Moving to Woodlands in 2017. Personal story. Part 1.

Some call it the world awakening, others say those who seek happiness moving to countryside are crazy or simply following trends  and will run back to the comfort of cities soon. Some congratulate those who leave cities and others fear for them. The movement of moving away from big cities is real, it grows in heads of many people like mushrooms after rain. Me & my husband were longing for countryside life, so, here we are now –  after 10 years in city moved to woodlands in 2017, and not leaving it. We are staying here. This is our honest „moving to countryside” story & my thoughts from the house, garden and woodlands.

That's the house

Planning, Motivation & Obstacles around.

I started this blog living in a rented city apartment  in 2014 in the name of missing the things that from times to times appeared into my head as voices from the past, from the life in the countryside where I grew up. About a year later the idea of moving to countryside started to visit me and my husband (we weren’t married yet). We decided to move into my husbands childhood house in the woodlands  - 90+ years old wooden building that hasn’t experienced much of care for the past 15 years. 2 km to the closest bust stop. 15km to the closest town.  We knew what it would mean – a loooot of renovations and different kinds of physical work. So, we decided to approach this idea as adults. We started to plan.  We calculated that we will need about 5 years to get at least some financial savings to help us start the life in the woodlands. So, 5 years it was.
But we both haven't been very precise planning the future. 

The idea  in our heads grew stronger. We visited the house a lot more often, started  to clean, plant flowers, make minor improvements. We spent vacations in the old house with hopes that it will really happen and we will move in soon. Well, there was some kind of doubts, as we both had proven to ourselves that we are terrible at planning... Besides that we had lives in the city, friends, our routines, favorite bar. I was a ghostwriter , he had a good job, band and improvisation theater, concerts & improv-shows, I started to grow different plants on all 3 windowsills of our 2-room city apartment, including tomatoes. And all of that wasn’t making us happy. We wanted to get married, we wanted to travel, we wanted to move sooner, we were running after money every day, in a wheel where that money was never ours anyways.  We were breaking down  & burning out. 5 years felt way too much before we get to the woodlands.

In 2016 with an idea of moving to coutryside (and knowing that job market there is almost non-existent ), I started to look for some additional hobby-based income, so, I opened an Etsy shop. I’m a crafter by heart, I have always been crafting a bit too much for myself, now I decided to try putting it out in the world. As I’m the marketing dummy, the money didn’t exactly run to my bank account to become a part of the savings for „the new life”, but the time of city life started to run out much faster than expected. We trew out the idea of the 5 year plan & savings, quietly got married in 2016 without guests and parties (it felt right and still does).  We figured out the soonest possible option of getting there & instead of making savings we started to buy tools for renovations, gardening and other countryside needs – things we will need right from the beginning. And at the end of February in 2017 I already moved in. My husband stayed 2 more months in the city to catch a bit of better paying season at work, but I was already here. The future came faster than we thought at first, and here I am now already for  9 months.  With 90 % of my daily life totally different than a year ago around this time.

We didn’t change just a location. We changed our lives.  And we obviously needed emotional breakdown to make our moving to countryside possible sooner. 

My two months of early spring alone in the woodlands are on the way in the next post of this „Moving to Woodlands 2017” series. Part 2 coming soon!

You are welcome to leave your questions, ideas & worries in the comments, and I will try to answer them in the next posts