CountryPlans Forum

Anyone know of  land in or around Payne County, OK for sale?  Preferably within 30 minutes of Stillwater?  It has to be 10+ acres, pond is a big plus, as is perimeter barbed wire fencing.  Water and electric already on site is also good, but not necessary.  It looks like we will most likely be moving between now and Christmas... Yaahhoooo!  I don't care if we have to live in a travel trailer for a little while until we can sell our house here and close on land there..  Dirt roads are fine.  Nothing in town.  Pawnee area is nice, as is Ripley, or Perkins, or Agra... Absolutely will not pay more than $2K an acre (this rules out Stillwater proper) and for $2K an acre, it has to be pretty darn nice.  We'd like to have some open land and some wooded.

DH is going down the 1st-2nd of next month and will hopefully bring back a listing of local real estate for sale.  Have to sell this place first before we can do anything about buying another place, so finishing up all our half-baked projects here is now a necessity instead of a hobby.  Hopefully, by the first of next month, we'll have it ready to put on the market... thankfully, houses move fast around here.  And this place has a big yard, which most places here don't, so hopefully it'll help it sell.

Have you tried the online searches, Homegrown?  Nothing beats looking though.

Yes... have a "short" list of about 60 properties that I want to look at.   ;)  One of them I really liked, and it even had a neat old farmhouse, but then I was looking through the interior pics and found that one of the main rooms had a big custom OU carpet, and THAT would never do!  Furthermore, I really just want to build from the ground up... kind of sick of remodeling, and don't like having to live with floorplans someone else came up with... at our old house, you had to go through one bedroom to access the only bathroom in the house... always hated that.

What is OU carpet?  :-?

University of Oklahoma, Crimson and Cream... the "rival" school.  Hubby and I are both Oklahoma State grads, and the job we'll be moving for  is his professorship at state... it just wouldn't do to have Barry Switzer approved carpet... and not only that, it actually is a custom made rug with the big OU symbol right in the middle of the room and a crimson border around... it must have cost them a pretty penny to have made and installed, but it's an eyesore, and anyone who'd buy OU carpet probably did a lot of other dumb things to their house, too.  Now, if it were orange and black and said, "GO COWBOYS!" or something, I might learn to live with it.   :)

And for any of you not from Oklahoma, who might get the two schools confused,  OSU is the school whose football coach recently went off in a press conference after a win and whose rant has been posted all over the internet in recent weeks with much debate about whether he was right to do and say as he did.  OU = Sooners and OSU= Cowboys. ::)  Hopefully that clears things off a bit.

Might get a chance to see a few of the 60-something property listings I've saved on realtor.com this coming weekend.  I took the house with the OU carpet out of my search... would rather just buy land free and clear instead spending years to redo stuff that other people did wrong.  Looking forward to getting down there Thursday and having a look-see.  Of course, can't buy anything until we sell this place, doggone it.  But we're getting close to being able to put it on the market.

forgot to mention, I get to go with DH for his interview... Wasn't planning on it, but at least it will give me a chance to look around.

How did the trip go, Homegrown?  Find anything interesting? :-?

I only ended up getting to look at two properties... both were really pretty, but both were more expensive that what I want to pay.  One was a farm with lots of outbuildings and good fence and frontage on the Cimmarron River.... the house wasn't much to look at, really, but it was clean and well taken care of, and fairly recently remodelled.  Had  a good dairy barn on the property which was being used as junk storage, but the building itself was clean and in good structural shape.  There were 25 of the fattest Black Angus cows I've ever seen peacefully munching their cuds out in the pasture, and the lady said that she supplements them a little in the winter, but the rest of the year they are just pastured.  There were two ponds... don't know if there were any fish in them or not, but with the Cimmarron River at the back of the property, there would be channel cat enough to go around, I'm sure.  There was also a well/septic/electric hookup in a separate lot for an RV to be parked... it even had a level concrete parking space and it's own entrance from the road.  It was all paved roads between there and school.  

The second one was 2/3 wooded property, 50 acres...It had an almost new double-wide on it... bigger than most regular houses I've been in.  Had a big deck on the front and another bigger deck around the swimming pool in the back.  Then there was a little house with gambrel roof and a sleeping loft over the porch as well.   The little house was wired, but wasn't completely finished inside and had no water hooked up because the woman who owned it said that she'd never see her son if she hooked water up to the little house.  The front 10 acres were long and narrow, and then at the back there was a big rectangle of about 40 acres.  Only 15 acres of pasture, and it was really healthy native tall grass prairie.  Didn't look like it'd ever been disturbed.  No barns at all, but two little cheapy storage sheds and the little house.  Had good perimeter 5-strand barbed wire, and a small pond that the owner said was stocked.  There was a good path through the front part of the property to the back (for ATV or tractors, maybe a truck) and it took me and the realtor (a man probably in his mid-70s) about half an hour to walk back to the pasture.  Lots and lots of deer tracks, so probably good for hunting.    The pasture was also fenced off with a few gates from different parts of the property.  It was really pretty, but I almost wish that there was just a clearing with a well...instead of that huge house.  The soil was really sandy every where I checked... however, it was a really pretty place and the day was beautiful for a nice long walk in the woods.  

The first property was only wooded along the river (lots of big pecan and sycamore trees) and there were immature fruit trees as well as some flowering trees in the yard around the house.  The second property was really too much woods, even though it was gorgeous.  My kids would've loved it (they were hanging out with grandma while I looked.)  The second property was a fairly mature cross-timber forest, mostly post oaks, mulberry, a few black oaks and black jacks, and very few if any cedars.  I also saw some hickory and black walnut and persimmon trees.  Overall, I liked it.  

I think we'll have to look for quite a while.  However, if the realtor doesn't show us some land properties instead of all these others, I think we'll need to find another realtor.  The first place I would've really liked if it didn't have a house on it... it was nice that it had good outbuildings and fences, but I would really like to build my own house.  Partly this was because the lady had it decorated in a lot of clutter and frilly stuff... not my taste... it made it seem crowded and smaller than it was.  I liked the river frontage and the fact that the house was up out of the flood plain.  In fact, even with all the drastic flooding in OK this summer, the river never escaped its banks in that area this year.  The soil was really good and rich there, and ahh, the smell of cow manure in the morning.   :D  This sounds stupid, but cows smell so much better than the big Tyson chicken houses or swine farms!

The other house would have been a good location for a B&B, but not really a farm.  The woods and the trails were really nice, though.

Some people go out and smell flowers.  You go out and smell cow manure, chicken houses and swine.  Bad cravings, eh? :)


I hate it when the real estate person has their mind made up what you need and won't listen.  

If you don't want to adapt to some one else's crackerbox, that's just the way it is. :)

 ;D  I don't CRAVE cow manure smells... but it smells good in a funny sort of way... We always had cows when I was a kid, and I guess it just smells... homey?   Kind of like rain after a long dry spell, when you smell the rain coming from way off... it isn't like perfume, but it smells good.  Here, it rains a lot more, so rain just smells soggy and moldy to me, so I miss that rain-after-a-long-dry-spell smell... and here, you never smell cow manure, so it smells almost good.  Being as this is the dairy state, you'd think you would, but you don't.  I know it sounds absolutely goofy, but then you've gotta consider the source. ::)  At least the houses didn't smell like manure!  C'mon, don't you like the smell of cow manure???

