Which house would you buy?

wow!

That's what WE say everytime we look back at those first pictures!

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To be fair, that wow factor was a lot of sweat equity by Easy and Jimmy. Not everyone can do what they did.

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we may be looking at the same properties

we chose #3- we found one with 17 acres, already fenced crossfenced the house in decnet shape requiring a little work but very liveable, and already has one of the two outbuildings we want (shop, no barn); in the middle of our price range.

I wanted more property but, to be honest, considered the things mentioned earlier- we're already in our 50's and the heavy work on top of town jobs has already gotten more difficult.

So, we found a happy medium. this place will give us plenty to do, but still reasonable room, and with made pastures we can start animals years faster than we would have with the all wooded land. A decent barn for my needs will cost half what a small shop would, so the outlay wont be too bad.


On a mountain top with one other neighbor whose house we cant see, so its rather secluded and private, without us having to pay for the property to do it.

The final factor that tipped us to it- we can afford it on one income, not two- but if we both work we can pay it off fairly quickly by making extra payments without seriously crippling our ability to start our enterprises. That means in 10 or 15 yrs we can may actually be able to afford to retire. With a more expensive option - we couldnt do that. It came down to the choice of realistically getting working acreage I loved that I could hope soon to own debt free, compared to more land I'd have to work forever to "rent from the bank".

I think your own proritites and risk tolerance are important factors, too. So I'll toss that out as a suggestion- keep looking and find one thats a compromise. I'll bet the chances are good that you'll find it as more properties come available as the school year comes to an end.

If we had more "youth equity" on our side, and more time to work with- we'd have gone for the larger acerage. I think the safest thing is to lookk at what you cna reasonably accomlish withthe resources at your disposal- time, money and physical ability- then be kind to your self.

We had this same decision a couple of years ago. It was 5 acres with the house we wanted (it was huge with everything you can imagine in a house)....

or 32 acres that needed love.

I walked into the house on the 32 acres and knew it was meant to be. The cost was the same upfront (in this area 32 acres is very unusual)...... but we have had to do a lot of work. But all in all - sitting on my back porch and looking at the stars and the peace that comes from it..... it's worth every penny.

And I can still see neighbors when the leaves are gone - but we are working on that one

I would do it again in a heartbeat. Go with your gut on it. It's an amazing feeling when people ask if you have regrets about doing it and you can look at them like they are nuts and say no regrets.

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Dana
Chicama Run

IMO it would depend on if you want "comfort and ease" or " space and work"
if there is a nice home and your more wanting a home in the country (you dh is working so your not choosing the possible income) yes I know you would like to have it break even if possible, depending on the area of the country your in, 9 acres may or may not be enough for a few animals, yes would do a few sheep or goats, most any ware, but cows or horses not many if any, (in our location it take 20 acres for a cow and calf), for a years feed,
so a lot of it would depend if the home is more important or the land area,
if your not wanting many animals, your 9 will do you well, if you want a farm petting zoo then the 40 will suit you better, but the work load will increases greatly, as well, and if your not able to do a lot of the work and DH is working in town and then comes home to another days worth of work at night, life will be tense.

the decision will more depend on your dreams and energy levels and finance means, if your basic desire is to just live in the country with some county pleasures, then the 9 would probably be best, but you want to mini farm or ranch the 40 will suit you better,
(but more than likely it will never be more than a hobby farm either one, unless your very creative and can figure out some way to make large sums of money off a little acreage, (but using conventional farm means the land will not or just barely support its self, alone you ( financially ))

We are looking at houses or land or both in NW AR, SW MO and Easterm OK. Good idea about checking out the laws first. We are seriously considering renting for a bit to get a better feel for the area and be able to take our time finidng the right house or land for us.

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Blessings,
Jean

Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing and for the encouragement!

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Blessings,
Jean

EasyDay - that's what we did here too. Will have to find my pix...

This may be a good place for you Jean:

For Sale 70 acres mol, 20% old pasture, 3 ponds, spring water gravity fed to house, 1,000 sq. ft. 1 and a half bedrooms(finished attic) 1 ba. wood & electric heat. 2 barns, garage/carport/greenhouse, 60 x 130 garden So very quiet, loads of critters, 32+ bird species, deer, chipmonks, armadillos, squirrells,foxes, possums,black bear. It is hard to describe the beauty of the fields that stretch East and West from the house. You can sit on the deck and watch the birds work the feeders and as dusk approaches, the bats come out and get to their work of eating mosquitos. I have a salt block on the dam below the house and keep cracked corn spread out for the deer and crows. Also hard to describe is the mist and fog and hoar frost that the 2,000 foot altitude brings. This is up in the mountains; the microclimate that it is brings ice and snow in the back yard but the front of the place is ice free. The wind is measured by how far the lawn furniture is blown off the deck. Perfect for raising children/grandchildren, horses,retirement, organic fruit& produce, sandy loam soil, lots of water, SE exposure.

