The closing date for my dream farm is just under 5 months away – it’s a perfect 10 acre blank slate that will allow me to build the homestead dream I’ve been working towards since I was a kid.
While the preparation time is nice, I’m soooo impatient to be there and get to work!
As closing day draws nearer, the to-do list will become increasingly granular. A lot of these tasks – packing, buying furniture, making final decorating decisions – can’t be completed yet.
In an effort to maintain the broader vision for my homestead, I’m steering my anxious energy towards productivity in the following ways:
1. Getting back into sourdough
My sourdough starter, Dianne, has been alive and well since 2019 – despite the fact that I’ve forgotten her in the back of the fridge on more than one occasion!
One of my reasons for chasing the homestead dream is to live a more intentional life, and for me, that involves making time to enjoy more of the little things. There are few joys greater than fresh baked bread.
I make a great sourdough bread, but with 36 hours of time invested into each loaf, it can be all too easy to skip it in favor of a grocery store loaf.
While I can’t speed up the timetable to start actually building my homestead, I can start living the lifestyle that I’ve been striving for – so I’m shooting to use my sourdough starter at least once or twice a week. So far I’ve been revisiting my tried and true recipes (bread and pancakes) but hopefully soon I will have the time to explore some new recipes.
2. Revisiting resources (books, magazines)
Like any homestead dreamer, I have amassed a collection of homestead related materials: books, magazines, article links, YouTube videos, podcasts. They kept me going over the years as I worked towards this goal, although it often felt like I was lightyears away from putting ideas into practice.
Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s time to go back through some of those resources and see what will be useful in the immediate future. I put together a stack of my favorite books, and also went through the 2023 issues of Self-Reliance magazine (which gleaned many useful ideas). I am enjoying a reread of The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing, especially because I wrote hilarious notes in the margins many years ago when I read it for the first time – I was idealistic, but dedicated!
3. Planning my future orchard
While I have a lot of experience with gardening, I have little to no experience with fruit trees. Maintaining a small, productive orchard is an important part of my homestead plan – so I have been researching and planning the first steps of orchard installment.
4. Researching and prioritizing DIY tasks
Now that I have seen and documented the inside of the house through the inspection process, I have a better idea of what will need to be done. In addition to scraping popcorn ceilings and painting almost everything, there will be some other quality of life upgrades that I will want to complete soon after move-in. I inherited almost every tool in the hardware store from my dad – but it’s up to me to figure out how to use them.
For example, I plan to replace the outlets because they are old and discolored. I watched a few videos and feel like I am capable of accomplishing this task.
I will also want to remove the ceiling fans, which are dated. It seems like removal is pretty straightforward, but I’m trying to decide how to replace them:
- recessed lighting? (lots of work, will need to hire someone)
- new fixture (easiest, but nothing is really my style and I don’t generally like “the big light”)
- patch and make do with lamps?
To be determined…
I plan to bingewatch some This Old House (YouTube clips as well as on streaming) just to get some other DIY ideas. Many years ago I watched an episode where they replaced a toilet, and I became 100% confident that I would be capable of completing this task. I might need to put myself to the test on that one – the toilets in the house are dated, too. 😂
5. Refining my dream homestead’s paint palette
It’s trendy right now, but I’ve always loved green. However, as everyone keeps telling me, not everything in my house can be green. And even with a green theme, there are a million greens to choose from.
The inspection process allowed for a really slow, comprehensive look at the inside of the house – so I’ve been browsing paint palettes that might bring my interior design vision to life. Pinterest was really great to get me started, which lead me to the paint store to take home some options and see how they look with my lighting and decor.
I won’t finalize anything until after closing so that I can test some colors in the actual space, but I want to line up a few options ahead of time. Do you have any recommendations for paint companies – Sherwin Williams (pictured above), Behr, Benjamin Moore?
Now that the hard part of negotiating, navigating the legal process, and signing contracts is over, I’m starting to get really excited about all the changes to come. I can’t wait to share the process of actually building this homestead.
What are you doing to move towards your homestead dream this month?
Talk soon,
KC
Leave a Reply