The first house was apparently like a lot of old houses that had started small and built on again and again.  The floors were on all different levels, and the lower part seemed to be on a slab while the original part of the house was on a crawl that was not very high off the ground.  It was full of beautiful oak veneered custom built cabinets in most of the rooms (all the bedrooms, the bath, and the kitchen and pantry.)  It was kind of a neat place, but I would have really liked to see it empty and see more of the possibilities (and likely more of the problems.)  The utility room was especially handy as it was actually utilitarian, unlike many I've seen.  It had the washer and dryer and hot water heater as well as huge built-ins on either side that served as a coat closet and pantry, and there was room for an ironing board to be set up and iron the clothes right away... that is if I actually used the dryer, which I usually do not in Oklahoma because there is no need with all the free solar and wind power available.   The front of the house faced north, which I was not really crazy about, even though the site kind of lent itself to that orientation.  I just always liked the front of the house to face east... something about sitting on the front porch with my coffee in the morning sunshine.  Anyway, the looking is the fun part.  Not so much the actual buying and moving.  I love to look at houses, though.  The one thing was that there were sandburs everywhere in the yard even though it was cut close; must have pulled a hundred of them out of my socks and pant legs when we left.  My kids would either have to develop tougher feet or start wearing shoes.

Homegrown, you are going to make me confess aren't you -- yes --I love the smell of cow manure, the fresher, the better.   ::)  I even have this little cow manure fetish ... not really -- I'm just making that up so you don't feel all alone. :)

When I was a kid I cleaned out my uncle's barn a time or two -- seems like he got my cousin too as he still complains about it sometimes.  My uncle would leave the cow manure in the barn until he could con one of us kids into cleaning it out for money.  It was a foot and a half deep if it was an inch.

We would work for days -- usually only one of us each year or so.  Uncle would generously give us a dollar or so for our effort.  He was rather tight.  Squeaked a little when he walked... but we learned a lot about hard work from him.

This is not the same uncle that taught me house remodeling -- he was tighter -- fed us and let us shoot the 30.06, but we really learned a lot of worthwhile stuff from him (and we got potty mouth from him too). :-/ :)

You know you like it, Glenn.  

Yuck, only cleaning the barn out once a year??? Ugh.  I used to feel sorry for my little cousins in SE OK because their summer job was always cleaning out the big chicken factory barns.  All the local farmers in their area had Tyson chicken houses and man did they stink.  There was one down the mountain from my aunt and uncle's house and boy did I hate it when the wind was out of the north there!  It was a shame because it is such a beautiful area... but it's hard to get away from that awful smell.  Tyson couldn't pay me enough to put one of those on my property!  After you cross the AR state line down there, it's compounded with the smell from the industrial turkey farms...  Why does anyone do that for a living???  You would have to be just desperate for money to destroy your land like that.  I'd probably have to "go vegetarian" if I owned one.  I knew a girl who grew up on a big dairy farm in Iowa and she went vegan (with the exception of her ice cream habit, which she just couldn't seem to let go of!) because of the way the animals were raised.  I worked one summer as a vet's assistant in the OKC stockyards, and I quit eating hamburger for quite a while after seeing animals that were going to the packing plant. (Unless it was some we raised because I knew our animals were always in peak health when they were butchered... the ones coming through the stockyards to go to the packing plant were sent on no matter how pitiful they looked as long as they were brucellosis free... there were cows with huge tumors protruding from their eyes and some that were just skin and bones and could barely walk down the chute.)  I never understood why anyone let them get in that kind of condition before doing something.  The eye tumors that Herefords are so prone to are easily treated but can be fatal if untreated... I just didn't see why people didn't take care of their animals, I guess.  Even now, if I want hamburgers, I usually buy round steak and grind it myself so that I know we're eating burger from one cow, not one made potentially of numerous unhealthy bovines.  However, I am really looking forward to the day we can raise our own again... and raise our own chickens and some bantams for Korean cooking.  I hate living in town.

Watching a video of a Tyson factory would make anyone go vegan.  I grew up around the smell of manure and can say it's nostalgic.

We got 210,000 lbs of horse manure from the Yosemite stables about 3 yrs ago  :o  What bothered me was the flies  :P  Glenn would take his Bobcat & turn the stuff, bring me out there & stick his had down into it & try to get me to stick my hand in it to feel how warm it got...   ::)  His parents came for a visit & his mother just loved the smell, she said it reminded her of home - which was Wisconsin...  Glenn's mentioned before that they used to bank the sides of the house with manure during the winter to help keep it warm  :D

Yes, Homegrown - I love it. ::)

The horse manure compost would get so hot that white smoke would come from it and envelop me on the Bobcat and go completely through my clothes.  There was no way to get rid of the smell except a shower and all clean clothes.

Horse manure is the perfect mix of carbon to nitrogen for making compost.  Add water and air by turning weekly to make soil in about a month.  More carbon - straw etc -- add chicken manure for nitrogen -- chicken manure needs more carbon to compost better.  :)

That summer I worked at the OKC stockyards, I always tried not to stop ANYWHERE on the way home because I smelled bad enough that it could knock other people over.  I have long hair, so even my hair smelled like manure... it just absorbed it.  Anyway, I was also working on a summer ministry team, and driving home from the stockyards one day I saw the new pastor for the local AG church hand-digging a trench for the sewer line at the church and decided to stop and ask him if our ministry team could help.  He thought I was some kind of nut jumping down in that hole with him and reeking of manure... thankfully I pestered him enough that he finally let us come and help paint the building and lay the carpet for him, but every time I see him he reminds me of the first time we met and I was stinking like manure and wearing dirty overalls.  I guess I figured that he was digging a sewer line... maybe he couldn't smell the manure? :-/

That would have been a special treat. :)

 :P  OK, so in high concentration, it reeks, but a little cow manure scent blowing on the breeze never hurt anyone... now those big commercial feed lots out in the TX panhandle are another matter entirely.

The suspense is killing me.   :o :-/ :-? ::)  I hope we hear something this weekend as to whether we need to load up  and take off or not.  Keep stopping by the computer and checking email every ten minutes to see if DH has emailed me anything yet.  Generally I am a patient person... but gotta admit, I am having a really hard time this time.... ever since June I've had hope of this move taking place, and now that I know the decision will be made today, it is making it even harder.  My husband says I look like I got a makeover this summer because I've been smiling so much that I look different.  Hope is a funny thing... it does that to people.  I've almost got my entire sewing room cleaned out and packed today just from the tension of having to do something to keep from going nuts.  (Besides, I have three paid sewing projects that i have to get done before I can move, so I've got to get them out of the way.)  Well, guess I'm back to the cutting board for now... my mom called earlier and asked if we were prepared to put a for sale sign up in the front yard if we get the call today.

OK - so today is near over - any news?

Nope, not yet.  Of course, we knew that it would be Friday at the earliest that we'd hear something, but most likely sometime next week because it has to pass the dean's office and a formal offer written  before the hiring committee would call.  We were just hoping that our connection inside the department would've heard what the recommendation was and would call to let us in on the details, but he's tried to remove himself from the hiring process so that there is no bias.  In the mean time, we're going to keep packing and working on this house until we hear otherwise.  Recruiters have been calling with other jobs in OK, but we're waiting until we hear from the university before calling them back.  

