DerpLab FarmStead Blog

       It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to write one of these, and honestly, that’s because life has been moving at the speed of drywall dust and Craigslist messages. But we’ve crossed a huge milestone in the DerpLab Escape‑From‑Cody Saga: We bought a camper. Not just any camper — a clean , solid , roomy 2014 31’ Nomad we snagged from a family friend who gave us an absolutely ridiculous deal. After weeks of touring new rigs and a handful of used ones that looked like they’d been through a tornado and then “fixed” with hope and duct tape, finding this one felt like winning a side quest. Some of the used ones were rough. Soft walls. Patchwork ceilings. “Needs a full remodel” levels of rough. And look — I’m not trying to start my Arizona chapter by living inside a construction project. I need something I can actually exist in while we rebuild our lives in the desert. This Nomad? Nearly perfect. Clean interior Solid structure Tons of room Outdoor kitchen (which is...

  Since Early May, Everything Has Been Shifting It’s wild how much can change in just a few weeks. Looking back, the beginning of the end of the first week of May feels like the moment the gears finally caught, and everything since then has been one long, steady push forward. Not chaotic — just intentional, focused, and full of those “okay, this is really happening” moments.   Letting Go of the Jeep The first big shift was selling the Jeep. That was early May, and it set the tone for everything that followed. It wasn’t just a vehicle sale — it was the emotional marker that the downsizing wasn’t theoretical anymore. The Downsizing Grind From that point on, we’ve been in full-on purge mode. Sorting, tossing, donating, filling tote after tote. Most of it fell into two piles: yard sale or garbage . It’s amazing how much stuff hides in corners you swear you cleaned last year. This past Saturday was the big yard sale push. Three truckloads of totes and loose items went out. By the ...

     This week came with a big milestone — one I’ve been working toward for a long time, and one I honestly wasn’t sure how it would feel when it finally happened. About 30 minutes before writing this, my Jeep officially left my life. Not in a sad way. In a right way.      A couple was in town for a soccer tournament and spotted it sitting there with the for‑sale signs. I missed their call, but their voicemail had that unmistakable Jeep‑person excitement. When I called back, they were already buzzing to come check it out.      And these weren’t just casual buyers — these were Jeep people. The kind who’ve owned as many as I have. The kind who know what they’re looking at, what they’re getting into, and why old Jeeps matter. We walked through everything I’d done to it, everything that came with it, and they were all in.      Then came the Sunday-at-5pm problem:      -Where do you notarize a title?    ...

 After getting rid of the couch, everything suddenly picked up speed. It’s funny how one big piece leaving the house can break the logjam. Once that thing was gone, it felt like the whole downsizing machine finally kicked into gear. We’ve been listing, selling, and giving away stuff nonstop — and apparently even the weird projects I built over the years have a place in someone else’s world.      Case in point: the French‑cleat “pho wall TV hanger.”      We had no idea what to call it when we listed it, so we just threw up pictures and called it "lumber" and hoped for the best. The guy who came to get it said he wanted to use it for his TV… which, honestly, is exactly what I built it for. I walked him through how I had it mounted, and what he thought was going to be a whole project turned out to be exactly what he needed. Always nice when something you made gets a second life instead of ending up in a landfill.      With the couch gone, t...

     Well… the couch is finally gone. In the end, we just listed it for free because at this point it was less about the money and more about getting the living room back so I can keep moving on the house. And honestly, the second it left, the room felt twice as big. It’s wild how much space furniture eats without you realizing it.      Now that the living room is cleared out, I can finally get back to the real work: scraping the popcorn ceiling, skim coating it, and trying to make the place look like it wasn’t built by someone who hated drywall. You can see every spot something’s ever been hung, every bad tape job from the original build, every little flaw that’s been hiding behind furniture for years. When I did the dining room, I ended up cutting out and replacing tape in several places, so I’m assuming the living room is going to be the same kind of adventure.      Meanwhile, we’re still sorting through the house, listing things as we com...

     Some weekends feel productive. Some feel chaotic. And then there are weekends like this one — where you do a ton of work, make real progress, and still somehow feel stuck in the same spot. We washed both cars, which sounds small, but honestly the Jeep hasn’t been that clean since I bought it. It deserved one last proper scrub before going up for sale, and now it’s officially listed. That should feel like a big milestone… but it doesn’t quite land yet. Probably because everything else still feels like it’s in limbo until the cars sell. And speaking of selling things — let’s talk about the couch.      This couch has been listed for weeks. It’s a nice leather reclining couch, and we’re asking a hundred bucks. One hundred. You’d think that would make it fly out the door. Instead, we get messages like:      “Can I buy just the left side?”      and      “Could I come cut it in half in your yard?” I don’t know what...