So, what is your plan exactly?

Back in 2013, Kadin and I had just started dating. One day, we were walking around a little park when he stopped and asked me, “Would you ever consider living on a sailboat?”

Honestly, I didn’t put too much thought into it at the time. I have always wanted to travel as much as I could, and a sailboat was a really romantic notion after all of the books I had read centered on adventure and travel. Also, he was really cute. So I said yes.

Our life together has taken a lot of little side trails since then.

We did buy a sailboat. It was an absolute derelict that had been sitting dry-docked for at least 10 years, about a 6 hour drive north of us. It wasn’t sea-worthy. It was full of insect nests, mold, mildew, and rot. We spent as much time and our meager funds as we could on fixing it up well enough to motor it south to North Carolina, where it would be more accessible.

As time went on we realized that although the dream of living aboard a sailboat is a very worthy goal and an attainable one, we don’t have to copy the many Youtube sailors and literally throw caution to the wind to do it. Instead of selling off everything we had and making video content to hopefully make a livable income, we decided to make some long-term investments. The result of those choices is the boat is not yet anywhere near complete, and we aren’t sailing anywhere, anytime soon. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

From the outside I have to imagine some of the choices we've made have seemed strange or frivolous to other people. For example, a few years ago Kadin was in Oriental, NC doing a few things on the boat when some semi-popular youtubers came through town. A few shots of our very sad looking dismantled boat made it into one of their videos, and the ensuing comments were downright hateful. But of course, these comments are coming from outsiders, people who haven’t taken the time to talk to us (or read our little blog) and therefore have little to no context to form an accurate picture of what we are actually doing.

So if you, dear reader, are interested in the inside scoop, just keep reading.

We bought a house in 2015, shortly before we got married. Just like the boat, it was an old, sad, unloved thing. It was also full of dead bugs, mildew, and rot. It wasn’t on what some locals would have called the fashionable side of town. But it was what we could afford.

We spent the first 5 years of our marriage fixing it up. And when I say fixing it up, I mean it. This place did not just get some paint and sanded floors. We have done absolutely everything you can think of; all new plumbing, electrical, drywall on all floors and ceilings, dismantled 2 brick chimneys, jacked up and repaired foundation, replaced entire support beams that were rotten, rebuilt the garage, built a patio… The list goes on. We do not do things by halves. Ever.

All the while that project was going on, we were also running a business. Kadin started a Floor care Company around 2011. At the time we got married, he was still going on several jobs a week, on top repairing and maintaining equipment and vehicles, and doing all of that oh-so-fun office work. I joined him in the business in 2016. To paint a picture of what a normal day looked like, imagine for a moment: I am sitting on a overturned bucket with my laptop balanced on my knees trying to send emails, while Kadin is on his belly in the crawlspace running wires. I take breaks from “Office” work to feed wires through holes in the wall. Every project was like that. Our minds were split in at least 2 directions. Of course, that’s not counting all of the normal day to day things one has to think about if one is going to remain fed and in clean clothing.

For some reason, on top of all of that, we had the bright idea in 2019 to start another business doing videography work. To be fair to ourselves, it really started out as a bit of a lark. We figured we could take on enough real jobs to justify replacing some of our old equipment, which we originally used for small marketing productions for the Floor Care company. I don’t know that we anticipated it going as well as it has so far, but we’ve had enough jobs now to not only improve our equipment but also our skills.

SO- all of that is happening. We are building our home base into something comfortable, we are building businesses that not only pay for our needs but also support other people, and we are learning a lot of valuable skills and lessons along the way. It has been an investment of not only time and money, but also emotional energy. In all honesty, if we had gone straight into outfitting the boat and living aboard as soon as possible, I don’t know if we would have survived. I’m not saying we would have sunk in a storm (Although I’m also not NOT saying that) but that we just weren’t ready for that kind of massive life change. We have grown so much as individuals and as a couple, I now have real, genuine confidence that we can take on any task and not only overcome, but thrive.

Being the gluttons for punishment that we are, there is now a new task on our plates. We have purchased the home next door to us, which is a triplex. The story behind that is best saved for another time, lest this become more of a ramble than it already is. We are doing everything to this new place that we did to our own home, only in triplicate. It’s once again a massive investment of time, but it is an investment.

In review, we rehabbed our own home over the course of 5 years. We run a Commercial Floor Care company, a Production company, and we are now rehabbing a Triplex that will eventually be a passive income stream. Oh, and we are converting one of our old work vans into a semi-livable space, so that we have our own place to live at the Marina while we work on our sailboat-another project.

Our current goal is to develop the Floor Care Company to the point where we can be more hands off on the day-to-day operations by the time we complete the triplex project, allowing us to work on the sailboat nearly full time. The goal for that project is to convert the boat to an electric motor and make it comfortable enough to live aboard long term, with a view to spending our winters away at sea, our summers traveling on land, and a few weeks or months in between at home, catching up with friends and family, and taking care of the basics.

I know what I have laid out here sounds like a lot, because it is. But when we are done, I think we will be set. If we want to go sailing, we will have the income. And we will have a home to come back to if we want to or need to. We are going to be secure in every avenue. I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel pretty good. Perhaps if we had cast off the lines 7 years ago and left society behind us, I would be singing a different tune. But I don’t think that will ever be me. I need plans. I need to have my ducks in a row-and I have a lot of ducks. I’m the kind of person who prints all of my travel documents in triplicate and carry’s a binder around in their backpack on trips, just in case. And I’m okay with that.