We'll be waiting for news.  BTW, what field of engineering is Lyon in? :-?

Daddymem is an engineer and I have a cousin that is an engineer in roads etc (civil ?).

Mechanical.

We got word yesterday that the meeting to make the decision is tomorrow and we should know something afterward... tired of waiting.

I can understand that. :-/

Mechanical engineering would be one of my favorites as regards to machines rather than air conditioning etc.  Archimedes was apparently a mechanical engineer.

He likes it and he's good at it... turns out the competition for the job is more competition than we reckoned, so he may not get the job but I still am hoping like crazy.  We should know sometime tomorrow... if he does get it, we know the whole thing is only by the grace of God as he has no university teaching experience (he did teach high school and he does teach kindergarten Sunday school, both of which should prepare him for anything a university class could throw at him.)  The other guy does have some university teaching experience... so... we'll see... :-/ :-? :)

If it's the right job & move, he will get it  :)  I'm sure you all are praying  8-)  Teaching Sunday School to kindergartners?  :o  That should prepare him for anything.  I taught SS to 5 & 6 y/o's for 3 years, also helped out in children's church & played the piano for them.  I also taught 7th & 8th grade boys & highschool.  I think the 7th & 8th graders were my favorite...

There was one little boy I had for 2 years - he was the biggest challenge I had ever had to deal with!  Little did I know that he was preparing me for my oldest son  ::)   :D

Children's church is great for learning many life lessons. ;D  Most of the time, though, it's fun.  

Ironically, I turned on the TV for a little while a bit ago, and there was Dorothy clicking the heels of her ruby slippers and saying, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home." :)  I know just how she felt... and like I said, I still have a lot of hope.  

A few years back when my husband went on a "cultural literacy" quest to watch all the classic American movies and the movie adaptations of all the books American kids have to read in high school, we watched Gone With the Wind, and when Rhett turns to Scarlett and says something along the lines of, "The red soil of Tara runs deep in your veins..." my husband started laughing so hysterically that we had to pause the movie so I could understand what was so funny.  He said, "That's you!!!  That's just like you!!  The red dirt of Oklahoma must run deep in your veins!!!"  It didn't sound quite as romantic as when Clark Gable read the line, but he was still somewhat right.  Maybe that's just it... when we flew home last weekend as I looked down from the plane and the soil grew redder and redder as we got closer, I just began to grin.  When I was a kid, I spent a summer in Tennessee for a high school honors program, and on the tiny little plane out of Memphis as we began to get closer to home, I spotted the sandy, lazy South Canadian River from the plane and could hardly wait until we landed in Oklahoma City.  Red dirt just makes me smile, I guess... and the thought of owning a piece of it again has been enough to make me grin all summer.  Guess it sounds silly.  That's OK... I'm used to sounding a little warped.  

We have red dirt on our mountain  :)   actually clay...

Most of it back home is clay, too, but it is really fertile even if a little hard to manage at times.  And it's such a gorgeous color to boot.  I had some white canvass overalls when I was a kid and fell down in a gulley at my dad's house... when those overalls came out of the wash, they were forever a reddish pink color.  It was a good thing I'd gotten them pretty evenly muddy, even though the butt and the knees were the darkest parts.

My daughter is sitting here next to me on the couch and she just sighed, "Mama, know what?  I sure do want to move to Oklahoma!!"  It's the first thing on her mind when she gets up, and it was also the last thing she said before going to bed last night.  So, today we'll hopefully get a straight yes or no answer.  I hope for a yes, of course, but at least a no is an answer, too and ends the anxiety to know. :(

Noon and still nothing... :(

ARGH!!!!! >:(  They hashed it all day and can't make up their minds who they are going to hire so they put off the decision for a few days so they can have another meeting later in the week to HOPEFULLY decide something.  I HATE indecisiveness.  I gave away half of our furniture today so that we won't have to move it and they can't even decide who to hire!!!!!GRRRR.    I think the intent is to drive us completely crazy.  The other guy has more experience, but some of them felt that my husband was a better communicator, and yet another complained that DH got ripped off because he was only allowed 20 minutes to present and the other guy got 45 minutes, so they just decided not to decide today.   :P :-[ :-/  Allegedly, they WILL decide sometime this week.


Considering the job was created for DH and we started this process back in June, it is so exhausting waiting for it to happen, or if the case may be, not happen. :( :'(

Got more details on what happed when my husband got home yesterday... turns out that they decided at the meeting yesterday to hire the other guy because he had more experience, but then after they all made that decision, they sat around the conference table feeling like they were making a mistake (this according to an old friend and professor in that department).  They all agreed that the guy had more work experience, but one by one they began to bring up positive points about my husband...he is a better communicator, he got ripped off because not everyone on the hiring committee got to interview with him because one had a doc's appointment and one had a funeral, and the other guy got interviews with everyone, he wasn't allowed as much time for his presentation, etc.  Finally after a full afternoon of hashing it out, they decided to sleep on it for a few days and come back later in the week and make a decision.  The question was brought up, "Are we running a design company, or do we want someone who can really teach design?  What's our goal here?"  The other question was because the other guy has changed companies three times in the last ten years without moving up in positions... he's not getting promoted, which should be a red flag.  DH has only been here a little less than 3 years but has already been promoted twice, now to a project management position... the few guys on that hiring committee who've spent any time in industry know that he is young to be a project manager when he was hired as an engineer.  So, there is still a little hope.... at this point I've prayed all I can pray, and if he doesn't get the job, I'll just have to accept it.  It's going to be really hard to explain  to the girls though, who have their hearts set on seeing Pistol Pete on a regular basis. :(

I hope it works out well, Homegrown.  It gets hard when a group of intellectuals get together to make a decision.  Look at our forum. :)

 ;D  Ain't that the truth.  DH says he likes them (the professors) because they're "kinda naive" in thinking that 10 years of industrial experience automatically means the guy is suited for the job... and because they believe whatever people present to them, even if they may have only worked on a small component of the whole design.  DH was really careful in his presentation to ONLY show them designs he has worked on himself, and nothing that he didn't design in its entirety, because he felt like that was the most honest thing to do.  Come to find out, the other guy (also Korean) has been milking one of the professors (Korean) for all kinds of information about the job and the hiring committee, something DH didn't do because he didn't think it was right or fair.  If that professor called him and gave him information, he didn't object, but he didn't ask him any questions, and that professor (who, incidentally wants  DH to have the job) has tried to stay out of the hiring process to remain neutral... so when the other professors were deciding on the other candidate, he didn't say anything, and I highly doubt that the others know that the other candidate was calling and asking advice almost daily.  Sigh.  :-/  All I know is that I want to move before the snow really flies.

Unfortunately - as we often see in politics and a certain federal installation Sassy and I know quite well, the best person for the job doesn't always get it.  Sounds like they are trying to be fair as well as they can though.

If that doesn't work out -- maybe something better will.

I think their intentions are very good and they are trying to be fair...I just hope they don't get the wrong guy in there... in a company, it is easy enough to fire a guy that doesn't work out, but I think in  a university it is a little harder.  They're trying not to let their personal preferences get in the way of fairness, I know...

