Fall leaves frame the roadway
September 2004: We had just finished our 2nd cross-country bicycle ride (from San Francisco to New York City) in August when the Realtor called to say he found a buyer for our cottage in Fort Erie Canada. The bad news was that the buyers wanted to expedite the closing and we were stranded on Stanton Island — in a broken down vehicle — hundreds of miles from home. We bought the Canada cottage a few years earlier and tried living the snow-bird lifestyle, residing in Florida over the winter and Canada in the Summer. But what we really missed were the seasons and therefore wanted to relocate to a place we could afford to live and where we would enjoy a more temperate climate than either Florida or Canada could offer.
After getting the RV repaired, we finally arrived at the Canada cottage on a Wednesday morning only to learn the closing was set for the following Monday. Remember, at this point we had been away from our house for nearly a year (we spent the winter in Florida training for the ride) and did not know what to expect. Since we had only four or five days, we decided to stay in the RV in the driveway (we had been using it as our support vehicle for the 3800 mile bicycle ride) rather than move back into the house. Somehow in that short period of time we purchased a box trailer in which to store and move what we couldn’t sell or give-away and held a yard sale on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was, to say the least, a whirlwind that I can barely recall.
Once the house was sold we headed to West Virginia where we planned to buy land on which to build our papercrete house.
Why West Virginia?
When people ask us why we wanted to build in West Virginia, we ask them “Have you seen it?” The state is located entirely within the Appalachian Mountain range and all areas of the state are mountainous. It is beautiful, rugged, wild and filled with ancient forests, valleys (called hollers around here), ridges, mountain laurel, rhododendron, creeks and rivers. The forests are full of critters: deer, turtles, snakes, squirrels, raccoon, possum, chipmunks, fox, an occasional black bear and a wondrous variety of birds.
West Virginia: An Explorer’s Guide (Explorer’s Guides)
Land is cheap, taxes are low, building codes are relaxed (in fact, the state’s motto is “mountaineers are always free”). And if all of that isn’t reason enough to live here, our closest neighbors are our grandchildren!
We parked our RV in a friend’s back yard in Morgantown WV. Then we looked for listings that met our criteria: rural, inexpensive and reasonable far from the nearest neighbor. It also mattered to us if the neighboring properties were reasonably well-kept. That last criteria proved to be the sticking point on several otherwise good possibilities.
October 2004: In early October, after driving all over North Central WV and traipsing through acres of woods and fields, we found an ad for 6 acres in Harrison County, about 60 miles from where we were staying. After driving for what seemed to be hours along winding country roads bordered by trees whose leaves were bursting with the colors orange, red and yellow, we finally came to Big Elk Creek road and wound another 3 or 4 miles until we found the ‘Land for Sale’ sign. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: build, house, land, Papercrete, walk
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