Why we're moving

A friend (who lives in Virginia) and I were emailing back and forth about our upcoming move, and she ended one of her emails with the loveliest sentiment: “Wherever you go, you’ll be happy. You take smiles with you.” Awww, thanks pal.

That said, some readers have gently questioned why we’re interested in moving at all. It’s a logical question, considering how many improvements we’ve made to our home and property, and how much we’ll miss our wonderful friends and neighbors.

What it comes down to is three factors. One, as mentioned before, this house is simply too big with just the two of us. It’s not practical to close up a portion of it, nor are we the type who would be interested in renting out a section.

Instead, this home deserves to be filled with another happy family, where the children can grow up the old-fashioned way, healthy and free on a rural homestead.

Two, we’d like to be mortgage-free. We’re looking for a fixer-upper property we can purchase free and clear, then fix it up to suit our particular tastes and needs. We feel this is a wise financial approach as we get older.

And three — and this is arguably the biggest factor — we’re looking for another adventure.

As Don likes to put it, we both feel we have the time and energy to engage in one more humongous “adventure” in our life, and moving to a whole new property and then turning that property into a self-sufficient homestead is the adventure we’d love to tackle. We’ve learned so much here on our current property that it’s time to apply that knowledge to a new set of circumstances and see how we do.

And hopefully we’ll take our smiles with us.