Still nothing.  It is getting a bit ridiculous.  I feel like we've wasted 5-6 months on this whole process, especially if he doesn't get it.  He turned down other good jobs because they told him he was as good as hired here.   :(

My husband did not get the job. :(

That's a bummer, Homegrown, but maybe something better will work out.   :(

So sorry, Homegrown - a great disappointment  :(  His eye is on the sparrow...

Thanks, y'all.  I am disappointed, but glad it's over with.  This past week or so has been so stressful and we've both been so aggravated with the wishy-washiness, not only of the department as a whole, but over the flakiness of the individuals involved... of course DH's old advisor was quick to tell him to apply for the next position in the department that will open when one of the other profs retires in a year or so, but DH told him that he has decided that if he does ever apply at our alma mater again, it won't be in that department, and he most likely will look at another school instead.  He feels really stabbed in the back, especially by the two profs who told him that he already had the job.  I don't know how to tell the kids we're not moving... they've had their hearts set on it for a long time... hopefully something else will pan out, and fast.

Sorry to hear that.

Aw, something else will come along... it has to.  All our flannel sheets and coveralls are packed and in storage. ;)

Well, as they say, hindsight is always 20/20!  Looking back now, I'm so glad DH didn't get the university position... we'd probably be living in some slummy college apartment trying to make ends meet right now. Now, the company that is hiring DH is going to pay to move our stuff, our car, and will be paying our rent there for six months or until we can sell our house in Wisconsin.  They'll give him a month's salary in advance to help with other moving costs like changing our driver's licenses and tags and all the utility hook ups, etc.  They'll pay the realtor's commissions, closing costs, appraisals, surveys, etc.  Woohoo!  Life is good.  God is good.

Sometimes God says no to one thing only to give us something better!   :)  c*  Now is it Oklahoma?  or Kansas?

Sounds great, Homegrown.  I assume OK due to the topic heading?

How soon do we start? hmm

...and I feel , God helps those who help themselves.  I bet there has been a lot of work involved for both of you. :)

Now you see Sassy's problem. hmm ;D 

Yeah -- you are right -- it's me.

Yes, OK...  didn't make sense to post it under Kansas.  We're already underway.  The realtor is coming by tomorrow to appraise our house, and next week hopefully the movers will be stopping by to give us their "not to exceed" estimates.  I'm hoping by next week's end we'll have everything at least set up for the move.

Sounds great, Homegrown.

I was afraid you'd never get out of there.  I was freezing for you just thinking about how terrible that weather is.

Woohoo! Oklahoma here I come, right back where I started from!  My grandma called me this morning to gripe that it was snowing there, but I reminded her that at least it will melt there within a day or two!  It's snowing to beat the band here, but I got the house appraised this afternoon, scheduled the movers to come next week and give us an estimate, and have contacted a few rental people in OK.  Life is really good, in spite of the snow...can't wait to get moving!

The girls and I are celebrating with a piece of strawberry cheesecake.

Good deal. :)

Wonderful!   ;D

Quote from: Homegrown Tomatoes on January 31, 2008, 04:39:53 PM
Woohoo! Oklahoma here I come, right back where I started from!  My grandma called me this morning to gripe that it was snowing there, but I reminded her that at least it will melt there within a day or two!  It's snowing to beat the band here, but I got the house appraised this afternoon, scheduled the movers to come next week and give us an estimate, and have contacted a few rental people in OK.  Life is really good, in spite of the snow...can't wait to get moving!

The girls and I are celebrating with a piece of strawberry cheesecake.

Congrats!

The problem here in Mn is that once it shows, it doesn't melt until spring :(.  Enjoy OK and keep us informed!

Fishing guy, I know the feeling.  Here in Wisconsin, it is pretty much snowy all winter, too... I get to craving the color green something fierce in the middle of winter... there are definitely things I'll miss about WI, but winter isn't one of them!  I called my mom this morning and asked her what she was doing and she answered, "Lightin' a far."  It was sunny and already about 50 degrees there, and she was out burning off brush and tree limbs that are still down from the Christmas ice storm.  Today is the day to get the cool season crops out in OK... usually I always had mine in by Groundhog Day.  Here, of course, we're still sitting under piles of snow.  Looks like we'll be moving before the end of February.

QuoteLooks like we'll be moving before the end of February.

Ooooh, how fun!    [cool]
We've moved 9 times since getting married, and I must admit, much as I hate packing up and saying goodbye, there's something exciting about heading off down the road.  The newness of it all, I guess...  And fresh starts. 
Everything is still full of promise.

We moved twice when I was little, and then I grew up in the same little town all through grade school and high school (though we did move across town once in that time.)  I admit, I like to move... it is the best way to declutter.  At some point, when you're packing stuff, you start thinking, 'Hmm, I really don't need all this stuff.'  However, I am really ready to settle down someplace for a while.

Yeah, me too.  That's why we're looking for land to build our Someday House. 
We like this area, we have friends here, and I figure if we hurry up and put down roots, when my husband is sick of his job he'll just have to find something around here instead. (Ranch managers aren't like mechanics.  Every town doesn't need one so a move is a big one)

And yeah, I agree completely about the excuse to declutter.  In fact, DH and i were just discussing this.  Since it's been four years since the last time we moved, we've had time to accumulate plenty of junk!  It'll be a lot of fun when it is time to move.   :P

I don't particularly like to move - as a kid - my dad being in the Air Force, I went to kindergarten in Ohio, California & Massachusetts!  Went to 2nd grade in Mass & CA - stayed in CA until I was out of highschool - then my dad bought the almond farm - many moves since then.  I'm still looking at moving everything from our house in the valley to our cabin in the mountains - been going through stuff slowly - we don't have the main part of the house done at all so don't have any room at this time to move.  I just have too much stuff.   :-\

Homegrown,  at least you've been planning the move for several months - you're part of the way packed up already, aren't you?  That helps.  I'm really happy for you that things have turned out so well with the job for your DH & the location - everything you wanted  :)

We both do not like moving. Every so often we do take on a room, storage shed, corner of the garage or attic and go through the accumulated items. Sometimes we're surprised..."Oh, that's where that has been..."

I recently recovered a torque wrench I had "misfiled".  d*  Now I can sell it, I have a better one.

Also a timing light I haven't used in years. Craigslist, maybe?

It never fails Don. Within a week after I buy a new, whatever it was I can't find, I find the missing item and now have two of them.

Or, if you get rid of something you don't need, you need it!   d*

Yes, luckily a lot of our stuff is still packed from before when we thought we were moving.  We really don't have that much stuff anymore... except kids stuff... I swear things go in their closet and multiply like rabbits... it all comes from having so many grandmas. 

About finding "lost" stuff and duplicates of stuff... this evening I went through the bathroom and pared it down to only what we need for the next few weeks.  Last summer, I bought a bottle of aloe gel, knowing full well that I had one somewhere already.  Sure enough, I found both of them tonight, both nearly full!  I think I'm going to give them to a friend here who seems to sunburn at the mention of the sun... she probably needs it far worse than we do anyway. (I bought it when my husband sunburned at the beach last year.)

