A New Beginning

[MandyK]

Hello everyone!

My family and I are in the process of finding a new beginning, and I wanted to document it by starting a journal for those of you who may be interested in sharing my experience.

I hope this is okay with everyone.

My husband and I have been married for 5 years now (this past November). Since we've been married we've lived in 3 different homes.

The first home we moved into was small, old, and had to be heated with a wood stove. This was an interesting and fun experience, but I don't think I'd do it again.

The second home we moved into was an old trailer situated about 25 feet from railroad tracks, and in full sunlight. Anyone who has lived in a trailer will know how hard it is to heat and cool a poorly insulated trailer.

The third and current move was into, again a small, old home. Fortunately we actually have updated heat, and really love it here. The downfalls of being here are that the home does NOT have a foundation, and it only has one bedroom. My son's room is what should be the dining room, and we have to go through it to get to the bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room. Of course he's too young to care right now, but when he makes a mess it's like the whole house is messed up.

The BIG part of all this is that all of these properties were/are rented.

We are now in the process of buying a home! We are soooo excited! If things go as planned we should close the deal with the bank on the 21st of this month. The property is 40 acres, has a pond, a 2 stall barn, a chicken coup, and a storage shed.

Please join me in a tour of what Im getting into.


Above is a picture of one of the things I find most attractive about this property. The looooooonnnng private driveway that ends in a locked gate. Privacy my friends! You can't see the home until you are basically at the end of the driveway, and I like it. The picture is about halfway down the driveway, going out. What we plan on doing with this is building a wooden fence, painted black going all the way up the driveway on the left side. This will serve as decorative, and actual functional fencing for cattle and our pony.


At the end of the driveway you'll encounter the home. Yes, a trailer. Thankfully this one is well insulated, and has central heat and air. The tree in the front is coming down. When Sandy hit we got some pretty high winds, and that was the result.

The plan for this is kind of rednecky, but hey I'm a Kentuckian. . . We will be building onto the front of the trailer, exactly doubling it in size. When the construction is complete, we'll be covering the entire thing in vinyl siding which will hopefully make it impossible to tell that a trailer was ever there.

OR we may build on, then take the trailer out, and build the other half. That would be a bit complicated though, since we have to live there while all this is going on.

[MandyK]

Here we have a photo of the stalls. This needs a bit of work, but we're up for it. The other side of this is a 30 by 20 foot storage area for hay and things like that.


This is the chicken coup. This obviously also needs some work, but at least the base of what we need is there. Some reinforcing will have to be done to keep the predators out, but other than that we're good.

[MandyK]

This is the storage shed that is located to the left of the home. It's pretty nice as far as sheds go. The people there now are keeping stuff in it, and it all looked in good shape. When the brush you see behind the building is cut, you'll be able to see the home.



THis is the pond. The leaves are making it look all ugly. Lol. It's also a lot bigger than this picture lets on.

[MandyK]

That's basically all I have for you now.

I'm hoping to be able to show you how we change the place, and also keep a record for myself.

This will be the first time we've had something that belongs to US, and we feel like there is so much opportunity connected to this place. I'll keep you updated!

[talldutchie]

Buying a home is always special, congrats!

Funny really... 40 acres... in metric that's 161874 square meters. Over here that amount of land if it was farmland would already cost you about $400000. If it was land that's zoned as a residential area you'd get little change out of 50 million.

[MandyK]

Oops, I forgot to mention the price! Haha. We're getting this for $55,000.

[talldutchie]

OK...

Now I not only congratulate you but I can also tell you I really envy you.

[Goes to 11!]

Welcome to home ownership! CONGRATS!

You are gonna be walking around YOUR place with quite a buzz for a while mandy .

Enjoy!


EDIT:

The property is 40 acres, has a pond, a 2 stall barn, a chicken coup, and a storage shed.

<-- No Mule? ;-)

[talldutchie]

With a country estate like that she'd better pack lunch if she wants to see it all.

[steeler1]

$55,000 !!! do you know how much 40 acres would cost out here on the left coast? Great purchase for your familey.

Like everybody else I'm Happy for you.