I bought 8+ acres for $20K in the Fall of 2001. The land is somewhat pie shaped with the widest end (730') furthest from the road. The widest half was and is mostly clear with a sprinkling of tall trees. It is slightly higher and drier than the wooded front and narrower half of the property. That the best home site was in the back of the property suited me since I want to live out of sight of the road and my neighbors (who all live along the road).

I had been thinking about building my own small energy efficient house (I visited a local earthship, but it seemed like it would take too long and too much work to build), but it so happened that an acquaintance of mine, Josie Kinkade, was selling her singlewide trailer for a low price. Josie had made various improvements to the trailer, including putting in better doors and windows, and an energy efficient rubber roof. She had also taken out all of the interior walls except one, leaving a large bedroom, and one other very large room (besides a small bathroom). That the trailer only had one bedroom may have made it unappealing to most buyers, but it was attractive to me, both because I don't have children, and the wide open spaces made it seem more house-like.

I bought the trailer for $7500 and had it moved 15 miles (though just a few as the crow flies) and set-up for two thousand more in January 2002. Virginia had had three years of drought so the ground was well suited for trailer moving. Click here to see pictures of this event.

It took a long time for my contractors to get the well and the septic put in. At least only three large trees had to come down to make a home for myself. I built the stairs and landings for the trailer myself (I reused Josie's landing for one of these). To drive on to my land, I use a 'fire road' that connects to the paved road, and crosses one of the back corners of my property. From the fire road, I put down a thousand dollars worth of gravel for a primitive and large circular driveway. The fire road goes back into the woods for several miles, but no one lives back there. Most of the land around me is owned by loggers and is planted in pine.

I moved into the trailer in the summer of 2002, and got my permanent occupancy permit several months later.

The 14 by 70 trailer is much more space than I need, and this unfortunately, allows me to accumulate clutter. Sometimes I long for the simpler time when lived out of a pick-up camper, and had almost everything I needed. I do love simplicity and portability, which has been a motivation to build these web pages.