 ::)  It's too funny. Ever since my family found out we were moving back home, everyone keeps sending us property listings and rentals near them.  Last night, my uncle sent me two, mom called me three times with three different "interesting" prospects from the Sunday paper, and Grandma hinted that the house across the street from her is for sale.  My aunt and cousin are trying to get us to stay in a rent house that belongs to my cousin's wife's step-sister and is in a really scary neighborhood, but is cheap. 

Too funny...now they're all giving our phone and email to all their favorite realtors.... I've had (to date) about 6 realtors contact me, and all of them know some of my friends or family back home and all want to "help" me find a "perfect home".  I talked to one who makes more sense than most, and she is in the area we'd like to buy and build, and she seems way more familiar with rural land than most of the others, so we'll probably go with her.  She also understands us wanting to buy and build debt free; that's something so few of them get.  (But with your husband's job, I'm sure you'd qualify for the loan!!!)   ::)  Just because I COULD be in debt for the rest of my life doesn't mean I want to!!!!

It's good to find a realtor that might listen-- most only look at their net income off of their commission and try to sell you what they would like to see the commission from.

Ain't that the truth?  When we moved up here, the realtor would only send me listings from a quarter of a million and up, and I called her and said, "Look I don't know what they told you [Lyon's boss, who'd set us up with this realtor] but my husband doesn't own the company!!!"  She didn't want to show me any of the houses that I wanted to look at because they were "too ghetto" etc.  In fact, she didn't want to show us this house... I found it on realtor.com and insisted on seeing it.  She was a bit miffed, and seemed even more so when they finally accepted an offer that was considerably lower than the asking price.  Too bad for her.  She won't be our listing agent in the sale of this house, that's for sure!

We're running like chickens with our heads cut off this past week to get stuff done.  I'm tired.  Wish we could load and leave today!  It's frigid outside, and I'm sick of being cold and wearing long sleeves.  It is 64 degrees or so back home today... and sunny to boot.  Lyon was haivng a conniption earlier because people are quick to offer "moral" support for the move, so long as they don't actually have to DO anything.  I reminded him that the ladies from Bible study are coming over tomorrow to paint our basement for us.  It's only HIS friends that seem scarce when there's work to be done! ;)

Called a realtor who is a friend of a friend here yesterday.  I also talked to her once when we were still up north.  We're supposed to get together and look at some properties at the beginning of next week sometime.  She is in the area I'd like to be in, and she deals with a lot of land properties, so sounds like a pretty good fit.  I am really ready to look at some permanent place.  Already sick of renting... (gee, that didn't take very long, did it?)  My 3YO is driving me nuts wanting chickens this spring, but I have to keep trying to explain why we can't have them here.  She suggested that they could roost under her bed and the landlord would never know; somehow, I don't think it'd work!  The older daughter really wants a cat, but we're doing well to keep the darn dogs in this holey fence.  And we're already one over the limit on pets with the bird, who the property manager knows about but will most likely feign ignorance if the owner ever finds out we have it. 

Still have 39 saved properties on realtor.com that I want to look at if still available.  I figure it is best to start looking in earnest now because after the baby comes I'll be pretty tied up for a while.  Besides, our rent here is paid for six months, at least... if the house in WI sells before then, we'll have to start paying the rent here after that six months... I would just as soon go ahead and buy land and start paying on it and working on it (maybe moving a camper out there?) before the six months is up so that we can get out of this lease ASAP.

Homegrown Tomatoes, have you looking into using a Buyers Agent? A Buyers Agent works for the buyer only where many time the Realtor works for the seller. A Realtor looks after the best interest of the seller, where a buyers Agents is looking out for you the buyer. I sued one to get our property and it was great. You my want to do some research online about buyers agents and look to see if there are any in your area.

Mark

Mark, you sued one??  I think that HAS to be a typo.  Yes, she would be a buyer's agent, not an agent for the sellers.

Looking online this morning, I noticed that a piece of land with a 4B/1B house on it has been updated to include all mineral rights... it's got 20 acres with it, all perimeter fenced, and well, septic, electric, and propane tank.  The house is in pretty bad shape.  It's an old house, and the two pictures inside are hard to make out because of the extreme clutter.  It's listed at $75K.  Looks like there is a working oil well on the place, too.  I am just wondering if they're going to clean out the crap before they sell it??  Also, wondering if there is any way to find out if someone's been cooking meth there or something because it looks pretty trashed.  Originally when I saved the listing, it was because I thought the house would be liveable until we could build maybe... and it might be... hard to say.  The location is right, though... and the amount of land is good.

Probably meant "Used" one.  If I had to sue someone working for me I would never refer them to someone else.  Come to think of it everyone that works for you theses days does a PPJ and I haven't made but one a referal in quite some time. He was a old schooled person, punctual, dependable, and did excellent work. He was 70 YOA.

 :)  I figured that was the case, but I couldn't resist asking.    ::)


When they give you the disclosure on a property, do they have to tell you about illegal activities (ie. if someone was cooking meth in the house??)  I've heard that stuff is really toxic and sticks around for a long time, and I don't want to mess with it, but shoot, for what they're asking for the property WITH all mineral rights, it is almost worth buying just for the rights.... it is really hard to find stuff around here that still has the mineral rights with it.  Most places in this area, you can't find 10 acres with even the most minimal improvements for $75K.  You might find 10 acres of interior, heavily wooded undeveloped land for that much, and then have to bargain down.  I figure the fence, well, septic, etc. has to be worth a little, even if it is more trouble than it's worth to dispose of the house... there is also a decent looking chicken house (it appears to be, anyway) with a fenced yard. (It actually looks as liveable as the house.)  I have to wonder, though, WHY it is as cheap as it is... the few pics inside the house are pretty atrocious.  Every square inch is jam-packed with stuff.  The counter in the kitchen has dishes piled on top of the dish drainer on one end, and the other end is covered with everything from food to junk mail to utensils and dishes.  It looked like every other spot in the house was just as piled up...we would definitely have to build.  The question is when... would it be something that we could actually live in temporarily until we build, or would we have to bulldoze it and start from scratch right away? 

Local neighbors or the Sheriff's department (if they weren't in charge of operations ::)  ) may be able to give you some information.

Well, when some big crime happens, it seems like the newspapers always mention how many times in the past that the sherriff's department has been called out for domestic disputes, or how many times that child welfare services dealt with a family, so surely you would be able to find out about stuff like someone cooking up drugs in a house?   

It is so beautiful outside today that I really wish that I'd set up the appointment to go looking at land today... it is perfect weather for it, and it would have been fun to have done some hunting while DH is off work today.   I guess I can wait until Monday, though.  I like to look.
I just figured that with the holiday weekend it might have been harder to arrange showings, and I wanted to give the realtor enough time to get stuff set up for us to look.

Here with both the city police and the county sheriff you can find out if/when/why the police/sheriff departments were ever called out to any address. It's a matter of public record. It may take a trip down there in person.

Public records are only public so long as the police want to give out the requested info. We had an incident a few years back where a good friend of mine was arrested and held in jail for 2 days then released with no charges being filed. Attempts to get a copy of the arrest record where fruitless since the police refused to give out the info. We even sent a reporter to try and she failed as well. Later an FBI investigation revealed that he had never been arrested or held in the jail. Go figure. Sorry to hijack.  d*

That's true, Scott...

