Holy moly, this past week + of moving has been ROUGH. Now that we’re getting settled, it’s time to share an update about our move and moving a homestead.
Moving a homestead
If you’re just checking in for the first time in a while, then you can catch all of the details about why we chose to move over at this post! Here’s a quick moving a homestead recap:
Although we loved our little farmhouse and homestead, Ben and I have been searching for a larger piece of property for quite some time. Our 1.25 acres was the perfect size to maintain our current set up of 7 goats, 20 chickens, 4 beehives, and a garden, but we clearly maxed out our space. Our limited acreage also made appropriate pasture rotation extremely difficult. Since starting our homestead 1.5 years ago, our goat herd and chicken flock more than doubled. 2 goats quickly became 7, and 10 chickens expanded to 20. The idea that we completely maxed out our space within such a short period of time felt extremely limiting. Ben and I discussed plans of expanding our homestead, but expansion wasn’t feasible with our limited space.
After much deliberation, we started the process of looking for an old farmhouse with more acreage in our same general location, which was pretty much an impossible task. Until we came across the perfect farmette. We put our house up for sale and started the process of moving a homestead right away,
Selling our farmhouse
When we placed an offer to purchase the new farmette, our offer was contingent on the sale of our house. Once our offer was accepted, we listed our house for sale within a few days and started to prepare for moving a homestead. If you’ve ever sold a house with two little ones and two dogs, then I feel your pain. Keeping a perfectly clean house at all times to accommodate last minute showings is not fun.
Want to know what else makes selling your farmhouse difficult? When your goats decide to escape and roam around the fire pit during a showing … and then you get a frantic call from a panicked realtor asking “uhh, are the goats supposed to be out…?” And then your husband has to rush home to lure the goats back into the fenced in pasture. Fun times, friends. Fun times.
Actually, no. That was not fun. Not fun at all.
Renting
Even though we’re under contract to purchase the new house, our close date isn’t set until March 2020. Yep, that’s about 5 months from when we sold our house. The new property is being re-parceled with the county, which requires a new survey to be submitted along with approval from the county before we can purchase it. So what does a family of 4 with 2 dogs, 7 goats, and 19 chickens do while moving a homestead? That’s a good question.
Have you ever tried finding a house to rent that will allow you to 1) have a short term lease and 2) let you run a small scale farm out of the backyard? Yeah, most people aren’t too keen on that idea. Fortunately, the owners of the new farm decided to allow us to rent the farmhouse + farm. The family who purchased our house also let us to keep our animals there for a few days while we set up housing at the new property. Although we wish that we could officially purchase the new property now, we’re also so grateful that everyone has been so supportive and accommodating during our time of transition while moving a homestead.
Transition of moving a homestead
Moving with little ones is hard. For the first few days, Finley struggled and kept asking if we could go home. A house doesn’t truly feel like home until you make a dent in unpacking the never ending boxes. And gosh, unpacking boxes with little ones is really hard too! Thankfully, the kids adjusted and started to make themselves at home after a few short days. They absolutely love running around the farm, and it makes my heart so happy. (Adorable boots are here!)
Seeing as we don’t officially own the house, we can’t make any updates yet. We absolutely love the quirkiness of the original 1800s farmhouse. We want to maintain the integrity of the house, so we aren’t planning on making any major changes. From the custom built-ins to the Dutch doors, we love it all. With that being said, we’re also excited to eventually make some updates to make it feel more like our own. Once we purchase the house, our plans will mostly consist of paint, board and batten trim projects, and wall paper repair. Moving a homestead is hard, but I’m so excited.
Future homesteading plans
Now that we moved our homestead, what are our future homesteading plans? Well, I’m not quite sure. At the moment, we’re focused on getting settled in our new home (and hopefully purchasing it sooner rather than later!)
In the future, we’re planning to breed our goats, get a few more beehives, expand our chicken flock, and who knows – maybe expand the homestead and raise different animals as well. We don’t know what the future may hold, but we’re so excited for this next chapter for our family and homestead!