Prepping for the Downsize & Move

We have managed to persuade my youngest, who will be the only child remaining at home by then, of the wisdom in moving to Texas.

He has been most excited by the idea of building his own Tiny House. He's already started designing it in Minecraft. We talked about plumbing and how it has to run parallel or vertical to be most efficient, which sent him back to the drawing board for re-design. We discussed downloading Google Sketchup and building it in that (hey--look, education can be fun!)

We are thinking, buy land in a recreation area, then moving a travel trailer, mobile home or build a tiny house while we decide where we want to live permanently and if we want to build or buy. We've lived in a well laid out 850 square foot condo with 2 parents and 4 kids ages 14, 9, 8, and 5 plus a dog, and thrived, so I know three of us can live in less space.

Pluses of a travel trailer: self-contained, low cost (here in California, not Texas!!), can be used year round.

Negatives: really small space. On average, 128 square feet and not an efficient 128 square feet. Even a tiny house built on a trailer bed could use space more efficiently, as a normal travel trailer is meant for weekend use, whereas a Tiny House built on a travel trailer frame is meant for 365 day use. 

Pluses of a Mobile Home: one and done :)

Negative: Cost (surprisingly expensive in Texas....)

Tiny House pluses: Usable, livable space. 14 feet square translates to 196 square feet, plus a sleeping loft would add more space, about 112 square feet. Ironically, DS and I measured our living room and found it is only slightly larger than that, so we could actually do mock-ups here at home if we decided to go that route.

14 feet square can be built economically for about $3-5,000 roughly the price of a travel trailer. Obviously you can spend a boatload of money (the average tiny home owner spends like $25-30,000 building and outfitting one. That's crazy IMO.) 

Negative: Off grid (negative for DH, positive for me.) Building it yourself to make that price footprint do-able (the irony of this is not lost on me.)

In any event, the following would have to happen to make the move a reality:

1. Get out of debt. We have been following the guidelines in The Total Money Makeover for a while now. If we are gazelle intense like we were when we were paying off the Honda, we could be original debt free by December.

2. Save up $10,000 by September of next year. 

3. Pretty much rid ourselves of everything we own. Have to do this anyway.

I need to apply the same gazelle intensity towards finding work that I have to getting out of debt. Any extra income would just balloon that nest egg so much higher (and/or, get us out of debt that much sooner.)

We're excited !!