Went to look at the properties today.  Ended up looking at five places.  Only about two were liveable.  One was WAY overpriced.  My favorite was the one with mineral rights... the house was so bad that the only salvageable thing in it were the two poor human beings who lived there.  The house would have to be bulldozed entirely; it was so bad, in fact, that I was leery of taking my kids through it for fear that the roof might cave in while we were in there.  It reeked to high heavens of dust, mold, and dog urine.  Truly, I don't think I've ever seen a worse place.  I don't know how people live like that.  The poor man was elderly and very sick.  A sign on the door warned against smoking because oxygen was in use, but someone smoking around the oxygen tank should have been the least of their worries.  The woman didn't seem like she was quite "all there."  The land, however, was beautiful and clean, and there was a separate well, septic and electric hookup a little ways from the house which could be used for an RV or trailer.  There were two stocked ponds.  The location was great, 1/4 mile or so from a paved road, and not far to DH's work.  And.... full mineral rights.  Any idea what it would cost to bulldoze and dispose of a little house?? 

Maybe the local fire department would like to make a deal on having a training fire?

 ;D  Great idea, Don!  There was nothing close to the house of any value that could have been burned, anyway.  I bet some of the little fire departments out in that area would welcome the training opportunity, and if not, there is a whole fire protection department at Oklahoma State which isn't far away... I don't think they have any other offers on the place, and they're pretty desperate to sell... they need to get someplace where they don't have to maintain the land and where they can be closer to  the doctors, etc.  Hmmmm... it has a lot of potential.

DH asked me last night to contact a couple of places just to see what it would cost to get rid of that old house on the place.... but if we could get a local fire department to do it for us, they might do it for free.  That would probably be the safest way to get rid of it, anyway.... the mold and dust alone seemed pretty toxic.   Felt really sorry for this couple living in there.... they really need out of it badly. There is a small tank battery just behind the house, and they said that they get a check from the oil company every couple of months.  Because of the oilfield equipment, the drives were well-gravelled and maintained, as was the rest of the area around the house. 

Well, I guess I should quit daydreaming about land and go clear out the dining room.  We bought a new dining room table and chairs (we've been using a couple of folding metal chairs and some wicker chairs for ages around our cheapy table bought at goodwill.)  They're supposed to deliver the new table and chairs today, but DH forgot to help me clear out the room yesterday.

The place sounds pretty good, and beneficial to both if it is reasonable.

they're asking $75K for the 20 acres and the mineral rights.  I didn't have the heart to tell them I really didn't even want to look in the house... I could tell from the outside that it wasn't going to be liveable... well, I wouldn't want my family to live in it, anyway.  I guess this couple has been surviving there for quite a while, but it was really in rough shape.  It's only about 30 minutes to DH's work, and most of that on good roads...The others I looked at included a house that HAD been nice but has been sitting empty for more than a year, and they're asking $199K, and it's on really bad roads, and the clean up from this past winter's ice storms around that house would probably take years... it really got slammed apparantly.  The woods were so thick with fallen tree limbs that you couldn't walk to the end of the property even.  And that one had no mineral rights and only partial fencing.  None of the land was really decent for farming.  No pond. Looked at another property with a decent double-wide on it.  Five acres was cleared and horse fenced, and overgrazed down to the dirt.  The rest was wooded and unfenced.  The house reeked of smoke to the point you could smell it outside the house.  It was pretty rolling landscape and a good location, and it was listed at $114K.  I looked at one that was 9.5 acres, with an older but fairly well maintained double-wide on it. It had a couple of acres fenced as pasture and a decent chicken house and fence to keep the coyotes out, a garden spot, etc.  Most of the front of the property was fairly clear with the exception of a few good-sized post oaks and the back 6-7 acres was pretty heavily wooded.  The property line had been cleared along both sides down to the back of the property, wide enough to get a tractor or truck down to the far end of the property.  It was on a hilltop and had a great view, but no mineral rights, and they were listing it at $85K.  The place behind the house could be a small hay meadow or another pasture, if we were to do a little work and put in some fencing.  Right now, most of it is native tall grass prairie, except for a hollow where they tried to build a pond 12 years ago, and then filled it back in with dirt when it didn't fill at the first few years' rains.  The others I looked at were so bad I've tried to block them out of my memory.  Hopefully next week I'll get to look at some places that don't have existing homes on them.... see what plain ol' land costs.

Sounds a little high Homegrown. How far is it from the city?

20 acres here with nothing is $300,000 in a remote - 4miles from town - fairly desirable location --- below our place.

Quote from: ScottA on March 25, 2008, 12:32:43 PM
Sounds a little high Homegrown. How far is it from the city?

Scott, it's in Luther.  They're putting in new gates on I-44 at Luther soon, so the cost of land will be going up in that area.  It is roughly 30 minutes from DH's workplace without the turnpike access, a little less if he could take I-44, probably.
Like I said, around the OKC/Shawnee/Edmond/Guthrie/Norman area, it's harder and harder to find anything with mineral rights, too.  All the others were way over priced, for sure.  Granted, if he wanted a longer commute, I could find a place over by Pink or Tecumseh for a lot less, but considering the location, I don't think it's all that bad.  Of course, I'd never pay the asking price, though!  The one that was priced at $199K was SOOOO overpriced.  I think they were wanting to charge for what it potentially COULD be, not what it was. 

Granted, I didn't want to pay over $2K an acre, and even if they accepted $60K for the place, it would still be $3K per acre, but that does include full mineral rights, and it is also fenced around the entire perimeter, and has two good-sized stocked ponds...  I don't know. :-\  I hate to think of spending $75K on anything I couldn't live in... but at the same time, I really liked the place.  Land is getting so expensive around OKC.  Tulsa is actually more reasonable these days.

I'm not surprised. Some guy was asking $60k for 2 vacant lots in town here. I told him he was nuts. Some people have the idea they can charge California prices everywhere. They will just sit on it until some sucker comes along. Usualy a someone just moving into the area. There's not really much on the market here. You have to find out who owns it and ask them to sell.

I have a great aunt who lives in Yukon and thinks it is the greatest town on earth, and she was trying to talk us into buying over there.  I told her that she was nuts.  First of all, it's kind of flat and ugly (no offense to anyone who lives there!) and secondly, they want like ten grand an acre over there!!!! 

My hometown and the surrounding areas now goes for $5K-9K per acre... it is unbelievable.  My grandma sold the farm several years back for $1K per acre, and we were all shocked that you could get that much for it.  Now that'd be a steal.  It's grown up around there too much anyway, and I really don't want to be back over there... don't hardly know anyone over there anymore.  Went with mom to a breakfast at the Legion Hall and only saw a handful of people I recognized. 

the price on the land with the mineral rights dropped a couple of thousand dollars.   [cool]

Found another place close to my hometown this morning that looks really interesting.  It's only 7 acres, but was very pretty... big stocked pond and most of the wooded areas around the house are cleared out so that they look like a park.  It's got a big 3B/2B house with a chain link back yard, and a huge porch on the front.  Had a barn with a loft, and $3K more will get you the tractor/lawn mower/tractor attachments to go with it.  They were asking $159K for it, which still seems like a lot, but is more reasonable than a lot of stuff around there  nowdays, and it's actually a nice house.  I don't know if the perimeter of the whole 7 acres was fenced or not, but it looks like it should be if not.  If we were to buy something like that, it would change our plans a bit, and we would be building a MIL cottage instead of building our own home.  I don't know if I want to spend that much, but I at least want to look at the property.

