We Bought the Farm!
My husband and I had been looking for several years for a place that was perfect for us. We both agreed that we didn't like living in the small town we were in, and that we would like to have more privacy out in the country. We looked, and looked some more, but nothing out there was really all that affordable. What was available we just couldn't seem to agree on. Either it had great tillable acreage and a run down awful house, or it had a great house and lots of hilly non tillable acres. We were looking for a small farm that was around 25 to 50 acres. I began to think we would never find anything that was right for us and was something that we both loved.
One day I was looking through the newspaper and I saw a classified ad for a farm. The paper said 307 acres. I knew that was far beyond what we could ever afford! But wait! The next line said $800 per acre! That was around $245,000. It had a house, a barn, tillable and hilly acres. I remember thinking that the house must be a shack, especially if they are selling all of those acres at that price. We had looked at farms that only had 25 and 30 acres that were going for far more than that. Still, something kept prompting me to say something to to my husband. Maybe we should check into it just to see what it was. So, I told him and showed him the ad. He said the house probably wasn't even fit to live in, but we could check it. We made the phone call.
It turns out that the man who owned the property lived in California, but his brother was local and was helping take care of the property. The property was currently a Christmas Tree Farm that his brother was running for him. He explained that he was sick with cancer, and that he and his wife needed to sell the farm quickly. He also said that they were willing to rent out the space on the farm annually from whoever bought it, and that they would pay well for the land until the trees were all matured and sold. As luck would have it, all of the trees were planted on the hilly areas and not in the pasture and tillable land.
After hearing this, we decided we should go check it out. It was a gorgeous warm spring day in April when we first went to see the farm. We were totally blown away by what we saw! The river ran through part of the property at the edge of the field behind a big old barn. The house was across the road from the barn, and it was a huge gray and white federal style house with a big front porch. There were 13 huge beautiful old trees in the yard, and the entire yard was a shaded paradise! We couldn't wait to see the inside of the house. There was no one around, so I started looking in the windows. There were large rooms with original wood floors. All of the doors and woodwork looked to be original. It looked like it needed some TLC, but it was definitely a place that looked like it could be beautiful if some fix ups were done.
After we got home from the farm, we called the owner's brother and asked when he was available to show us the house. He told us that he could show it to us the next day. I remember being so excited that I could barely even sleep that night. We currently lived in a small bungalow style house, and this farm house would certainly be a change from the small spaces we were currently living in.
We pulled into the driveway at the farm, and things just felt so right. One of the things I loved about this property was how the driveway looked. There was a big maple tree that had been left right in the center of it. It was like a U-shaped driveway with a big beautiful tree in the middle. When the owner's brother opened the back door of the house to let us in, we entered an old summer kitchen that was attached to the back of the house. It was all windows on 2 sides. From there we went into the kitchen, and there we saw knotty pine on two walls, a huge pantry, lots of wood cabinets, and a place where a huge table could be put. Definitely possibilities for my dream kitchen!
Next we went into the dining room. This was a room that was very large with a door that went out into the summer kitchen. It also had a side door that went out to the side yard. All of the wood exterior doors were originals from when the house was built, and still had the antique door knobs in tact. We toured the rest of the house, and saw that there was a den/office area off of the living room with beautiful glass double doors, and a huge bathroom. Upstairs there were 4 bedrooms.
There would be quite a bit of fix up work though. The flooring in the kitchen would need to be replaced for sure, and the wood floors had been painted around where the rugs originally were, so those would have to be refinished. It would take some work, but I could already see in my mind's eye what it was going to look like! Most definitely there was the potential to have a grand house here.
We thanked the owner's brother for showing us the place, then decided to drive up the hill on the property. There was a gravel road that went up the huge hill in the back of the house. What we saw when we got up there took our breath away! We looked out from the hilltop and we could see the river, the valley and the sun beginning to set over the river. We looked at each other, and at the same time said, "Okay, let's do this!" I think we both felt like our dreams were coming true. My husband had loved riding horses all his life, now here was his chance to have a place where he could have horses and plenty of space to ride. 307 acres is a lot of land!
We left the farm and started back home. This was in the days when the internet was brand new and cell phones weren't even popular yet. There were people who had huge mobile phones in their cars at the time, but we weren't quite a part of that group. Then, if you wanted to find someone, it wasn't as easy. You had to go searching to find them. Unbeknownst to us, someone was searching for us. As we were driving through the small town near the farm, a car started flashing the lights and beeping the horn at us. It was my husband's brother and his wife. They told us some very tragic news. My father in law had just passed away. How could such an exciting wonderful day end up so devastating?
#WeFoundParadise, #OurDreamProperty, #WishesCanComeTrue, #TakeTheBadWithTheGood
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