Visions and Revisions

OK. Here's the vision: 3-5 acres of beautiful land, part cleared, part wooded, within 20 minutes of work, with a beautiful 35 foot wooden yurt on a large deck, all paid for, mortgage-free. Also on the land, a large vegetable garden, a chicken coop, several goats to keep the woods cleared, a meditation labyrinth, and an outdoor stage with terraced rock seating. Future cob or straw bale house possible.

Current reality: Renting a small house on 0.3 acres, large vegetable garden located 20 minutes away, crappy chicken coop, plenty of college debt, little to no savings, and credit too low to get a home loan.

Hmmm . . . how to get from here to there? One of the first ideas we had was that my parents had just reached the age when Dad had access to a good bit of his retirement from a previous job. Though they aren't rolling in it, they could perhaps give us a small loan. Finding out about owner-financed land was another biggy. We found plenty of land in the range of $1000-$2500 down, $8000 an acre. The monthly payments were around $250 for most places. The interest is higher than I'd like, but there's no penalty for early payment.

Still, though, a wooden yurt is about $20,000, even more once we lay the foundation, put in the wiring, plumbing, etc. We certainly couldn't borrow that much from my parents! Time for a revision of the vision! My friend and teacher, Marna, who I'll write more about later, says that you have to figure out what the "touchstone" of your dream really is. What's the important part about the dream? What's at the heart of it? We knew the answer right away--it's freedom and independence. Freedom from being a renter for forever, freedom from never quite having enough money, freedom from living within fifteen feet of neighbors, etc. So if that's our touchstone, is there a way to at least get that part of the dream?

Here's what we came up with: We borrowed $6000 from my parents, a very reasonable amount that we knew we could easily pay back. We used $2000 to pay for the land down payment. At first, we thought we were going to buy a used mobile home, but we couldn't afford anything decent, especially factoring in the cost of moving it. We needed some place to live while raising money for a yurt, perhaps for about nine months. We finally decided on a 28' camper, with a full kitchen and 3 beds. We paid $3000 for it, leaving $1000 for utility hook-ups, etc. Meanwhile, we're not having to pay rent, so we can save for the yurt!

So, for $6000, we're getting our touchstone in just a few weeks. We still have a long way to go before we reach the full dream, but we're a lot closer than we were before!! Onwards and upwards!