I just looked at the listing again and it is actually a 4 bedroom instead of 3.  Big house.

Sounds nice Homegrown. Not to rain on your parade or anything but I'd like to share my views on houses. Big houses cost more money to heat, cool and maintain than smaller homes. Add more to that if it's an older home. We decided to downsize in order to save money and time, not just on construction but on upkeep after the fact as well. Another thing to consider is how much labor cost is in the price of the house. If you build yourself you can save a huge chunk of the cost. I think Americans in general expect way to big of a house. Much more than they really need in most cases. I'm an advocate of right sized homes. What right sized is depends on several factors such as family size and lifstyle. In general though I'd say around 300 sq. ft. per occupant is enough. Add a bit more if you have a home based business. YMMV

I agree with you Scott, and I would prefer to live in a smaller house, but my husband and I have a few conflicting opinions on this matter.   ::)  (I think this is because he never has to CLEAN the house, so he doesn't realize what I mean when I tell him that more house just means more to keep up with!)  It's funny because my inlaws live in a tiny (by our standards) apartment in Seoul, and that's all my husband ever knew before coming to the US.  I think the main reason that he wants a big (or bigger) house is because of the ease of having a big group of people over.  Our house in WI had TINY rooms, even though the house itself was ample.  We couldn't ever have more than one couple at a time over for dinner, and even then it was very crowded.  What he forgets is that here, you can gather outdoors as often as not, and so therefore you need less house.  The house I mentioned in the above post did have one feature that I forgot to mention, which is that it has zoned heat and AC, so you can turn off all the heat/AC to the bedrooms during the day or night as you wish, or turn off the living area during the night, etc, which would help save a little on the heat and cool.  Also, considering that there will be 5 of us within the next month and a half, we probably wouldn't want to live long-term in too small of a house.... we also seem to be people-magnets, and so there's always someone dropping by for dinner or to hang out, and his folks are planning on coming and spending months at a time with us during the upcoming years... so a bigger house may not be a bad idea, though I'm still in favor of a reasonable sized house with a little guest cottage, if for no other reason than to keep my MIL from taking over my kitchen.  (Did I mention that my MIL is coming for two months after the baby is born??  It should be an interesting experiment... it's going to be her first trip to the US.)

Whew... just got back from the second house/land hunting expedition.  Looked at three places today.  The one mentioned above had some great pictures on the online listing, but wasn't that impressive up close and personal.  There were water issues and the roof needed replaced... some of the upstairs closets had water/mold damage.  We looked at two others as well.  The first one was ten acres that was divided into several different pastures and had three old trailers on it.  The folks lived in one and rented the other two out, for $400 and $350 a month....which would pay the mortgage on the property and then some, but I wouldn't want to have to deal with the rental properties as they were in really bad shape.  Anyway, the treasure of the day was quite unexpected.  From the listing, I didn't expect much... it just said 1999 manufactured home on 30 acres.  Pond.  It was a beautiful setting.  There was an additional 30 acres that could be purchased at the same time that had this gorgeous pond (it was clear all the way to the bottom and was spring fed.)  The entire property had good fences and gates, and the house sat up on top of the hill.  It really wasn't anything fancy, but it didn't feel like a mobile home.  It had cedar siding on it, and the carpet had all been taken out and replaced with tile floors, which I liked.  It had a fireplace in one living area and a wood burning stove in the other.  There were multiple pastures fenced off, and another pond behind the house, as well as the spring-fed creek that ran along the back of the property.  The owner told me that during the drought a few years ago, they'd had 24 horses on that property without stressing the pasture, and I could believe it to look at the place, which had a combination of love grass and native prairie grasses.  It was just gorgeous.  I could see myself living there.  A lot better than I can see myself living here.  Anyway, it is fun to look.  Maybe they won't sell it before we sell our house in WI.

Well, we decided that the one mentioned in the previous post was just a little too far... it would require a LOT of driving, and since DH doesn't have a hybrid, it is kind of out of the question.  I cancelled this week's landhunting trip due to the deluge, but next week, weather permitting, I'm going to look at several land properties a little north of here.  They range in size from 8.5 acres to 80 acres.  The one I am most interested in is 40 acres, fully fenced, at $2K/acre.  Most of it is pasture, with some trees, and there are two small creeks on the property.  The listing mentions that though there is no well on the property, there are wells on either adjoining property at around 200' deep.  I told the realtor not to schedule the showings so close that I don't have time to walk over the whole acreage... I am getting tired of looking only at the houses and would much rather see the land.  Still very interested in the 20 acres with mineral rights, too.

Just got back from yet another land/house hunting adventure.  Today, everything I looked at was interesting.  The best was the 40 acres mentioned above.  Very nice land, $2K/acre, fenced.  On a hill with a good view.  Most of the land was open, with some trees.  Two small creeks and a good pond site in the SW corner of the land.  All but about the front acre or so was in native tall grass prairie and looked like it'd never really been touched by humans.  There was another 26 acres for sale adjoining it in an L-shape, and it had some pretty ponds on it...  Good gravel roads to the main road, which wasn't too far away, 4 miles and all paved from there to a nice 4-lane to the city.  The additional 26 acres was listed at $59K, I think.  It would be nice to have both, but probably not necessary.  I would go for the 40 that had road access rather than the 26 with the ponds. 

Anyway, the next one was 20 acres and had a house and a big metal shop building.  The shop was really nice and had power, heat and ac, and water... there was a bathroom with a shower, and an office.  It also had an extra-tall garage door type opening.  The house was simple but fairly nice.  It had a crawl space foundation, a two-car carport and a big patio.  I walked around the house and didn't see any foundational problems, no cracks or gaps, but inside the house, there were a few cracks in the sheet rock around some of the windows.  I couldn't tell what they were from??  It looked like it could have been a water problem, but the roof looked brand new.  I didn't see water  damage anywhere else, either.  They are asking $250,000 for the house and land.  It is a pretty place, but I don't think it's THAT pretty.  The house looked and felt cozy and homey, and it was kind of tucked just under the top of the hill, so the wind wasn't quite as ferocious as some places today.   There was also a huge stocked pond on the place.  Good fences and gates.  Closest to DH's work of the places we looked at today.  Took me less than 30 minutes from there to the house.  The shop was really really nice... it was probably 40' by 35' (a guess) and quite an expensive building.  I think it added more value than the house.  The house had 4 beds and two baths, but it was not a particularly large house, by any means.  The bathrooms were both tiled in really nice tile on the floors and 3/4 up the walls and in the shower enclosures.  Kitchen was gorgeous and well-arranged.  The stove was electric (a minus, IMO) but the hot water and heat were propane (a good thing.)  What do you think a metal building like the shop I described would cost?  Just by itself?  I'm thinking that's where the majority of the money they're asking for is coming from... just looking, I bet it wasn't cheap to build.    Anyway, the spillway from the pond emptied into a small clear creek that ran along parallel to the side of the property line and under the road about 20 yards from the driveway.  The drive was a mix of cement and gravel, so it didn't appear to be in danger of washing away anytime soon (and believe me, it would've last week if it was going to at all!)

