In 2015 we bought our first house- a plain and simple little 3 bedroom. We loved it, made it our own, and did a lot of updates ourselves. Almost all of the little bit of skill and handiness we have we gained improving that house.
Over the five and a half years that we lived there we painted the interior and exterior, fixed small plumbing issues, replaced toilets, redid the bathroom and kitchen fixtures, built shelves, ripped out the old carpet and replaced the floors, painted cabinets and put on hardware, tore out a fiberglass shower and hired my dad to put in a beautiful tile one, took off shingles and assisted in putting on a new metal roof, replaced the countertops, and also landscaped the front and back yard- spreading gravel, planting grass and trees, building garden boxes and a pergola and fire pit.
As we lived there, a dream grew in our minds and conversations: a dream of someday owning a piece of land where our family could have space to explore and play and grow a big garden and expand our growing backyard mini-farm. We also dreamed of creating the potential to be a multigenerational family as we learned of the significance in that lost-in-our-society way of life.
In 2018 we had enough money saved to start looking for property seriously. We found a small parcel way out in the woods that I wanted urgently and wasted no time in talking to the realtor- only to be told it was already under contract. I cried disappointed tears and prayed for God to make a way. His plans are always so much better than ours, and I’ve looked back with relief and gratitude so many times over the years that we weren’t able to buy that property- it would’ve been too far from town to be practical for us and would’ve sat there for years and years while we saved up to put basic utilities on it (it had none). Soon after this we found our land- 17 acres in Las Palomas- and bought it a few weeks before the new year.
My dad gave us good advice mid-year 2019 to make a budget plan and try to save a certain amount of money in a year. After a year of being very strict with ourselves, we had achieved that financial goal- about the same time that Justin miraculously survived a very dangerous car crash. In the months he was on leave from work recovering, as we finally had time to connect and talk, we made the RV plan- to buy a used fifth wheel that we’d be able to live in while we had a house built on the land. We would need the money from the sale of our house to build a new one, so selling it and having the RV in the interim would be a good and doable solution.
We listed our house the day after Christmas and were blessed to be able to accept an offer eight days later.
Reading “The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own” inspired me and gave me the permission I didn’t know I needed to get rid of a bunch of stuff. So much stuff. I don’t even know how or why we had that much stuff.
We had multiple yard sales and “free sales” which, I discovered, is the best and easiest way to get rid of things- we set everything down at the bottom of the driveway- stained rugs, bagged would-be-going-to-the-thrift-store clothes, shelves and chairs on their “last leg”, a bin of old toys I snuck down when the kids were otherwise occupied, etc.- put a big “FREE” sign next to it all, and literally forget about it. People (at least in our town) are scavengers. We did three “free sales” and everything was gone within hours each time. It gave me a real appreciation for the saying “one man’s trash is another mans treasure”.
Doing small updates on the RV during this time was also a priority. We knew we couldn’t afford to do anything huge, and in the end, it’s an RV, so putting a ton of money into renovations wouldn’t be profitable; still, as the homemaker, I wanted to make this a lovely little home for us, for however long we were to live in it. We ended up painting the walls, cabinets, and doors, which made a huge difference in brightening up the space (I always use Clare paint because of their greenguard certification- it’s the only house paint I’ve ever used that doesn’t give me a headache and make me irritable). Besides paint, I also installed some peel and stick wallpaper to cover the places where there were those not-so-pretty decorative stripes. This faux-brick wallpaper didn’t have a chemical/glue smell and didn’t give me issues with sensitivity. We took out the outdated flooring and replaced it with vinyl planks, put in a new RV toilet, and took out the bench seating, putting in these pretty white metal stools instead. I also took off the cloth trim along the slide-out and doorway and measured out plain 1×4 and 1×6 boards to go in their place. What a difference these changes made!
What we didn’t get rid of we put in a storage unit, then squeezed everything we currently need and want into that fifth wheel, and made the move.
