Yes, you heard right. But it’s not quite what you’d think.
We’ve put a pause on our full-time travels for one important reason, and that is our oldest daughter Alexandra. We began to notice a few months ago that she wasn’t where she needed to be with her speech development. So, we made the decision to seek out an early intervention with a speech therapist. There is no way around it, but we can’t travel while Alex gets the attention she needs. While some might be disappointed, there is nothing more important to us than Alex’s well being.
We’ve decided to use this downtime as an opportunity to secure our families financial future, remodel our Airstream and tackle some lingering personal goals.
Just so you know the backstory, I’ve been into real estate for many years. We sold our first home and moved from Virginia to Florida five years ago with the intention of getting started in real estate. However, life happened. We moved a few times and just never really liked Florida.
At the same time, we always wanted to travel. When Alex was born, we knew that the bigger dream of full-time travel was the dream we wanted to chase first. So we put the original dream on the shelf and pursued full-time travel with our Airstream in tow.
I won’t bore you with all the details of my real estate aspirations. I just see it as a way to eventually replace my job. I can’t write code forever. Nor do I want to. And if we have to be tied to one spot for an extended period, well seems like a good opportunity to me.
So, this past June we started researching an area to invest in.
Our choices came down to Colorado Springs and Boise. But in the end, Boise had more to offer regarding all of our families goals and needs.
We took some time before the 4th to spend it with our close friends who themselves were buying a home in Sandpoint, Idaho. (As it turns out, three friends have now settled in Sandpoint) Then set course to search for homes in Boise. We spent the next four weeks viewing properties. We had a few rejections and course corrections along the way. But overall it has was a fun experience.
On the 15th of August, we made an offer on one of the properties we liked with great potential. And went under contract that weekend. We closed on September 26th and parked our Airstream in the driveway to get started on this new chapter.
Alexandra had her first appointment with her new pediatrician, and we’re settling down into a new routine.
Our next planned purchase won’t happen until 2017, but there are A LOT more houses in our future. :) We’re also toying with the idea of buying some land in Moab next year and placing a tiny home on it, as both a vacation rental and AirBNB.
In the meantime, I plan to start working on the Airstream soon. The TO-DO list has been growing after a year of living in her. There are things we want to change and things we need to fix. But I can tell you, that living in 154sq ft and trying to work in 154sq ft is very stressful. Being able to work on the Airstream and not live in it at the same time is going to allow us to accomplish a bunch of projects without being stressed out or hating each other.
As for personal goals, well I will share mine. I have gone from a guy who weighed 155lbs to 200lbs in the last year and half of full-time travel. There are a number of factors, including SHIT DIET.
Anyhow, I plan on getting back into my weight training routine. And have a target weight and body fat % I intend to hit.
Will we continue traveling and when?
JorDanee and I have talked about this a lot. We’re not really done. But the time frame really depends on our girls. We have some planned smaller trips already and ideally we will be part-timers while we work on our real estate business.