In 56 days we will be starting our 52 week voyage across the USA. Our family of four (along with our pug) will leave our 5,000 sq. ft. house and we will be making our 5th wheel, Gipzee, our home for those 52 weeks. Gipzee has a bit under 500 sq. ft. Looks like we’ll be living in 10% of the amount of space we’re accustomed to living in.
Is this bad? Not really. But I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t be an adjustment.
Especially for my husband who has gone to a job for the past 17 1/2 years and hasn’t had to spend every.single.moment.of.everyday with me and the kids. The thought of his transition makes me chuckle a bit! Haha!
Now, unlike many families living on the road – we will be coming home – to our home – when we are done with our road trip. We have not sold everything we have and we are keeping our home. So, this definitely is an easier season for us than it has been for many others. Yes, we are leaving, but we will be coming home at the end. But, even at that, we will all have to learn to live life differently. Shift our perspective.
Personally, I like space. I like a little elbow room. I like that our home has a “sitting room” that doesn’t get used all the time and stays clean longer. It’s a great place to drink coffee and read a book or to have conversations with friends who stop by for the evening. It houses shelves and shelves of books, photo albums and framed photos. I painted it “lollipop lime” green. It’s my ‘happy green’ room (our feature image was taken in that room)! Then we have a family room / TV room – where we can lounge, watch movies, eat on the furniture, pull out puzzles and legos – and leave them out – because we have enough space to have a “comfy” room.
Our sitting room. This was taken at night, but it still looks cool!
We have a wonderful master suite and each kid has their own bedroom (and they share a bathroom). We have a laundry room. An office. A guest room. A living room area with a school area on one side. Five bathrooms. A deck off the kitchen. A deck off the master bedroom. A brick patio off our living room. A decent sized kitchen and eating area. We have TONS of storage. And closets. My brother loves all of our closets – they never end. We have 5 acres. A view of the mountains, pine trees and beautiful blue skies almost every day of the year.
When we walk out our front door we hear horses, chickens and every now and then you might hear a donkey or goat. We truly live in a beautiful and serene place. We have neighbors, but you don’t see their houses and very rarely hear anyone or any traffic. I’ve grown to love this atmosphere. Everything about our life here shouts “space!”
I enjoy my space. Immensely!
[The remaining pics are of Gipzee and were taken shortly after we brought her home in October 2017 and there were no personal touches done at that time. As we near our departure date, I am slowly adding more of “us” to help make this a home for us while we are on the road. I will post pics of her when we are getting ready to leave. I still have a ways to go to make her “home-y” – which is uber important to me.]
The home we lived in before this house had an open floor plan. I loved it, but it also meant that the one big room was the main room for everything. If you were having people over, you had to transform it from the children’s playroom to a room suitable for people to sit on the furniture and not hurt themselves tripping over toys. Again, this isn’t a bad thing, but I prefer the extra space.
(Gipzee’s view from the front door – kitchen, dining area and you can see the bunk house in the back)
(The TV area/family room/kitchen)
Shoot, I grew up in a family of 5 (always with a number of pets in tow, including a pot-bellied pig) and we usually lived in smaller homes. I shared a room with my older sister until I was in high school. I’m pretty sure that in every room, every piece of furniture touched each other because there wasn’t enough square footage to space things out. But, you know what? Some of my most favorite memories are in those homes, with the small spaces, where we’d have 20 people packed into our small house for a holiday dinner or graduation party. Doing life with people, in large or small spaces, is more about the relationships than it is the square footage. Perspective.
(The kitchen)
(View from the dining table…kitchen/TV/stairs to bathroom and master bedroom)
We purchased our 5th wheel, Gipzee, back in October and for the last 7 months I’ve stood inside it just staring. Going from room to room and envisioning how I will make this space our home for the next year. It will definitely be a comfy place and we’ll get lots of snuggle time, much to our daughter’s dismay, yet an absolute dream come true for our son.
(View from bunkhouse area – Charley warming his hands by the electric fireplace – haha! We currently have 3 wood burning fireplaces in our home!)
A lot of people have told me they don’t think they could do it. Move from a large home to a 5th wheel, with 1/10 of the living space. As my mom says, “You can make anything work!” I agree with her 100%! Perspective.
(Stairway to master bedroom and main bath)
I’m excited for this up and coming adventure. Will I miss my sitting room where I sit, drink tea or coffee and watch deer walk through our front yard? Um, of course I will. Am I going to miss my big bedroom with a huge picture window that shows me the magnificent Rocky Mountains every time I look out? Absolutely. Will I miss walking 300ft down to the chicken coop, setting up a camping chair and hanging with the flock as they free range, chatter away and take naps on my lap? With tears in my eyes, a resounding YES!
(Taken near dusk, so it’s dark, but this is the master bedroom)
(A washer/dryer combo. May not be suitable for all our laundry needs, but will definitely be great for emergency washes!)
Yet, in all that I’ll miss, I welcome this time to reconnect with my family as a whole and together. I look forward to learning about my kids and spouse in a new way and in a new environment. I will grow to love snuggle time again, since it’s been years since my littles have wanted to randomly snuggle. I will value what truly matters the most – which isn’t space, but people. I will accept all the memory making moments with open arms and an open heart.
And as our epoch48 winds down in May 2019, I will be excited to return home to my space and my surroundings and my chickens – to continue doing life with my favorite people and making even more memories to hand down to the generations after us.
5,000 or 500. I can enjoy life either way. It’s all about perspective.
Here’s to taking risks, to stepping out of the boat, to swimming upstream and to stepping out of comfort zones!
56 days and counting….