Moving was exciting at first. And hard. I’ve heard moving is as stressful as there being a death in the family- not the same kind of stress, but the same amount. On top of the stress of moving, and the adjustment of living in a tiny space with five people, there was the overwhelm of learning how to live in an RV. I wasn’t prepared to have to really do anything differently than in a house, but oh, let me tell you, it is very different. Things like draining tanks every few days, an obvious one (though one I didn’t expect to be so difficult), down to not so obvious things like brushing our teeth at the kitchen sink instead of the bathroom because the noise of teeth brushing is otherwise right next to baby Perry trying to sleep.
The first summer was the hardest because of the heat. There were days when the indoor temperature never dropped below 90°, even with the air conditioner on high all day. RVs just don’t have the insulating capabilities that houses do. I remember one evening trying to nurse Perry to sleep on the bed, both of us sweating profusely; he was all fussy because of how hot it was. I was fussy too. I got online to desperately search for any solution for cooling it down. I read reviews on little portable air conditioners, ordered cooling towels from amazon, then decided we couldn’t wait for them and ordered more for a Walmart pickup order. I scoured Pinterest for ideas and found a giant shade cloth designed for this very problem, but it cost hundreds of dollars, and the DIYer in me saw a project that looked possible on a budget. So we bought shade cloth and PVC pipes and built our own version, strapping it to our roof. It actually worked really well and lowered the indoor temp to below 80° on those intense 100° days.
I constantly wavered, in those first weeks, from “we’ve totally got this!” to “I CAN’T TAKE ANOTHER SECOND” depending on things like the temperature, the mess, and the smell.
Besides the heat, the weather also attacked us with wind. Spring wind is fierce in southern New Mexico. I’d never been in an RV in the kind of wind we get but quickly learned it’s rather terrifying. I was thankful to at least have shelter, but the way it rocked back and forth and shook with every gust felt so unstable, so fragile. I remembered that a few years before several boats and RVs blew over, like, flat on their sides, at the lake near us in extreme wind, and because of that I had enormous amounts of anxiety when it would get really windy. I had to give it to God daily, trusting the peace that surpasses understanding to cover me as I thanked God for safety. We eventually found this RV stabilizer that I highly recommend if living long term in an RV; besides keeping it more stable during windy weather, it also helps reduce rocking from people walking up and down the stairs as well as from general stomping around inside.
The plan in moving out here was to build our dream house. To use the profit from the sale of our old house as a down payment on a construction loan and live in the RV for a *few months* while having the house built for us, pitching in some labor to keep costs down and using adobe to cut out most toxins and VOCs that would be present in a stick-built house.
The perfect plan, or so we thought.
Unfortunately, the same circumstances (inflated economy) that allowed us to sell our house for more than we ever thought possible and more quickly than we imagined were the same circumstances that caused our price tag on the dream house to be far out of reach. We decided to go for a smaller square footage to solve the problem, but as costs climbed with inflation, even that wasn’t enough to make it a comfortable mortgage, and when we reduced the size even further, our appraisal fell through, the price per square foot not meeting what the finished house would need to appraise for in order for the bank to give us a loan.
Looking back, its easy to be thankful for God’s grace protecting us from a huge, stressful mortgage. Still, it’s easy to long for a house- a little elbow room, the ability to flush a toilet normally, the stability of being in the ground, not on wheels, and space to have friends over for dinner more comfortably, not to mention heating and cooling that actually heat and cool sufficiently.
Meanwhile, uncertainty was taking its toll. Over these months of waiting, we had been plagued with doubt. Did we even want to live here? Why did we buy this land to begin with? What if we just buy another house somewhere else? Should we even live in this state?? Where is the BEST POSSIBLE place we could ever live?
Never ending “possibilities” were really a prison. It reminded me of the study I’d learned about that observed children on a different playgrounds, one with a fence and one without. The children with a fence ran all over the place freely, while those without a fence huddled near the teachers and were reluctant to go far from them. Limitations and boundaries offer freedom. I know, this post-modern society thinks all boundaries from bad times to marriage to gender should be removed. But as much as people may try to deny it, we are happier with boundaries and more fulfilled with rules and limitations. If we could really “do anything we set our minds to” we’d be miserable trying to figure out the best possible option.
