The Land

Once we decided we were going forward with our plan, we started discussing what we wanted from the land. I think this is the most important question you can ask yourself. We knew we wanted the following:

• Freedom to build the type of house that fits our lifestyle

• Ability to be off-grid, meaning we wanted to generate our own electricity and collect our own water

• Grow our own food, but not have a huge farm

• Possibly have some chickens and maybe a goat (for cheese-making!)

We researched the best places to live off-grid; we had decided that we didn't want to stay in Texas since it was just too hot in the summers. We found a great article that ranked all 50 states for off-grid living based on cost, freedom to build, water, agriculture, energy and community. Read the article here if you're interested.

In the end, we chose Tennessee. We knew that the amount of sunny days and the amount of rainfall would help us generate our own electricity and collect rainwater, and that the state had plenty of counties with little or no restrictions on building.

Once we had finished the work at the Kansas house and it was on the market, we were free to start looking for our perfect piece of land. And while I didn't really think that we'd find what we wanted (and could afford!) on our first outing, Pete was more optimistic. We headed out in the truck, Loki tucked away in the back seat, and made our way out east towards Tennessee. We have friends in Knoxville who were willing to store some bulky items and some of my bigger plants for a few months until we got set up on our property. This also meant less things to pack in the RV or on the trailer on our final trip out east.

Lessons Learned:

1. Be sure your wireless carrier provides good signal in the area you're looking. Unfortunately, we had horrible signal with T-Mobile in most of the rural parts of Tennessee. This meant we that we were blind in some areas, even if we downloaded an off-line map, because finding some of these properties was very difficult if you couldn't refer back to the listing. We were using electronic listings, and so without a paper copy, there were times when we couldn't find the property at all.

2. Be sure you're in a rugged vehicle, because there were plenty of properties that didn't have any kind of paved or even graveled access road.

3. The descriptions in the listings are not very accurate and subject to the owner's interpretation. Gently rolling or gently sloped could mean a section too steep to build on. The only way to know for sure is to go see each one with your own eyes.

4. Even if you find that piece of land that you think is perfect, it's important to get an idea of the surrounding area, towns and shops. This might be especially important if you are going to build - we needed to know what kind of building supply stores were in close proximity. And I wanted to know where the closest Aldi was :)

I couldn't tell you how many properties we looked at, probably around 50, and none of them were what we wanted; either the land was not conducive to building, or the land was covered by a covenant that had building restrictions, or the area/neighborhood was one in which I wasn't willing to live. In the middle of the week, we were looking at various properties in the Cumberland Plateau area. As we were looking at one of the properties, we encountered a neighbor out for a walk and we struck up a conversation, telling her we were looking for property in the area. She wished us well and went on her way. After we finished looking at the property and were heading out of the neighborhood, we came upon the lady whom we had just met and she was waiving us down, with another woman in tow. That's when we met Melissa, who is a real estate agent, and who found us the property we eventually bought. It was the last property we were going to see before we headed back to Kansas. I remember it was a foggy and cold morning, and I opted to stay at the hotel to pack us up, sending Pete out on his own to meet with Melissa and inspect the land. I didn't have high hopes since we'd been looking for almost a week with no luck. But the minute Pete got back to the room, he said "We've found our property!"

Which brings me to my final lesson learned...use a local realtor who's willing to do more for you than just simply send you listings! Look for someone who will do the research to find land to your specifications, who understands what covenants are and what they mean, and who is willing to meet and walk the property with you.

We closed on the property in the middle of December. Instead of doing the closing virtually, we decided to drive back and start clearing the some of the land. Our property is 5 acres, in the shape of a triangle, which is how we came up with the name Slice of Life. It's densely wooded with mostly young pine trees, tulip poplars and some oaks (and wild thorny blackberries everywhere!). On the day of the closing, we were able to get a street address assigned to us, and then we were ready to start the work! Our first priority was to cut a driveway from the road up to the area where we plan to build the house. Pete rented a mini excavator - boys and their toys - and started to knock down trees!