Back to the East Coast, Asheville + Search for a House

After staying in Las Vegas for 3 months, it was time for me to head back east with the intention to settle down somewhere more permanently. Asheville, NC was the destination. But that destination was pretty far away, 4 driving days away, to be precise. 

My first stop was Albuquerque, NM, a place I called home for a month just a little while ago. I rented a small cottage in the north of the downtown. After a long drive with Kitty being pretty upset being in the car again, it was a decent place to stay for the night. I didn't love it as it felt a bit too claustrophobic, but it wasn't bad. I headed out early in the morning the following day after saying hello to a few goats who were roaming around in the yard. 

Our next stop was Oklahoma City, OK where I rented an apartment. I was hoping for something nicer than the place in ABQ, and indeed, I was pleasantly surprised after a brief scare when the host did not message me the entrance code 30 minutes prior to the check in time. It all worked out okay. Kitty wasn't really eating well being so stressed out from the trip. He had lost a bit of weight already and I was getting concerned. We had a very peaceful night in OK, and the bed was fantastic. 

The following morning I headed our before the sunrise to drive 6 hours to visit my friend in Arkansas where we stayed for a night before getting back on the road to Knoxville. It was the longest driving day, but we successfully arrived at my friend's house before 8 pm. Kitty desperately needed a break from all the driving, and I knew that would be the case, so I planned to stay in Knoxville for 2 nights before driving another 2 hours to my rental tiny house in Ashville.

Upon arrival to Asheville, I took a few photos of the tiny house before bridging in all the boxes. I knew that the tiny house was just that, tiny. 125 sq ft total + the loft with a queen sized bed. I was very concerned that this place would be too tiny. It really felt that way when I first walked in, and Kitty didn't like it one bit.

The table in the main area and part of the kitchenette

The loft with a bed - I had to stack pillows at the edge to ensure I or Kitty won't fall down at night

The entry door and the only closet + the ladder leading to the loft

First night while lying on the couch

A fabulous view from the window

It took Kitty a day or two to get comfortable with the ladder. I was really worried he would be too scared to climb it

During the first week I was really stressed out that this rental was not going to work out as the Internet connection was very poor despite what the owner told me during the initial contact. I could barely get any work done. The main reason was because they were just using an extender from the main house, and it worked very poorly during rainy weather. I was able to find a temporary solution by using my 50 ft. cable to directly connect to the main house's router. This was not the first time I used this cable in my traveling!

I loved the neighborhood where it was peaceful and quiet. There was a trail just quarter a mile from the rental that led in the forest to the Mountain-to-Sea trail. I had never lived so closely to a hiking trail before, so I took every opportunity to go there. It was a bit of an exercise as well as the trail led straight uphill. 

I saw bear tracks once in the forest, but the bear only once, on my last hike there right before I moved

The views from the trail were also not too shabby.

But nobody could beat the sunrises with the mountains in the background.

While Kitty found the place too small with no space to play or run around (I felt bad about it), he found another avenue for getting his exercise by harassing me to take him outside on a leash. We would go outside every single day for 15 minutes or so at a time several times a day.

He also humored me once by allowing me to put him in the cat stroller.

He was not a happy camper, but compared to my previous attempt to carry him in a cat backpack, he didn't vomit

At the same time, I started my house search in the area. I looked at dozens of places in the following few months. Some places were nice, others not so much. The radius of search widened to 1 hour away from Asheville in any direction.

Some places looked like this...

...while others were much nicer

I took a ton of pictures and videos of each place to commemorate the process, seriously considered making an offer for at least 4 houses, but ended up with only one offer in Tennessee that I actually put. The offer was originally rejected, and I was ready to walk away and continue my search, but then the seller made a more reasonable counter that I accepted. After a successful inspection, and a whole bunch of other paperwork, I was a home owner.

Perhaps this is a much shortened version of my search for a home. I changed 3 real estate agents, looked at over 50 houses in different conditions, drove hundreds of miles just to end up back in Tennessee. Whether it was a good decision or not, time will tell. For now, my nomadic lifestyle was ending until I felt ready to travel again (spoiler alert: it happened pretty quickly). My empty storage unit was the end of something important and the beginning of something else.

On the closing day