Planning the move to a shtf haven

[O.S.O.K.]

It's been a long process so far, and there's a lot more to do to get settled in a "good" shtf location and situation.

So far, we've accomplished:

1) Decide to make the move - this is probably the hardest step!
2) Plan the financial aspects of the move and set parameters for the rest of the plan.
3) Select a general location for the land
4) Do the search and make the land purchase
5) Develop a plan for the new house (under way) and plan the steps needed to complete
6) Sell the current house and release the equity (this is in-progress right now)

Yet to do:

7) Move to rental house (our youngest has one more year of HS to complete)
8) Get all preps for building accomplished on the land - electricity, water and phone/internet connections made
9) Begin the building process on-site
10) Purchase and place the storeage building/garage that will hold all of our stuff while we finish the house
11) Construct a small part of the house to the point that we can live in it and work out of that to finish the rest of the house
12) Move-in
13) Steadily construct the rest of the house in steps - paying as we go for the materials and labor as needed for each step until the house is completed.

This is a big "project" but I am confident that we can do it. My wife and I have been through a lot together and we've always been able to work together and handle the stress that this kind of thing can cause.

The biggest key to success is keeping the right attitude (can-do), having it all planned out and working to steadily accomplish the steps. The planning is key though - it allows peace of mind and let's you "feel" the progress towards the goal. That is really important.

After we get this done, I may write a book about the experience. That'd be kinda cool... I guess we will need to take lots of pictures as we go.

But, first things first. :)

[El Laton Caliente]

I still would like to suggest an RV or park model trailer parked on the property as a cheaper, more cost effective measure compared to a rental. It can always be sold later if you want, used as a guest house or a hunting, camping, vacation accommodation. It also lets you watch the contractor and that can be important.

For the garage, I would suggest to look into a larger metal shop building. Metal buildings are almost maintenance free and very cost effective for a large covered secure space. They can be upgraded later with insulation and toilets if you plan ahead. With acreage you will need to secure tractor, attachments, mowers, other heavy equipment and a lot of tools you are going to have a good ammount invested in.

[jojo]

I still would like to suggest an RV or park model trailer

I tend to agree with that. With the current economy you can pick them up on the cheap and even the FEMA ones can be had Brand New for cheap at auction. I bought one to leave in Columbus, Ms for the days that I didn't feel like driving home and it paid for itself. Was real comfortable in the summer and winter. I ended up letting a friend of mine have it when he went thru a divorce and he ended up selling it to a friend when it had outlived it's usefulness to him. Both of us were prior service so the small space didn't bother us. You can make a septic tank out of 2x55 gallon drums.

[rahatlakhoom]

Sounds like you are trained and prepped for some roughing it.
I know we just went thru 18 months of transition from selling old house and
fixing up the new property. House was already here, but it's a ton of work.
Even more taxing when we are raising a 2 year old grand daughter on top of it.

Keep the vision alive and have fun if you can.
It's a process, and if you stick with it, you will at some point feel as if
you have died and gone to heaven when things take shape.

The pics of your place look glorious.
Go for it.

[O.S.O.K.]

Thanks guys.

We are going to be living in the same community as we live now in a rental house for the next year while our son finishes high school.

We will have the basement and foundation poured and then finish one end of the house to live in, so no need for a trailer or anything else. We can stay with our friends for that job over a weekend. We acutally have to have the basement excavated and foundation engineered first - then we'll place the eco blocks for the basement and finally, the pouring. I'll probably just take a week off for that first part.

And for the storage building/garage, we were planning on going with a metal building - we've already located a dealer there for that and saw the buildings.

I've left out a lot of things that we've already done - we met with the electric man already to discuss where the line would be coming in too.

As to contractors - we will do most all of the work ourselves. We probably will have some of it done and of course, we'll be living there at that time.

[slamfire51]

Your plans sound great.
#10 would be my biggest concern, depending on the neighbors.
As mentioned, a steel building would be best for securing tools, etc.
But you know no building is thief-proof.

[O.S.O.K.]

I hear you. Our road has little to no traffic. Our neighbor accross the road seems to be a great guy. Haven't met his wife yet.

We will be living there when the storage building gets it's contents.

I am going to place 24 hour survelance signs and will in fact, be placeing some - even if it's just a NV game camera or two and some good fake video cams.

Bad guys don't like anybody that's prepared for them - especially if the preps are unknown...

Once I locate one, I'll also be placing a sign near the entrance that states "if you can read this, you're in range..." :lool:

My buddy has one of those - friends just laugh at it but he's never been screwed with. :)

I'll also be fabricating an automatic gate using a garage door opener - but I've gotta run the power down to it first...

[slamfire51]

When my house I built back in 2003 and 80% done, some escapees from a reform school in AL threw a concrete block through the bedroom window and destroyed several rooms of finished drywall through out the house.
They caught them breaking into another house down the road. A damn good thing I didn't catch the bastards. Blood is hard to get off painted drywall.

I was out the money and time to repair their fun.

[O.S.O.K.]

I'm not really expecting any trouble but you never know...

I am going to be getting a couple of large dogs for the place too - the wife likes labs so it'll probably be that or maybe chesapeke bay retreievers if I can find some. Either will like the pond :)

[slamfire51]

I'm not really expecting any trouble but you never know...

I am going to be getting a couple of large dogs for the place too - the wife likes labs so it'll probably be that or maybe chesapeke bay retreievers if I can find some. Either will like the pond :)

Labs are good people dogs. Sure, they will bark, but wimp out for a good petting. At least mine does. He's a mix of German Shepard and Lab.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/Canis-latrans/ballinmouthjohnny001-1.jpg

Now this guy is people friendly ONLY after he sees you for a few times. He can hear people walking down the road 100 feet from the house with the doors and windows closed. He is a barker for sure and barks at slow moving vehicles and ones that stop in front of the property. He loves to alert me when my UPS guy delivers.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/Canis-latrans/blockhead004.jpg