Hello
Permaculture Folks,
We are a homeschooling family of 7 (soon to be
, trying to find a place to call home.
We have been hoping to find a homestead where our kids could both grow up and return to later as adults, if they chose; now it feels like
land prices have run away much faster than we can catch them. And most importantly, after years and years and many different living situations, we are finally experiencing an amazing reality: residing in a (rental) house where moisture management and mold, along with other toxins, are actually…manageable. This is a really incredible thing, to have family members NOT experiencing ill health due to our home…and it makes us even more eager to find a permanent housing situation that is similarly healthy. (I have always been curious to try my hand at a farm-to-table cafe/catering business, or a farm-plus-Airbnb-RV park…but at this point it seems wise for us to focus on our most important priority: obtaining affordable, stable, healthy housing.)
Since this house is not and won’t be for sale, and non-toxic houses like it can’t generally be bought for love or money…we are currently assessing our options for building a 800sf-1200sf home using similar principles and materials as the one we’re living in now. We are also aware that nice building lots in our price range in the Northeast are few and far between (ie nearly nonexistent!).
But we really like southern New England and the northeast in general, and have aging parents nearby who will soon need help…so before we commit to moving far away again (sob!), I thought I’d reach out in case you know anyone who knows anyone who might want to
sell a build-able and garden-able acre or two to a family such as ourselves. We would like to build a house, work and play and sing a lot, plant lots of blueberries, raise lots of animals, spend lots of time at home, and we would
be nice and easygoing neighbors if we do say so ourselves! 😊
Our preference would be to stay in the southern VT/NH or western Massachusetts/northern CT area, and our budget is (sadly but honestly…) as follows:
We could pay $20k for a lot that is raw land; up to $50k if the lot included septic/well/electric/driveway access. We could maybe stretch a little, but not much. We could pay up to $350k total if the lot included a non-toxic and non-moldy, “breathable” house. And I totally recognize that this is under the going rate for most of this region, but I thought maybe some of you knowledgeable folks have some ideas for us.
Despite my disillusionment with the many ways I saw social fabric fracture under the forces of lockdowns etc over the past four years, I have not totally lost hope in the power of people working together. We are looking for pockets of community where people are committed to Doing Important Stuff like growing food, raising families, discussing things that matter, staying quiet when it’s time to take a break, AND who value the importance of being able to disagree about things without those disagreements taking on a life of their own. We would love to build a beautiful, nontoxic small house in a pocket of community like this!
We have lived in many nice places in our quest for healthy housing, including big cities and small towns, a cohousing community for eight years, a travel trailer (both criss-crossing the country and in Joshua Tree, CA) for several years after that, and recently, a small suburban beach town in Delaware, where I turned our half-acre into a regenerative agriculture
experience.
My husband, Jeff, is a web developer and our resident bike mechanic, and he likes to juggle, play
cards, and find humor in the world at large. Jeff is good at “making lemonade” from life’s lemons, and he also likes to read aloud to the kids. He used to be a DJ for a rock and roll radio station. Jeff and I met many moons ago on a long-distance bicycle tour, and we’ve taken the kids on a variety of short tours over the years.
I am a lifelong unschooler, a homemaker, and a whole foods chef with specific interests in healing from chronic illness, optimizing gut health, and child development as it relates to the foods we eat (or don’t eat). I am an aspiring blueberry farmer, a multigenerational choir director, a newly inspired seamstress, and a piano teacher.
Jeff and I have five kids:
Jem is 16, and enjoys bicycling, mountain unicycling, piano, guitar, math,
gardening, growing carnivorous plants, math, being outside, and reading. Eliza is 11, and loves theatre, playing, drawing, reading, playing, hiking, unicycling, and babysitting. Ivy, age 8, adores drawing, playing,
gardening, playing, dancing, unicycling, Calvin and Hobbes, and swimming. Kai is 3, and loves trucks and trains, reading letters of the alphabet, reciting
books by Dr Seuss and Sandra Boynton, playing, and looking at books about trucks and trains. (Ben, almost 20, our botany enthusiast and forest gardener, works at a year-round Waldorf-inspired outdoor team-building camp program in NH.) Baby #6 is on the way in early 2024, if all goes well. 😊 Both Ben and Jem have applied to attend a wilderness immersion program in Montana for 2024-2025, where they hope to gain more skills of self- and community-sufficiency to support their own families someday.
If you do happen to know anyone who wants good neighbors and has a bit of land to subdivide or sell, please feel free to share our contact info.
Warmly,
Sarabeth and family
Sara@cheeber.com
Www.lifeisapalindrome.com