The place is 30 minutes W. of Huntsville, 40 min. to Fayetteville(25 miles to Dickson St.)an hour:15 from Eureka. Additional 18 A. available. Real Estate taxes are less than $ 200/yr.
$ 174,900 An option to buy can be had as well(479)451-8776 or email me through here. Serious inquiries only.

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-bob

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"Men argue; nature acts."
~ Voltaire (1694-1778)

Holy cow, bob, you wanna ship that up here? lol That would be LOTS more up here, even in our more rural neighboring areas...

I imagine the pay scales & employment scene are the reason for the low, low price?

OK hoofingitnorth -

Talk to the people at your Bank. While you're doing that I'll get a quote on shipping this prime property to Alaska <grin>.

-bob

__________________
"Men argue; nature acts."
~ Voltaire (1694-1778)

Actually NW Arkansas is booming due to Wal-Mart and all of their vendors moving into the area. Construction and support jobs are easy to find.

We picked a place out in the country 30 miles east of 'boomtown' (Fayatteville, Springdale, Bentonville, Rodgers - Arkansas) just in case the boomtown goes bust. Since we bought our place and built our house prices here have just about doubled. Paid way too much for 7 acres of adjecent property last year, but hope that will prove to be a good investment in another 5 or 6 years.

-bob

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"Men argue; nature acts."
~ Voltaire (1694-1778)

Sounds like a nice place, but probably way too small for a family of 12. The land sounds perfect though. Maybe once we get out that way we can come look at it. Never know :-D

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Blessings,
Jean

Bob, thanks for recognizing the sweat equity invested. But, I think my point here is that, YES, "most" people CAN do it.

Sure, mtman had experience in several areas, some hands on and some just observing on-site. But much of what was done here neither of us had ever done.

I used to be afraid to tackle large "home improvement" tasks because, "what if I mess it up?". But, mtman (afraid of nothing) kept telling me, "just do it. If it doesn't come out right, we'll do it over!"

As a whole house, it can seem overwhelming. Breaking it down into small steps makes it do-able for most people. Technology allows us to research how to do virtually anything. Then, if it doesn't come out exactly as planned, you step back and say, "not perfect, but good enough" or "oops...what do we do to fix it?" Remember the 80/20 rule: you spend 20% of your time doing 80% of the work, and 80% on the other 20% finishing and fine-tuning. What is an "acceptable" end-product is up to the individual.

Quiverof10... bottom line. Sure, our task at hand was probably more than any sane person would want to take on. But, do NOT be afraid of getting something that is "fixable". Anyway, it's amazing what just painting a room can do for it! You'll end up getting more for your money in the long run because the nicer a place is "fixed up", the more you're paying for the person who did the work to get it that way.

Incidentally, that was ME that was the "any sane person". I unbuckled mtman's straight jacket, handed him his hammer, and we got started.

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Before you marry someone, ask yourself, "Will they be a good killing partner during the zombie apocalypse?"
-someecards.com

Please do! I'd love to see them!
There was a day when I couldn't care less about construction. Now I look "into" the work instead of "at" it, and feel excited about it!

__________________
Before you marry someone, ask yourself, "Will they be a good killing partner during the zombie apocalypse?"
-someecards.com

Bob - LOL The shipping would probably kill the deal... or maybe the air rights rental for a place to put it!

EasyDay - I will have to dig... I have some of the "finished" pics (or at least *mostly* finished, lol) but need to find the "befores" VERY dramatic

When we built this place we had NO experience. I was the type of wife to INSIST my husband called an expert (he had a bad history of making things WAY worse!). When we moved here we felt so empowered with just a couple of basic books and our trusty Internet connection. We learned just about everything we did in this house except for the black piping for the propane to the dryer & stove (that's easy, but we hired it out since we were short on time and the plumber was already here doing the rough-ins we didn't have time to fiddle with that year). The foundation, framing, and basic stuff was done when we bought the place but we moved some walls, replaced windows & doors (all different sizes than original openings, which made it tough and a LONG process for beginners - one window took 8 HOURS for us to do!!!). We would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Hi, EasyDay here!
Fortunately mtman is a retired steamfitter, so he did all the black pipe and plumbing. This house had no plumbing when we started. In fact, we had to build a bathroom before he could plumb it! Mtman and his friend, Greg, completely plumbed and wired everything from scratch in 9 days.

The only things we paid someone else to do was the septic, drill the well, and install the kitchen cabinets. (And the jokers from the cabinet place made us realize we should have done THAT ourselves!!)

Look for them pix! I wanna see 'em!

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Don't complain, just do it