Why are you doing this?
Well, for many reasons and because why the hell not? We’ve been desk jockey’s for a while now and Mr. TCP has had an opportunity to change that up a bit so Mrs. TCP is following along, with all four fur kids. Neither of us has ever been the buy a big house in the ‘burbs type so this isn’t a gigantic transition for us. Our first home was a duplex where we shared walls with our tenants. We aren’t your typical folks.
How do you did you prepare for this journey?
When we figured out exactly what was going to happen we started looking at our current Airstream, the 1966 Airstream Globetrotter, as a viable option. However, we quickly determined 17ft of living space just wasn’t going to work. Also, “older” in this scenario wasn’t going to work either. Mrs. TCP convinced the old man that we needed a newish Airstream. Not brand spankin’ new, but newer than say, 1966. We started on our hunt for a 25ft 2007+ Airstream, little did we know this was going to be as difficult as trying to buy a house in the current housing market in Austin. The folks from California were scoopin’ them all up. Sounds familiar.
How did you determine what you would bring?
This was kind of difficult because we weren’t certain what exactly we would need. We read as many other full timer blogs as we could to get an idea as to what we would absolutely need but it really came down to what we use on a daily basis. For the kitchen we brought one pan, one pot, way too many utensils, some bowls, some plates, and a few other random things that we used daily. Oh, and the crockpot! We almost left it behind but we decided to bring it and we sure are glad we did.
The next thing we needed to figure out was which clothes we would need, which in reality, wasn’t all that difficult. Anyone who knows Mrs. TCP knows that she lives about 50% of her life in workout attire, particularly the yuppie brand. She is in heaven not having to put on real pants. Mr. TCP is keeping it simple too with just a few pair of pants, shorts and some shirts.
Mr. TCP brought along all of this other ridiculous stuff that is boring so I have no desire to write about it. Maybe he will update this section at some point.
How can you afford to do this? Are you retired?
We are far from retired and if we keep staying at those $50 a night RV resorts we aren’t going to be able to do this for much longer. All joking aside, we work remotely for either a single company (Mrs. TCP) or consultancy work (Mr. TCP), we work regular 9-5 hours Monday through Friday, so much like our old life but with no commute and our office space changes regularly. Which is awesome. Mr. TCP does a lot of video work so be on the look out for fun adventure style videos!
Did you sell your house?
We purchased a home in December of 2015 and so since we started this journey in April of 2016 it didn’t make sense to sell the house, just yet. Also, we are secretly hoping that sitting on this piece of property will pay off one day. Instead, we found renters. People are flocking to Austin so finding tenants wasn’t too difficult. Fingers crossed that goes well. Oh, and we have tenants in a duplex we own, well partially own since a bank owns some of it still.
How do you work remotely?
Our main source of internet comes from utilizing a Verizon Mifi device which allows us to stay connected practically anywhere in the United States. There are a few places that it doesn’t reach, but for the most part, it is the most reliable. We also have cell service through Sprint (which is pretty terrible everywhere) and AT&T so if we need to make a phone call, we know that we have three options. We also use a WeBoost to boost our signal if it’s not strong enough when we first arrive. This has helped significantly when we are places with a weak connection. It can take one bar and turn it into four. Bam!
How is living tiny?
We love it! At first, we thought to ourselves, “What the hell have we done?” but at this point, it is kind of like we know no different. You really recognize what you really need for day to day life and don’t miss the things you don’t need. Again, my only complaint is the laundry situation. We have to visit a laundromat when we do laundry which I don’t love. There are RV’s that have a washer/dryer combo and if I could convince Mr.TCP to install one in the Airstream, we’d be in business!