It has been brought to my attention that I haven't written about our land. Not sure how that slipped through my fingers as it's story is quite large in our lives!
For a few years now, our family has shared the dream to buy a little farm and live as much off of the land as possible. For a long time it was just talk, and dreams, and more talk. Then we started looking. Checking landwatch.org, realtor.com, even craigslistings. Not finding anything that was remotely in our price range I wondered if I was missing something. I contacted my friend who designs homes for her husbands construction business. I found out that I was doing it right, but when I mentioned our price range she told me that they had a little piece of land that fit my description and she'd talk to her husband about selling it to us.
We met up with them and their land, and were pretty excited, it was just what we were looking for. The initial offer was a bit more than we liked but considering it was on the edge of town it was worth pursuing. Then just as quickly as it started it was over. They had second thoughts and decided that they weren't ready to part with the land. I was bummed, but it just renewed our resolve to keep looking.
A few months later for our tenth anniversary, Phil gave me a picture of a farm painting that we had seen at an art museum in Kansas City. On the back he had written 'may all our dreams come true'. I insisted that he hang it over our bed to inspire us to not give up as we were starting to think that perhaps this would be more of a later in life opportunity.
Fast forward a half a year, with the garden in full swing I was checking quite frequently for land as the dream was burning bright. I saw a craigslisting--five acres for $28,000 12 miles from Grand Island--probably a scam but just in case not I quickly sent a message to Phil in the off chance that it was valid. He returned from camp the next day and promptly went out to investigate the acreage as the owner happened to be available. I was impressed that the gal was home (July 3) and willing to show someone around. The report was a bit dismal. A hayfield. No trees. No house. No well. Nothing. Just a hayfield the owner wanted to sell to finance her daughter's college classes.
I wasn't really that interested, after all my dreams included lots of mature shade trees for me to sit under and watch the kids play. Besides we couldn't afford to build a house! Not on a one income household. With that one income being teachers' wages. Phil was insistent that we could. He also said that there are always compromises in real estate. According to Phil our dreams were like a triangle there were the points of location, price, land. We couldn't get them all in our price range and to get two out of three was a good deal.
Phil spoke with some realtors and found out that this was an amazing price for land, even if it was completely undeveloped. Then Phil started wooing me over to the idea. We could build a home inside a quoncet. If we do most of the work ourselves, we can make it work with our budget. Being the visual learner I am, Phil got to work on a home designing program and drew up our dream home. Then he did the layout for the land. At first it drove him bonkers to have zero parameters to work with as a hayfield is a complete blank slate. Now he really appreciates the fact that we get to design everything the way we want it to be. Where the orchards will go. The berry patches, vineyards, garden, chickens, maybe even a cow and pig. A blank slate is as exciting as it is exhausting. You can run yourself ragged with ideas we have learned.
It was slightly terrifying signing all the papers that go along with buying real estate. It didn't seem quite real that we are owners of five acres until the first mortgage payment hit. I'm sure that Dave Ramsey would cringe to know that we now make two mortgage payments, but as Phil put it sometimes you have to stretch yourself for your dreams and take that leap of faith. Our faith has been tested, but that story is for another day.
So what's the plan now you ask? Right now we are slowly working at fixing all those little things that need to happen before selling a home. We're hoping to be ready by early springtime to put it up on the market. We'll move in with Phil's mom for a few months (good thing we all love each other so much or this would never work!) while pre-construction things are happening like the driveway being put in, a well and septic dug, power lines brought in, and a foundation poured. We figure by then it will be summer and we will start building our little dream home. The goal is to be done and ready by the end of next summer, which we realize might be a bit lofty but we've got to have something to shoot for!
There you have it, the beginning saga of a girl who leads a slow paced life and doesn't like changes is willingly embarking upon a journey that will most assuredly change her life.
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