Going from a 3 bedroom rental house in the suburbs of a small city to a large farmhouse on 18 acres was a big change. Even though we had been planning the move for 2 years, there were so many things that we did not know we would have to put into it!
In preparation for our move out to the country, I watched every Youtube video and read every blog article about things to know before moving to the country. Mostly the advice was all great and in some ways helped us to prepare and get an idea of what we would be in for upon moving.
But other points were overlooked and some were GROSSLY understated!
Disclaimer; I know that there are different degrees of what “country” means to some people. I’m not going to get into what those tiers are but from a scale of off-grid to living in a 30 story apartment, we fall somewhere in the middle of that scale.
Rural internet is not for the faint of heart and say goodbye to reliable cell phone reception!
Have you ever been driving somewhere in a rural area and lost your cell service? If you are planning on moving to the country, that could happen in your backyard!
The first time I drove up the driveway of our farmhouse, I lost the service on my phone. There was no service anywhere on the property! Lots of cell phone and wireless providers don’t service rural areas. You may have to do some digging to find a provider that can keep you reliably connected… and even then, it isn’t always perfect.
Loading the Google Homepage has given us ample time to exercise our patience! We are currently testing out different signal boosters to attempt to drive the internet connection to our upstairs WiFi dead zone.
There can be some big upfront costs.
If you are moving from a suburban backyard to a house with large acreage, a push mower will just not do. At our old house we had zero landscaping to do so we had no yard equiptment! No shovels, no rakes, no mower and no wheelbarrow. All things we needed the very first week on the property!
You will likely need to invest in quite a bit of equipment right off the bat if your new property hasn’t been well maintained. Trees might need to be cut down, snow may need to get plowed, the lawn will need to get mowed.
These upfront costs may seem large and scary but you will find much of this equipment necessary to making yard maintenance quick and painless.
You’ll have to get along with your neighbours…
While most people move to the country to get away from being in close proximity with others, community is fairly important while living rurally.
Depending on how far away you are from hospitals, doctors, fire halls, police stations, your neighbours might be the first one to help you in the case of an emergency. If a tree falls onto your house after a storm and the town is already overwhelmed with other emergencies, who will be there to lend you assistance? Your neighbour.
Now I’m not saying you need to be best friends with every person in your surrounding area but having a pleasant acquaintanceship with them will make your life much easier.
Can you get out of your driveway if it snows?
If you don’t live somewhere with regular snow you can skip this one but here in upstate New York, we get some pretty harsh winters.
If you are not living on a main road, you may not have a city snow plow service. In fact, you may be the one who has to plow the street! Our property lands on two roads. One of those roads gets plowed by the nearest town but the other one does not. Thankfully a community organization handles clearing that winding dirt road.
If you are someone who works outside the home and you need to get to work after a heavy snow, you’ll want to make sure you know ahead of time if the road will be safe and clear!
Do you even have the time?
I won’t lie. Making time for farm chores and property maintenance is HARD! Making that time in between work and kids is harder!
If you don’t have the time to devote to taking care of animals and maintaining outbuildings and property, you may want to really assess what you can do and what your true needs are. I know quite a few people who have made the journey to country living, made commitments to too many projects and just couldnt make them all work.
Take it slow and don’t bite off more than you can chew!
We have only been out in the country for a few months but I could never go back to city living. This life is hard but it is good.
If you’ve made the move to the country, did you encounter anything that you were not prepared for? What are some things you wish you knew before living rurally?
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