Starting Over... Again

My original job in Houston offer fell through - AFTER we had sold our house and made it to Texas.

We ended up living in my buddy's garage for a few months and I reluctantly took a job in Austin that wasn't a great fit for me - and it was an hours drive from where we were staying. But, the bills needed to get paid.

It didn't take long before the garage living situation became unbearable, so we moved into a 3 bedroom apartment (closer to work) the first chance we could. We never really unpacked though. We just weren't ready to settle in yet.

House Hunting

Since a lot of property was is dirt cheap in Texas, we decided to make the best of the situation and look for a house and continue with our homesteading mission.

We started house hunting and put offers in a few different houses - none of which ever went through. It was REALLY frustrating.

Our luck eventually changed and we found a really awesome turn of the century house in Lampasas. It was really out of the way, but we decided to go ahead and put an offer in on it anyways.

The house needed A LOT of work so it required special financing and bids from contractors.

The owner was more than happy to accept our offer while we worked out the details.

Most of the house was gutted so we were working with a clean slate. We were able to design the kitchen from the ground up which was awesome.


We did all the design work ourselves and had a really good plan on what we wanted to happen and how we'd do it within budget. The contractors were all in agreeance. We were ecstatic with how things were going.

One day we took a walk downtown and while window shopping at an antique store we were introduced to the President of the local Chamber of Commerce. She was able to give us the whole history of the house we were getting ready to buy. Apparently, for a number of years, it was run as a hospice - which explains the poorly constructed rooms that were built on the deck. Something we had planned to return to its former glory.

The stories just made our hearts swell a little larger with pride and we were happy that we were going to be able to call this house and the city of Lampasas home.

Because of the type of loan we were getting the process took a little longer than the normal. It was a grueling process that required patience.

We were about four weeks into it and about two weeks away from closing when the hammer dropped.

We got some bad news. AGAIN.

After working my ass off for six months, I was losing my job. It was more or less a mutual decision - not based on the quality of my work but the ability to perform the job over the long term with my bad back. I was a liability. Oh well, I didn't much like the job anyways, so I wasn't all that heartbroken about it. Now I could just go find another job.

If it were only that easy, though.

I took me almost three months just to get that last job, and Liz hadn't had any luck finding work since we got to Texas. 

What in the hell were we going to do about the house? Do we just not say anything to the finance company and hope were able to figure something out before the first mortgage payment is due? That was an option I suppose but probably not the smart choice.

After a lot of thought, we decided to back out. It was just safer that way. We didn't want to get stuck in a house that we couldn't pay for - in a state that was thousands of miles from our other family.

Even with the bad news (again), we weren't quite ready to call it quits on Texas. We came down here to get our own fresh start. There'd be other houses and there'd be other jobs.

My ex-father-in-law called me one day out of the blue and said they had noticed or heard that we were struggling. He told me that if ever wanted to move back to Washington that we were more than welcome to move into one of their rentals in the Vancouver/Portland area. We'd only have to pay the cost of the mortgage. No pressure - just letting us know that it was an option if we ever needed it.

It was a really nice gesture to which I said thank you and that I'd let him know if it came down to it. We put that idea in our back pocket for later use, if need be.

We spent the next month or so looking for other jobs but didn't have much luck and we lived off of our savings. It wasn't long before we were at the point of no return - we had just enough money left to move back to Washington if we still wanted.

Decisions, decisions.

The lease was up on our apartment the following month and since we had no promising leads on jobs we had a choice to make. Stay and live on faith that something would come our way OR head back to the Pacific Northwest and be closer to our family.

Since I was no longer working, in the meantime I thought it best if I used my veterans benefits and started going back to school and hit the books full-time. This was a great idea but it also dawned on us that it would be a lot easier if we had family around to help with kids and stuff at the same time.

We called up my ex-father-in-law and told him we'd take him up on the house offer.

Less than a year after uprooting the family and driving across the country we found ourselves doing it again but this time, heading back to the Evergreen State.

Road Trip!

Our trip back was eventful. Late into our first day on the road, the brand new trailer lost a wheel in Oklahoma City and had to make an unscheduled overnight stay. I was able to find the parts and fix it the next morning, thankfully. We then drove through the boring heart of Midwest and made our way into Colorado and stopped for the night, before shooting up north into Wyoming the following day. Our unscheduled pitstop put us a day and a half behind schedule. When we got to Wyoming, we spent a few days in Jackson Hole for Liz's brother's wedding and gazed at the Grand Teton mountains the whole time we were there - or at least I did. It was absolutely beautiful and I was mesmerized. We continued on to Montana, stopping about an hour north of Missoula and saw an Uncle of mine that I hadn't seen since I was a kid. The air is just so refreshing there and landscape was like a Bob Ross painting. We didn't want to leave. Eventually, we pushed further west and ended up in Vancouver, WA. Our new home.

That's it. It's a nice place and we were given free reign with the yard to do what we wanted which is awesome. But, we can't have chickens which made us a little sad. I really miss having chickens.

The yard is small, which has its challenges, but we're excited to see what we can do with it. We're planning on being here for a few years to give the kids some stability.

Hopefully, we can get a large variety of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. That's the goal for now.