Life After the Move: Building My Homestead Dream

Hello and welcome, welcome back to the Vandemonian homesteader. My gods, it’s been a while, and I hope that life has been treating you well since my last post.

It is with much excitement and a touch of exhaustion that I am able to return, as my self-imposed hiatus is finally over. Renovations on my old house are finally finished; everything that had to be done is now complete, and I am in a position to move out and begin life on my homestead.

And that is exactly what I have done; everything has been packed up, and after several trips going back and forth between the new place and the old, I am officially moved in. As with any move, simply arriving and placing boxes on the floor is by no means the end; reorganising and unpacking is a process that can take some time. And as you can see from the mountain of boxes and random bags, that’s exactly the stage I now find myself at.

What have I been up to?

In my last post, back in mid-May, I briefly mentioned that I would be pausing my work on the blog and instead focusing all my efforts on completing the renovations I had been undertaking at my last house. These renovations had been going on for a while now, roughly three years, and it had finally gotten to the point where I just wanted them done, as I was beginning to feel more and more like they were taking over my life and preventing me from doing what I wanted to do.

It wasn’t helped by the fact that while working a normal 9-5 job, I was spending the evenings working on one house only to then spend my weekends out working on another. Between the two projects, it felt as if all I would ever do was work away on both of them forever, never completing either one.

So after some discussions, my partner and I decided it was best to concentrate everything onto the house and get it sorted so I can move my attention elsewhere. Which is exactly what was done. I stopped making weekend trips out to my block and stopped work on the blog.

And thankfully, it is now all behind me, so all there is to do is to pick up from where I left off and get this show back on the road.

What’s next?

As I type this, I am surrounded by piles of boxes and bags that contain gods only knows what, because I forgot a long time ago. Currently, my main focus is to clear out anything that isn’t needed and store it in one of my shipping containers. As I have two containers out here, I will turn one into a workshop and use it to store all my tools and usable materials and create space for a desk and workbench, while the other will be used to store unnecessary furniture, household or personal items.

So, as with any other move, it’s safe to say I will spend some time slowly unpacking and organising what I have.

In addition to that though, I still have a deadline to stick to.

My partner is currently staying at the old house and will remain there until settlement and the keys are handed over. That is expected to be roughly at the end of next month. And some of you may recall that my partner had requirements on living conditions that I have to meet before they move out here.

First of all, there has to be a fully functioning bathroom allowing for the enjoyment of long hot showers, as well as a completed kitchen and laundry, for easy cooking and washing, all ready to go before they make the move out and join me.

Ultimately, I need to get a wriggle on and finish those few things as quick as possible. I also still need to find somewhere suitable to put in a garden and get it ready before spring so I can sow some seeds. Both my partner and I have been too busy over the last few years to have a garden, and now we have no excuse to make it happen; that and the ever-increasing cost of living, is forcing my hand at this point.

And finally, the last big job that’s on my list is to start collecting firewood. Even though we are approaching the end of winter, I will need to start building a stockpile ready for next year.

On top of that, there are some smaller, more basic quality of life and general housekeeping jobs I would like to complete, tasks like making a stand for all our pot plants so they aren’t taking up so much room, as well as making a few clothes airers so I can hang my laundry out to dry under cover. While these jobs aren’t important, they would help a lot; as it stands, they will no doubt remain rainy-day jobs for now.

I knew full well that making the move out here wasn’t going to mean I could take my time and relax. If anything, it has meant the opposite. Yes, a lot of the deadlines are self-imposed, and I am aware that I don’t have to do everything at once. But now that I am off grid, I need to work that little bit more to ensure everything keeps running so that my partner and I can continue to live comfortably.

The current focus.

To better explain what I will be focusing on first, I thought it would be worthwhile giving an example of what was a simple, straightforward process that is now a little more complicated for me. Each workday I wake up at 3.45am; I then carry two 10ltr buckets of hot water from the hot water cylinder inside to the bathroom. At the moment, there is no interior plumbing, so all water is collected through taps at the back of the shed and carted inside in buckets.

In my bathroom is a large claw-foot bathtub. To bathe, I squat in it and pour water over myself, lather up and scrub with soap before rinsing off by pouring over more fresh water. Once I’ve finished bathing, as there is no drain pipe, I pull the plug, and the water runs into an oil change pan that I have positioned under the bath’s drain, which I then dispose of later in the day.

At my last house, I would wake at 4:15 am, jump into a shower, and jump out, with my entire morning ablutions done in under 15 minutes. Here it takes double that time; all of the extra work I have to do is simply because I have no interior plumbing. And while something as simple as bathing has been made so complicated, it still works for now; it’s not a long-term solution, but it does the job. If anything, it has certainly made me appreciate the wonders of indoor plumbing a lot more than I used to.

So it should go without saying that completing the bathroom and finishing the plumibng is key on my prioirty list, not only will it make bathing easier, which in turn speeds up my morning routine allowing me to sleep in more, it will also have the added effect of letting me connect my washing machine so i can do my laundry at home, instead of paying the extortionate fees that the local laundromat charges.

In addition to the plumbing, I am working towards the goal of spending at least an hour a day collecting firewood. By doing so, I will easily be able to build up a stockpile.

And with that said, I think that about wraps it up for now; I’ve got a lot of organising and unpacking to get back to.

All in all, though, it’s fantastic to be able to type and publish this post. And as much as there is still a lot of work to do, I am overjoyed that I am finally able to begin living and working on my homestead. Looking at the sacrifices and the work I have put into it over the past few years, it’s fantastic to finally see it come together, and although there is still a lot more to be done, it’s easier to stay motivated now I’m living here and able to chip away at each task daily.

Of course, a big thanks has to go out to all of you, the kind folk who keep coming back to read my blog. I couldn’t have done it without you; after all, it was wanting to share my journey and show others that it could be done that made me start this blog. So for those that have followed my journey up to this point, thank you. I hope you will stick around for the next leg of the journey as I try to make it all work together.

Now that life has settled down a bit, I will be resuming regular posting. I currently plan to start again with one post a fortnight. So stay tuned. In my next post, I will be discussing how I collect and store firewood, and I will share a simple design to make your own sawbuck, a type of saw horse that’s ideal for holding logs as you use a chainsaw.

Thanks again to all those who helped me reach this point, and I will see you all again in the next post. Until then, stay safe, and have yourself a good one, and I will catch you later.