Check out part 1 our Adventures in Living without a Mortgage Series
Making a Plan to Live Mortgage Free
Out of all the things that are considered “normal” in America, mortgages land pretty high on the list. Buying a home is the goal of many young people – especially young couples, eager to establish their life together. But how many of us stop to consider what we are doing to ourselves? Maybe you have – if so congrats! I’d love to hear what conclusions you’ve come to.
My husband and I have gone over and over this dilemma. We go back and forth, but never really feel content with choosing to commit to a mortgage….
Our Story
Years ago, we owned a home. We got a great deal on a fixer-upper and jumped in wholeheartedly. My husband spent untold hours remodeling that little house and, in the end, we sold it right before the market crashed and broke even (almost to the dollar) for what we had spent on it. We were pretty convinced that we did not want the stresses of home ownership for a very, very long time.
Now, after years of renting, we still struggle with whether or not to buy a house…
In a world where mortgages are rampant and accepted by almost everyone, I’m just not ready for that again. I’m not ready to tack on $100,000-$200,000+ in debt in one moment.
Yet renting, at least where we live, is quite expensive. We hand over $14,000+ a year in rental checks. That doesn’t feel good either.
Are there any good options?
We have run the gamut of ideas. We have looked into countless home options, we’ve read books, we’ve scoured the internet over and over. There are other options out there. They are just unconventional and take some serious gumption and creativity. For example, we have looked into earth bag homes, square bale homes, cob building, wall tents, tiny homes, portable sheds converted to cabins, campers, yurts…people have done some pretty amazing things.
One problem for us is the affordability of any of those ideas and/or the lack of land to make them a viable option.
Jumping in
After so much back and forth, trying to figure out what will work for us, we took a leap of faith and bought a camper. A Camper?! I know, is that really an answer? Well, honestly, we’re not sure!
But here is what we did.
We went out and found a 30 year old camper on Craigslist. We paid cash for it. We joke that it is the first dwelling place we have ever really and truly owned.
My husband is currently gutting the entire camper and we are hoping to rebuild it into a fully functioning home. Or, at least, that’s the dream. Honestly, we really don’t know what will come of it. We could just sell it when we are done or…we could try…living in it.
Sort of like a Tiny Home
Because we appreciate a lot of aspects of the tiny home movement, we are hoping to use our camper in the same sort of way. There are so many people that have found freedom in living in very small (usually mobile) homes. For us, a tiny home was a above our budget. So, we decided to compromise and make a sort of tiny home out of a camper.
We will be updating you all as the project progresses. For today, I’m sharing all of our “before” pictures. You’ll need some imagination to see its potential! 😉 Um, well you’ll need more than some imagination…you will probably need tons of imagination!
Ok, now that you’ve seen it, you know how much work we are in store for…there are leaks, mold, and things that don’t work…but we are eager to see the transformation.. Next time I’ll share share what happened when my husband gutted the camper. Let’s just say it didn’t go as planned…
Here’s to the dream of living mortgage free!
Do you live mortgage free? How do you do it – any advice?! We’d love to hear from you!
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