Why we are selling everything, to live in a 5th wheel ….

… and how we got here with 4 kids, a dog, a cat, and the world’s cutest bunny.
We got married at 18, and at the age of 20, purchased our first home.
A 1200 sf 4 bedroom, 2 bath house we could only afford in reality if we had roomates
( which we did for 5 years) that we purchased for $86,000 back in 2001. We experienced the joy, and the often overwhelming frustration, of owning a home. Literally EVERY appliance, big and small, had to be replaced in that house. We did a major renovation inside, improved the outside, put in sprinklers and all the landscaping.
We sold at the end of 2015, and with the $ we made we paid off school loans and put a sizable chunk down on our current home. We got the home we had always imagined having – 2400+ square feet, original wood floors, a fireplace, a separate living and family room, almost 1/4 acre right in the middle of town. We had more space for the kids, a bigger yard for them to play, and all the things we’d always wanted in a home. We thought that now, now we would be able to really feel settled, arrived, happy.  Yeah, not so much.
We found ourselves house rich, and pocketbook poor – which if you have ever been there, you know how much that can suck. We ended up stuck without a homeowners exemption for 2 years – ouch. Then the real estate market went through the roof in our area, and with that our property taxes as well. Every time we got a raise, more hours, or thought we would be more comfortable we’d get another notice about our mortgage going up for some reason or another. Small improvements became something to be carefully timed, and the bigger ones we had imagined, a far off dream.
We have never been people who cared about fancy things or anyone else’s perception of us. We’ve always wanted experiences, adventure, vacations with the kids. The more I pondered , the more I realized that for us, it was coming down to a choice – have a house with a big ol’ mortgage, or having a life. Even with both of us working, and multiple streams of income, we would never be able to do the things we dreamed of with the kids, or ourselves when we retire. Something had to change.
We have been fans of the tiny house movement for several years – heck, we even did a casting call for a tiny house show once. The husband wasn’t convinced, but after going to an rv sale at a local event center and actually going in some of the newer 5th wheel layouts, he looked at me and said ” We could live in this.” I had been gathering info on living tiny and as fulltime rv-ers for a while, so when he looked at me and said ” Let’s do it!” I was so ready.
Hours and hours of discussion in one of my fave fulltime rv groups on Facebook , listening to podcasts, researching makes and floorplans, 2 huge yard sales, a massive amount of home and yard projects, several trips to the rv dealer and a month later – and our house is on the market and the new 5th wheel parked at my parents, waiting to launch!
So, we are doing this our way. We’re going to live simpler, so we can explore and enjoy life NOW. We’re letting go of stuff, the safety of what is familiar, and finding the way to give our kids and ourselves the experiences that we’ve always dreamed of. It may not be for everyone, but for us, a small and unconventional home we own is far more enticing than working to simply pay our bills every month.
For us, waiting and hoping that after paying off a 30 year mortgage we could have a chance to taste the good life, wasn’t good enough.
What about you? What would you go and enjoy if you weren’t stuck with a mountain of bills to pay every month?
With love –
Sarah
P.S. If you want to follow along specifically about our rv process and adventures, head here and follow us!