Two years ago today we were surveying our property lines. We had moved out of our big house in the suburbs and into a teeny tiny apartment with three fugitive cats (I can admit it now, but yes, we didn’t pay the deposit for them.) I have very good reasons. First, they wanted $300 per cat! Second, it was all non-refundable. I mean, come on. I’m fine with giving you the money until I prove to you that the cats aren’t destructive but never getting it back? We moved into the apartment to save money not waste it.
And so, we lived in fear (or maybe just me, because I have always maintained a very healthy respect for authority). Towards the end I think the manager was on to us and started staging an inspection once a month for super random reasons. At this point we were months from moving out so it made zero sense to fess up and pay. So the three felines and I would ninja our way around the complex, in laundry baskets and blankets, covertly avoiding capture or discovery. What a HUGE pain in the ass!
But it was worth it, since that $900 bought us our first three sheep 
And, if you are new to the blog, or to following us, you can view videos of us building our barn. We built the entire thing just me & him, except for the guy we got off craigslist to help with the day-of concrete pour and the team of guys who shingled our roof. There are a whole bunch on our youtube channel which you can visit by clicking here >> or you can click the links below. Here are my personal favorites:
- Clearing the Barn This one doesn’t have music but I will always get a kick out of my struggle and my completely oblivious husband…of course, maybe that’s why I’m so tough
- Surveying our Property Lines This video has a few haters…but I just remember what my Mama always told me, “Haters gonna hate”. Well not really like that but, you get the picture.
- Busted! A quick, fun laugh that gets me everytime. Nothing to do with construction. Just my handsome husband
- Dig, Fill, Set I love this video, it’s me and Mr. Nick setting the posts for our barn. Probably one of our most stressful days but also one of the best feelings when they were all in!
- Raising the barn beams When I see these beams, I still can’t believe we did it.
So here’s to celebrating milestones! Two years ago today we were staking out our property corners, and now, here we are, on our farm.
I’ll have to have you speak to my wife lol. I laid out the fastest route to buying a farm and in was rejected because of the word “apartment.”
You guys are awesome, and an inspiration to a semi-urban homesteader like myself.
Thank you Justin! Moving out of our big house was an adjustment but I honestly believe it was the best thing that ever happened to us. There is no way we could have done things as quick as we did with a house payment instead of apartment rent. As a bonus, living a year without all that “stuff” you buy to fill a home was the best eye-opening experience for me. As we were pulling things out of our storage unit I found myself saying, “didn’t miss it, didn’t miss it, didn’t miss it” and so it all went. And now we live with very little and I’ve never been happier…it’s just the initial period of transition that really was no fun.
Don’t get me wrong, living in the apartment was no fun too, we were in a middle unit (couldn’t get a ground floor because of the cats) and basically trapped in a box, overlooking an ATV dealership, SO LOUD! But thinking about the apartment now is just a distant, semi-hilarious memory. Don’t want to do it again but so glad we did
You guys crack me up! Nice work on the surveying and the barn and general do-it-yourself-ing — let the haters be haters — you’re getting it done and having fun (I didn’t mean for that to rhyme, but whatever
) and enjoying life. Good for you! Kudos on accomplishing so much in two short years. 
Look at you spittin’ rhymes
Thanks Valerie! I had to laugh at some of the comments on the surveying video because p00nicknick is Mr. Nick…I didn’t realize he had been commenting on the video until I went to pull this post together and I quite literally, almost peed my pants.
Hahah fugitive cats! – well said! That’s awesome! Congrats on your milestone!!!! Very exciting indeed! Very impressed with your barn building skills. Wade – when not playing at the sale barn is on a barn building crew. Everytime we take a ride through the home turf he points outs which barns he built along the highway. LOL. I don’t know how we would fair trying to build anything of that scale. We fix fence in harmony, but he is awful picky!
You may surprise yourself! We flipped a house back in 2007 which was a good primer for working together. I think with our barn it was easy because we were both so driven by the same dream
but there were moments when I got overwhelmed by the size of our project. That’s when Mr. Nick reminded me to just take it 16″ at a time.