it’s almost comical how long it’s been since I’ve last written on this blog. So much has happened. We found a short-term furnished rental in Rimrock,AZ that we stayed in for about 2 months. We got tired of accommodating all the showings for it because it was a for sale house, so we moved two houses down to another furnished short-term rental and stayed for another 2 months before deciding that having a house tented in bombed for bugs definitely takes the same water damage as another building and makes it much worse. It’s the only place I’ve had significant memory issues again.
We decided to head back to Iowa and see if we could tolerate the agriculture in March of 2023. We were back in hotels for about a month, and then got an apartment in Altoona. We got plugged in with a local church, which was great! Samuel and I just really don’t do row crops well. He would cry if there was fields on both sides of the road even before they planted them. I didn’t feel good, and Wesley’s back hurt all the time. Our apartment had a really moldy washing machine but we discovered after they pulled the washing machine out that it was not just the washing machine but the drain pipe in the wall as well. We stayed for about 2 months and then decided to go to the Tennessee/Kentucky area, which is where I wanted to go all along when we left Florida, but let Simcha talk me out of it.
In June 2023, we started our journey east. We stopped in the Quad Cities to see my parents before we left, and decided to stay longer because it was going better than Des Moines had been. Unfortunately that didn’t last. We met up with another family doing mold avoidance in Indiana and got to spend some time with them on our way East. It was super great to spend time with another family who understands the struggle and are a little more experienced than we were. We left Indiana and headed south at Cincinnati and headed into Kentucky. I sure do think Kentucky is an amazing place, but we looked at multiple properties in multiple locations and couldn’t find anything.
We first explored the east side of Kentucky in the mountains, which was beautiful. There were so many rotting, dilapidated buildings in that area along many of the roads, that it just didn’t work for us. We even had a friend from Arizona who owned property out there who is willing to let us use it if it worked for us, but the drive to the local Walmart was just going by too many rotting buildings for our liking. Her lands was just raw land on the side of the mountain, which we weren’t equipped for, and I didn’t really want to try camping with a 1 year old. We stayed a few days in Richmond and then headed to VA to see a friend.
Next we headed to east TN and met up with 2 families of mold avoiders. We went down to the Greeneville, SC area and helped with childcare so our friend could finish up a test to be officially licensed for work. We traveled around different parts of Western NC, north GA, NW SC, and east TN for a few months before settling in a house in Black Mountain, NC in October. Appalachia is a BEAUTIFUL place in the fall. We’d found a 10 acre lot on the side of a mountain we loved and felt great at North of Asheville and needed a place to stay while we built. Then I got pregnant again and that plan went out the window bc affording it required us doing lots of the work and that wasn’t going to work with me pregnant, and esp not pp. The cost of building in Buncombe county was about $300/ sq ft after your wildcards- land clearing and grading, drilling a well, and more predicable in price, a septic system. We got to know the gal who lived at the top of the mountain and learned she had trouble getting water in the winter bc the water was so low and that her well was super deep.
I’ll write more to catch you up on the past 7 months in another post lest this get so long you quit reading!
It was great seeing pics of you all and catching up
Thanks for sharing your updates! It seems like only yesterday that the nieces and nephews were keeping us so busy. Now, the greats are driving! You have a lovely family.
Your family is one of most flexible I’ve ever known! I don’t know how you do it! You must be an expert “packer”!
I’m looking forward to Sara’s upcoming visit for Thanksgiving! I really miss my girls. Although, I did visit Az two times this year. Thank God Vince and Kelly are here and are a great support.
Take care and have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas!!