a house. I will share in this thread our quest to live in a house like normal people.

Obed

 

[Couple of Achers]

That will be wonderful. Take lots of pictures. We look forward to seeing the progress. Good luck.

 

[Obed]

I started doing contract computer work in 1997, so we bought the camper and moved to eastern NC. Our plan was to work 4-6 months at a job, get another contract somewhere else, and move around. Well, the first contract lasted 4 years in the same spot. So much for the plan. When my last contract in Charlotte, NC ended in 2006, we finally returned home to Tennessee after 20 years away.

 

[Obed]

Here's where we have kept all our stuff since we've been living like gypsies.

 

[kebo]

Do you already have some land? Or perhaps that is the first step in your quest for a more permanent residence??

 

[Obed]

My father-n-law knew an elderly woman who owns an empty 1/2 acre lot in the county outside of Knoxville. The lot used to have a single-wide on it. We were able to rent the lot and move our camper and storage trailer onto the lot. Our intention was to live in the camper on the lot until we could find more permanent living arrangements. That was over 3 years ago. We still live on the same lot in our camper. The best laid plans of mice and men...

Here I am wiring the electrical panel to which we plugged in the camper.

 

[MotorSeven]

Yep, been there, done that......my wife & I lived in a 24' Class C motorhome for a couple of years, stepped up to a 38' travel trailer for a year & a half, then back to a 20' Argosy Airstream trailer for 6 months while we built our Quonset hut w/apt. Now that we have been in the 500sqft apt for over 2 years, we have started building a log home(my build thread is below this one somewhere). My initial move to the MH was a necessity....the big "D". By doing all that we were able to save enough money to buy land & build. We just have a truck camper now for vacations.
We are just east of you North of Morristown.

RD

 

[dave1949]

Glad to hear you are moving towards your goal. Your avatar looks like you have one stump out of the way already

Be careful what you wish for! Ever here of neighbors?

Look forward to your posts.
Dave.

 

[Obed]

While we were living in Charlotte in 2005, we bought 61 rural acres on the Cumberland Plateau located 1 1/2 hour west of Knoxville, TN. The property is very scenic with a mature forest, bluffs, waterfall, creek, and river. When I was hired in 2006 in Knoxville for a permanent position (not contract), I was able to work out a deal with my employer to work 2 days a week from home. With this schedule, we intended to build on our rural property, and I would commute to Knoxville 3 days a week. However, having family in Knoxville, my wife really wanted to live closer to Knoxville. Thus, we now have 61 acres for sale. Unfortunately, the real estate market is not real strong right now. Some pictures of the property are shown below.

 

[Obed]

RD, your story does sound similar. Wow! And you're not that far from us. We did save a lot of money by living in the camper. However, now we're in the painful spending mode.

 

[Obed]

After moving to Knoxville from the Carolinas, we bought the tractor and spent weekends cleaning up our rural Cumberland Plateau property to get it ready for putting a small camper on it. Here I am picking up my new toy.

 

[Obed]

Here are some pictures cleaning up the plateau property. The neighbors' dogs loved riding on the trailer. I find that so funny.

 

[MotorSeven]

61 rural ac??/ NO...Don't sell it! That is a beautifull tract of land, & you will regret selling. We are an hour away from Knox and that's too close for us. I spent an entire career in a big metro area....never again! I'll spend the rest of my time here...when I go, someone can use the FEL to drop my corpse into the compost pile.

Our creek:

 

[dave1949]

61 rural ac??/ NO...Don't sell it! That is a beautifull tract of land, & you will regret selling. We are an hour away from Knox and that's too close for us. I spent an entire career in a big metro area....never again! I'll spend the rest of my time here...when I go, someone can use the FEL to drop my (mortal remains?) into the compost pile.

That's a good one M7! I agree, that 61 ac looks just too interesting to sell. That could be one of those forks you wish you would have taken when you look back 10-20 yrs from now.
Dave.

 

[MotorSeven]

Either I forgot something or it got moderated away.....:>[

RD

 

[Obed]

RD,
I checked out your post on building your log home. I love your property. That looks like an awesome buidling site.

 

[Obed]

So we started house shopping closer to Knoxville. We wanted some acreage. In 2005 and 2006, there was a development boon in this area. Lots of people had moved to counties around the Knoxville area for their retirement years. Prices had shot up during the boon. People were convinced that their property was made of gold. Due to the development spurt, acreage prices went up accordingly. However, when we started house shopping in 2007, we were not convinced that the real estate boon was still happening and were not willing to pay the prices that people were asking. So we kept looking. Our preference was to buy an existing house with acreage. Privacy was high on our wish list. Unfortunately, for every property we looked at in our price range, we either liked the land and didn't like the house or we liked the house and didn't like the land. In 2008, we did find a farm at a reasonable price that we loved. We were preparing to make an offer when it occurred to me to ask the realtor about the location of a proposed expressway that would go through that area. It turned out the proposed expressway would be located right across the road from the farm for sale. With that new information, we decided not to make an offer.

 

[Obed]

With the trouble we were having finding a house with property, we expanded our search to include vacant land that we could build on. I remembered a piece of land I had seen earlier on the MLS that I found interesting but had not looked at it. The tract was 30 acres of woods along a ridge line and was about a 30 minute commute to my work. Due to the terrain of the land, it was not something most developers would be interested in so the price was reasonable. We bought the property in the spring of 2008. Here's a picture of the property when we purchased it. Trees, trees, and more trees.

 

[Obed]

So now we own two pieces of land, the 61 acres on the Cumberland Plateau 1 1/2 hour from Knoxville, and 30 acres 30 minutes from Knoxville. Since we don't need both, we have recently put the 61 acre piece on the market. The 30 acre tract is where we will make our home.

 

[jimmyj]

Obed, that 61ac is like a paradise! Is there no way you can make it work? Gosh, what a beautiful place. (I'm not questioning your judgement, just expressing a glimmer of hope that maybe you could keep that paradise).

Good luck either way. Hopefully the 30ac is pretty too.

Jim