Which we were- miserable, that is.
Finally we started to actually seek God’s plan instead of just hastily making plan after plan of our own.
Realizing we’d be in the RV at least another summer or two while we either waited for prices to drop or started work on a house ourselves, we ordered a custom RV port with a garage attached so we’d be able to store our furniture and stuff with us instead of renting storage. We decided to have it installed in the back portion of our land, near where we wanted the house to be eventually. We had a septic tank installed and electricity put in, as well as a water line from our well at the front.
The kids and I spent our winter mornings shoveling gravel and spreading it under the RV port. Justin hooked up an electric box to the panel at the meter pole. My dad was the one who did all the water for us- dug the trench with his tractor and actually laid all the pex-pipe, 400 feet of it, while we laid inside sick with the flu!
We moved the RV a few days after New Year 2022. My dad hooked us up to his truck and pulled us back. The kids and I rode in it while moving up, so we could make sure nothing broke. It was the craziest quarter of a mile anyone ever drove- the kids were wild with excitement, and a pan fell to the ground halfway up, causing great anxiety and even greater thrill.
It’s been so nice to be set up back here. So peaceful and more secluded feeling than when we were down by the road. And the storage is wonderful because we can store things that before would just sit outside and look junky. It’s amazing how easy it is to make outside an RV look junky. Like, literally just set an empty flower pot and a kids bike laying on its side outside and it looks like a dump (and that was definitely not all that we had outside. Add a washing machine, some makeshift pallet animal shelters, a stroller, clothes hanging to dry, an old picnic table that never empties of legos and modeling clay, the occasional stuffed animal left behind and shoes all over the place… yikes).
The garage also gives us a place to have a washer and dryer, which is a life changer for any family of five. We used this tiny portable washing machine, washing, spinning, and hanging 3-5 tiny loads per day to keep up- for 10 months while we were down in the front. It did the job wonderfully, but still, I will never take my regular washer and dryer for granted.
We’re approaching another summer, and its as easy to keep the RV cool with the constant shade of the carport, while still allowing lots of beautiful natural light in.
Even with those issues managed, we could still be discontent and full of doubt and uncertainty; we still live on wheels, and we still don’t know exactly what’s in store as far as a house goes. But thankfully we are learning true contentment and to take joy in the little things- the beautiful wilderness views out our windows, a table to gather and eat and tell knock-knock jokes at, the kids snuggled up with a blanket and a book on the couch or playing lemurs together in their tiny room or coming in covered in dirt after hours of blissful outdoor play, the simplicity of owning fewer things, a beeswax candle burning its honey scent on a clean table after the kids are in bed. This is our home for the time being, a temporary home just like this world and this life! Having a certain type of house doesn’t matter as much as we thought it did. We have a cute, comfy little home on our land, and for that we are immensely blessed.
Three verses stand out to me in this season:
“Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 5:20
This doesn’t say “when you live you want” or “when your spouse agrees with you” or “when you know exactly what to do”, rather God commands us to thank Him for everything. All the earthly things are not what will matter eternally. Jesus has already sacrificed Himself to make a way for us to God- that is enough to just be thankful in everything.
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand”
Proverbs 19:21
As much as we all like to think we’re in control of our lives, we’re really not. Control is an illusion, and the sooner we accept that and surrender control to the One who made us and knows us, the better off and more deeply at peace we will be.
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12
Ultimately, life isn’t about building our dream house or making our RV cute inside or homesteading or homeschooling or any of these types of things that occupy our minds. The purpose and calling and best for each of us is to glorify God in whatever the situation is, whatever we do. We need to learn to glorify Him with our attitudes and words, with how we treat people and how we spend time with Him, loving Him and trusting Him and obeying Him because we love and trust Him. This whole Psalm speaks of how frail and quick human life is in contrast to how mighty and everlasting God is.
May we learn to “seek first the kingdom of God”. (Matthew 6:33)
Jennifer Blacklock Blog 
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