This is long overdue, what I’m about to tell you. It’s been in the making for many months, and finalized about 2 months ago now.
We have a house. It’s true, we’re not just in the motorhome anymore. We’re calling our new place our home base, because we’re still traveling, but with more intended and planned destinations.
So – let’s get some questions and answers out of the way!
All the questions about our home base
- Where are we?
We decided to settle down a little in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s far from our previous home base of Oregon, but it’s actually where we intended to move for about five years. It just so happened we took a really long route. - Why Chattanooga?
Well, Tennessee is pretty lovely, to be honest. Have you seen it in the autumn as the trees turn shades of crimson and mustard? It’s stunning enough to make nearly anyone want to make their home base this state.
However, the real reason -which might seem silly to you, but was important to us– is that Chattanooga’s internet is run by their electric company. It’s nicknamed Gig City because we get gigabit internet straight to our doorstep. Cool.
Second, we can have property and still have solid internet for working, streaming, etc. We almost bought 28 acres, but after researching multiple deed issues, we decided to not build a new home and instead got about 2 and a half acres with a house already on it. We’re in the process of having a garage and shop built – our house was built in the 1940’s, and houses were smaller then, so the garage was turned into the master…which means we still need a garage. - What have we been up to?
When we closed on the house in mid-February, we started all the projects. I tore up the carpet and leveled the floor of the master, then with some help, put down floating flooring.
I’ve started a hugelkulture, which has been a dream of mine for about 6 or 7 years now. It’s essentially a big ole hole that you fill with logs, branches, rotting wood, until it’s high above the edge of the hole. Then, you cover it with compost and dirt and plant into it. Over time the wood breaks down, and by year 2, I won’t need to water those crops at all since the moisture levels are kept constant.
And seeds. Oh lordy you should see my seed collection. I’ve started a dozen or so varieties of plants, mostly vegetables, that will become our garden over the summer.
Jeremiah has, of course, done just about everything else. Minor kitchen remodeling, every tiny thing that has been out of place, Jeremiah has dealt with and is currently re-vamping our master bathroom and closet to be a better use of space. Have I ever said how handy Jeremiah is? It’s no joke.
We’re renovating a shed outside into an office this summer, but for now, we each have SEPARATE ROOMS WE WORK IN.
Also… furniture shopping. Turns out when you sell all your furniture and move into an RV, you actually have to re-buy furniture. Our last our was tiny, at about 1000 square feet, and it was fairly sparse so even if we had kept the furniture, we’d be in a similar scenario. For a hot minute, I felt like I was in college as we slept on a mattress on the ground, but we’ve since gotten a bed. - Are we continuing to travel?
Yes. But we are so busy. I thought travel life was exhausting. Turns out we go-go-go no matter where or how we live.
We will travel though. The difference we’re really seeking out though is we are going to plan our destinations differently. Jeremiah wants to go back to King of Hammers. I want to go up to Maine in autumn one year. We’ve had several tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms, so next year to subdue my anxiety we may travel much of the spring.
We are not getting rid of the motorhome. We bought all new bedding, dishes, etc for our house because we want to be able to just jump into the rig and drive away if we feel like it. It honestly took us probably 18 months to get everything in a perfect state in the motorhome and we’d like to keep it just as useful. - What are some of the best and worst things about having a home base?
Dude. We know where all the best takeout restaurants are in the area. It’s amazing. Our local The Home Depot knows us by name, and we feel really comfortable. There’s no need to look at the GPS when I am just trying to buy some tomatoes because I know where I’m going.
Speaking of buying groceries…we can get deliveries. Instacart is a thing, and we haven’t been to the grocers in a few weeks. Last night we had dinner delivered, and I am pretty sure with all the furniture, tools, and everything else we’ve ordered, we’re keeping a full-time amazon delivery driver employed.
We get mail daily. No more running down our mail from our mail forwarding company which honestly kinda sucked anyways.
I no longer have to dump our tanks. If we get dirty, we just take a shower. We’re still using an obscenely small amount of water, and I think we always will. We learned about resources so much on the road.
Some of the obvious downfalls of staying in place travel envy. I saw a picture that our Instagram friends Olga and Aiden had of an art installation project in the California desert and I stared at the pictures for several minutes. If we lived in the motorhome full-time still, I probably would have suggested we drive to check it out. While we do have the motorhome, we’re so busy that we aren’t actively using it.
What other questions do you have for us? Let us know below!
