Brandon Brownell

Success. I am proud to say this land has been sold to an ecologically-minded individual. I'm writing this here because the Permies forums apparently does not allow for an option to remove previous posts. Apparently this will be posted here until the end of time! Or at least until the collapse of industrial civilization...

So, for anyone who may have been wondering, or who may wonder in the future, this property is no longer available.

Photos:

I have a .38 acre lot in rural Thurston County that I'm going to put up for sale soon with a real estate agent. It has wetlands on it so it's not buildable per county code, but it's ideal for the off-gridder type. I've stayed there for months at a time when I was van dwelling. It would be ideal for a tiny house, yurt, or skoolie, as long as one doesn't mind flying under the radar that way. It's just down the road from Millersylvania State Park, which is awesome because they have every amenity imaginable there. There are several other great wildlife areas withing walking/biking distance, including West Rocky Prarie, my favorite. It's about a 15 minute drive from Olympia.

There is a large clearing that comprises well over half of the property. It's flat and would be ideal for someone who wanted to get creative in a small space, like many of the urban farming folks are doing. It's also a good space for a forest garden. It gets plenty of sun with fairly constant southern exposure over most of the day.

I'm going to list it with an agent for $25,000 but would happily sell it at a discount to someone who I know will steward it well. If anyone here is interested, I would be willing to let it go for $17,500. The county assessor has it valued at $18,700 for the current tax year. It's not cheap for an unbuildable lot this small, but vacant land in Thurston county is ultra-competitive, and there is virtually nothing out there in this range whatsoever. If I went any cheaper, I'd just as soon keep it as a seasonal camping lot. I'm only selling right now because I recently acquired 5 acres and I have my hands FULL out there, and I just don't have the time to do this one justice.

I would also be willing to rent the space super cheap to someone who has a mobile dwelling unit of some sort, if that's something anyone would be interested in.

Feel free to message me if you are interested, of know someone who might be. Photos to come in another post.

All the best,
Brandon

I would love to come and visit. I'm currently in Olympia, but am very familiar with the Toutle River Valley and absolutely love it out there. Would be great to come check out your place and see what you have going on. It sounds like we share a very similar philosophy, as well as congruent future goals. Let me know when would be a good time to swing on by for a tour.

I've been looking into doing something similar in the Sandpoint area for a while now, but the job market there seems a bit tough. I've been checking the new job adds there for over a year now, but Coeur D'alene is the closest I have found anything. Even those pop up pretty infrequently, but I really don't want to be commuting that far if I can help it.

What do you do for a living, if you don't mind me asking? I work in construction (management), and if I am able to find something reasonably well paying over there, it shouldn't take long for me to save up enough to either buy my own spread, or buy in with someone else who already has something established.

Right now I'm in Olympia, WA. I really wish I had discovered Sandpoint a bit sooner. I quit my last job a little over a year ago, because it just didn't seem worth it anymore to commute up to Seattle to work at a job I didn't like, to pay to rent a house in a city where I don't want to be. Unfortunately, I didn't have a plan when I quit, and hadn't figured out where I wanted to move to yet. Now that I have, my savings are pretty much gone. So that's basically my plight right now. I know for a fact that Bonner or Boundary County is where I want to be; now I just need to figure out how to get there, and  how to make it a permanent situation.

Fortunately, I live incredibly simply (camper-van style), so if I can round up a job one of these days, I will certainly be on my way. If so, I will definitely give you a shout. Your ideas seem right in line with my own. My plan has always been to start with a shop too. I hear the building codes in Bonner County aren't too bad for doing the shop/dwelling combo.