It’s a ridiculous idea, right? Sell a perfectly perfect home to move a family of 6 into an RV. Who even considers that? Let alone actually does it?
We do. We are the Krause family, and we are giving up our dream house so we can seek out our dream life.
It probably sounds like a complicated decision to many of you. You might think we thought about this and did a ton of research for a few years- at least more than a few months.
We didn’t.
Late 2016, I played the idea over in my head a bit. I don’t even know where I got the idea. We don’t camp! But we both have always wanted to show our kids more of the country and of the world eventually. I mentioned it to Scott a couple times. We both said something like, “That WOULD be pretty fun… someday.”
I couldn’t shake it, though. We just had our 4th baby in December 2016, and it suddenly occurred to me that our oldest- Kendall- was about to turn 9 in 4 months, and that would be half of his time with us… gone. Halfway out the door.
Okay, assuming he actually leaves the house at 18, but still, even if he doesn’t, we need to have a responsible, functioning, contributing member of society all ready to go in just 9 more years! I’ll write more about Kendall and how he factored into this in another post, but he was one of the biggest reasons we finally said no, not someday, TODAY.
One night in February 2017, we sat down to dinner at our kitchen table, and I said- again, but this time to the whole family- “Guys, wouldn’t it be amazing to go on a trip all around the entire country? This country is great, and there’s so much we haven’t seen. There are so many people who are different from us that we can meet. There are national parks, there are volcanoes and icebergs….” They were all with me up until I got to the part where I said, “We just have to sell this house! We could buy an RV and a truck, and we could all go on a big adventure together!”
RECORD SCRATCH
Kendall was not on board with selling our house. And again, that’s an entirely separate blog post.
As a whole, though, the family – well, the members old enough to talk- agreed it WOULD be so fun. Our daughter Leyna’s excitement was palpable at the thought of visiting a volcano, which obviously we can’t drive to- another blogpost.
And then, instead of hearing “someday” from Scott, he turned to me and said, “But could we really do it? Right now? Do you think we could really make it happen?”
COULD WE DO IT?? Oh, challenge accepted!
With that little glimmer of hope, I created a plan within a week. And within a couple more weeks, my cautious husband was on board. We started looking at RVs in March, floated the idea to friends and family shortly after, and then made a public announcement in May. It took a few months to get our house ready to sell and on the market. And now we wait.
Things are still up in the air. The RV isn’t purchased, nor the truck. We are still showing the house (week 3). It’s all hurry up and wait.
But now seems like a good time to get things rolling here on the blog. I know so many of you have questions, and I’ll get to them soon, I promise! In the meantime, please follow us on Instagram @Happy.Loud.Life and Facebook.com/HappyLoudLIfe. We have a YouTube channel coming shortly! Also sign up for our newsletter here.
Who actually does this? It turns out so many people do. We’ve found a thriving community online of thousands of families that make this work for them. If you’re curious or researching, I highly recommend the Fulltime Families FB group and the Ditching Suburbia podcast (I was interviewed for episode #64).
19 comments
[…] mentioned in my first post how the idea to sell our house and move into an RV to travel the country for a year started to come […]
So exciting! Can’t wait to live vicariously through you and your family! I’m curious…and I’m sure you have a blog post coming…how much of this trip is sponsored and/or will you be posting whether something is sponsored? For example, are you working with and RV dealer? TIA!
Hi Amy! Thank you! As of now, none of the trip is sponsored, though we hope to work with brands and locations as we go. We are buying our own RV and truck. We will, of course, adhere to FTC rules and regulations in regards to sponsorship throughout the trip. I want to emphasize that we are happy to share how we make this work with people, but it’s not a blueprint for others. I’m not here to say “Look! Make money blogging and travel around the country in an RV!” Because I get that that’s not a reality for many. That said, I hope to share how a lot of other people are making it work their own way. There are so many different avenues. Thanks for following!
Congrats on launching the new site and heading into an amazing adventure. I can’t wait to follow you every step of the way.
So exciting! I’m a single mom with only one child, but one of my dreams/bucket list things is to take him to travel the US. He’s already 10 and I totally feel like we’re running out of time. I can’t wait to see how y’all do it!
Your site is beautiful and your idea totally outrageous but exciting! I will be following along on Facebook. Can’t wait to see the journey and how your kids do with it. I have an 8 and 10 year old that I wish had seen more of the world by now. Good luck!!
Thank you! There’s still time! Wink, wink, nudge. 😉
Congrats on launching your site! We look forward to following your adventures!
Thank you!
So exciting! I remember the day Ditching Suburbia mentioned your video (at least I think it was them who mentioned it) and I’ve been following along on your Facebook page ever since. I just thought it was crazy how much our stories are so similar. We pick up our new RV in a month and look forward to joining all of the fulltime families in the summer of 2018. I’m slacking on getting our blog up and running. Looking forward to following your journey!
Thank you for following! I’m excited to check out y’all’s adventure, too!
We are traveling full time but using Airbnb’s, I couldn’t get my husband on board with an RV! Have you seen Knorpp and South? They traveled in an RV with their 9 kiddos. They are currently in France, but if you check out their Youtube Channel it’s a years worth of US travel & it’s kid friendly if you want to get your oldest excited it’s a great channel.
Thanks for the recommendation! We considered the Air B&B route! May try that later on down the road. 🙂
You can actually drive to a volcano! It’s not active anymore but it’s explosion still effects the landscape. Check out Sunset Crater national Park right near Flagstaff, az. Was just there. Old volcano funnel, old Lava flows, native myths and oral history about the event and little nature center. Really neat.
Oh! That’s so good to know!
I am so impressed with you and your husband for being so brave and giving your family this amazing adventure. I’m excited to watch!!!
Thank you, Susan!
So excited to have found this blog! Our family is planning on embarking on a North American RV adventure in the spring of 2019 with our three kids (6,3,1). In the meantime we’ve been practising with our airstream here and there until that time comes. Thank you for your courage and willingness to share about your experiences with such honesty – it can be daunting to be so vulnerable – but it’s real and beautiful, and oh so appreciated!
Looking forward to following along!
We had so much fun when we RVd last summer. I’m excited to see this adventure unfold! Some of the RV’s I’ve seen on our excursions are super sweet and have nicer kitchens than my current house!