So, let’s see: you have the prerequisite ‘fatigue’ of the city, a romantic desire to get away from it all (seems, according to Vanity Fair, almost 40% of all Americans of all ages feel that way and a staggering 57% of Sarah Palin Tea Party members feel that way!) and you have even given some thought as to where you might go and what you might do when you get there. Is that it? Have you done it? Are you basically at; step one?

Sure. Why not? Step one can be anything, really, that gets you off the couch but the real step one is when you take concrete steps toward commitment (i.e throw the TV away, cancel cable and buy a pick-up truck). I think step one in the building process is site picking, collecting junk and infrastructure. But that is the building process. Step one mentally is commitment to change and a dream of what that change might look like. I think that step one is always the real step one.

Anyway, however you see it, whatever step you take is not cast-in-stone (until you get to concrete work, that is). You can take a few steps one way and then back up and try another direction. For me, learning and then moving two steps forward and then one back is part of the fun.

But let’s go back to practical matters. Recreational property is not as readily financed as is suburban land. Banks don’t really want five acres in the Chilcotin with a half-built log cabin on it and a pile of junk under a tarp. Even if they did, you don’t want them as your partners in this property. Going feral does not require being mortgage free but it is so much easier that way. SO much.

The main reason is this: you won’t find much work out here. There are, of course, people out here who go into town for small contracts. I have done so a couple of times. But, really, I likely won’t do it any more. It costs me as much as I make. And I hate it. Not only do my business people forget about me when I am ‘out of sight’ but I forget about them. My networks are dissolving. And worse, I don’t want the work anyway. Bottom line: come out debt free.

“But that means selling the house!”

Yup! Even if you don’t have to sell the house, you may want to. Face it – it’s a burden. The house owns you when you are there and it owns you completely when you are away from it. All big investments require inordinate lumps of time, energy, worry and work. And houses are no exception.

“But won’t that be true of the cabin as well?”

Maybe. If you let it. But, if you build it to be simple, small and consider utilizing the living ‘outdoor zones’ as much as the cabin, you can limit the drain on your soul that all big investments make. The key: make a smaller investment! The BIG investment out here (i.e, the nature around you) has already been made is being managed without your help for the most part. In other words: don’t manicure your site, don’t get in a landscape architect and keep the damn house to ‘cabin’ category. Make it so that you can leave it and not worry about it. And that is much easier if it is not 5000 sft with granite counters and an entertainment room.

“But we are so much wealthier than that!?”

Then spend it elsewhere.