The last one we looked at was a double wide manufactured home on 8.5 acres.  It was well-laid-out and secluded in the woods, and the location wasn't bad.  It was honestly a really good floorplan and a really pretty home.  My only qualm with it was that it was almost entirely wooded, and wouldn't be much for farming, or even much for gardening.  The soil looked sandier than the other places we looked, and very little of the acreage was open land.  No fence.  Very quiet and peaceful, though.  Pretty place, but wouldn't meet all of our requirements.

The building could vary quite a bit but that size -- I would guess a steel frame pre-engineered building shell and slab around $30 to $40 or more per square foot plus electrical - office- plumbing,  etc.

I was wrong on the price of the one with the shop... it is $230K, not $250 as I said before.... I am thinking that the shop would be the thing DH would love about it.  Did I mention that the shop had several windows and a covered porch with deck seating in front of it, too? 

I don't remember you mentioning that, but just allow me to add that the shop would be my number one concern also. :)

You can always build or modify homes and shop buildings, etc. But it's harder to modify the land if you're not completely happy with it.   ???

Good point, Don.  That first 40 acres I looked at was really pretty... not sure about the neighbors though.  They're the ones selling the land, and when we showed up to look at it, the lady's realtor hadn't warned her we were coming (and apparently it's not the first time that's happened) and so her man-eating dogs were loose and running around.  She has several horses, mostly young ones, and it doesn't seem like the dogs were bothering them, but I wonder how they would be about staying home if we bought the property.  She has a deed restriction that says you can't put in a salvage yard or a subdivision, which is of no concern to me, but they have a lot of junk piled around their place, and can't help but think it's a little hypocritical.  Anyway, she was ticked at her realtor because he hadn't warned her we were coming (and to be fair, it was still fairly early in the morning for some folks.) She was a little grouchy about it.  But the land itself was gorgeous and healthy.  There was a stand of trees in the middle of the east part and another one at the south west side, and some of them were cedars, which we'd have to control to keep them from taking over the area.  Most of it was tall grass prairie.  The bluestem and Indian grass was as tall as me...looked like the majority of it had never been grazed or plowed (the front few acres has been planted with something else at some point, but still looks good and doesn't have a lot of weedy species in it.)  Anyway, I want to go back when it is not so incredibly windy and walk the entire perimeter of the land (we didn't go the whole way because we were literally blowing away and all the horses saw us and swarmed us like a pack of puppies, thinking we had treats for them, and my realtor was a little scared of them (city girl.)  They kept coming up and nuzzling her and she would get kind of panicky, which was hilarious.  They were just young and curious. 

The 20 acre property with the shop was proportionally about the amount of woods and open prairie I would like, but the view wasn't quite as good, and the roads weren't quite as good (although they certainly weren't bad, either... only a few miles off paved roads.)  Some of the land had more invasive weeds than others.  However, the pond and the creek were gorgeous.  The entire perimeter had good fences and boundary lines, and there was a good sturdy gate at the drive.  It was a lot closer to where DH is working, too.  The house was really plain jane looking, to be honest... the outside of it showed little if any imagination.  However, the huge concrete slab patio on the front could probably be made into a really cool (and large) sunroom with a little work, and you can always dress a house up with porches, etc.  It had a relatively flat roof, which looked brand new, incidentally, so probably little if any attic space.  There was something really comfortable about the house, though.  The master bedroom was so large, though, that we'd probably end up using it as a second living area... I just don't see needing that much room to sleep and to house clothing.  In fact, when I first went into that room, I assumed that it WAS a living area.  The neighboring property to the east was a horse farm where two or three wobbly legged colts peered through the fence at us, and behind the house to the west was another open pasture... I didn't see any house to the west at all (but didn't drive all the way over the hill to find out, either.)  Across the road to the north was all heavily wooded land. 

Sigh.  Wish our realtor in WI would be a little more communicative about what's going on up there.... time to find a new realtor because she never returns my calls or emails. Since we moved, she has not called me back once.

Both those places sound nice, HG - I'd like the creek & pond, if I was choosing - the house on the 20 acres sounds like something you could fix up nicely - since you guys are the king & queen of remodeling!  ;D  With that great big cement slab out front, new roof, etc.  There's lots of possibilities...  and if you have questions about what type of neighbor the other lady would be, especially with her dogs...  closer to DH's work... 

When I look at land back East & in the south - it is so much cheaper than here in California!  It makes me want to move out of here just because of all the taxes etc...  but, my family is here & part of Glenn's...  and we like our underground cabin...  it would be exciting to look at land & see all the possibilities.  c*  I'll just look at it on the web as the realities of actually moving don't really excite me much  :D

Lo and Behold!  Just when I was badmouthing my realtor in WI, she finally emailed me and somewhat made sense this time.  Said that everything is too wet and muddy to have anyone do anything with the yard just yet, but that she'd had three couples come through on the open house last week.  Two had no interest in it whatsoever, and the other one thought the rooms were too small (the number one complaint thus far.)  It irks me that people don't care about owning land up there... seems like no one appreciates the fact that that yard is nearly three times the size of anything else in the area.  She recommended lowering the price at the beginning of May, and said that no one has even been looking in that price range since we left (could it be that they can get a foreclosure so much cheaper?)

Sigh.  I wish it was sold already... I wish someone would make an offer, even a really low one because at least then we could negotiate.  Tired of living in the city already... mainly of having a place that is not really ours.  I had forgotten how much I hated renting.  It's been a long time.

Quote from: Sassy on April 17, 2008, 11:56:39 AM
Both those places sound nice, HG - I'd like the creek & pond, if I was choosing - the house on the 20 acres sounds like something you could fix up nicely - since you guys are the king & queen of remodeling!  ;D  With that great big cement slab out front, new roof, etc.  There's lots of possibilities...  and if you have questions about what type of neighbor the other lady would be, especially with her dogs...  closer to DH's work... 

When I look at land back East & in the south - it is so much cheaper than here in California!  It makes me want to move out of here just because of all the taxes etc...  but, my family is here & part of Glenn's...  and we like our underground cabin...  it would be exciting to look at land & see all the possibilities.  c*  I'll just look at it on the web as the realities of actually moving don't really excite me much  :D

Sassy, you're not kidding about land prices.  After having come back from the Chicago area, everything seems cheap, but I have to keep reminding myself where I am.  However, the housing slump that seems to have hit everywhere else has not really reached here yet, at all, and house and land prices continue to go up.  DH and I kind of daydream about the day that he can work independently as a contractor from home so that we can live anywhere... getting just 15 or so miles more out of the city than the areas we've been looking would cut the cost tremendously.  No one wants to commute that far every day, BUT if you only have to go when you want, then it's not so bad to drive an hour one way every now and then.  One of our old friends does that... he still works as a consultant for a few big companies, and he works at the university.  So, two days a week, he goes to work.  The rest of the time he's on his ranch building fence or messing with his cows.  On the days he works, one day he drives about an hour and a half, and the other day he drives about 45 minutes.  Makes for a short commute if you average it out over a week's time. 

There is still great land available in this state, and for good prices, but it is just a little more than most folks want to drive every day. 

Dad called yesterday evening to tell me about one of my little step-cousin's weddings coming up, and I asked his opinion about the shop building at the place I mentioned earlier in this thread... just trying to figure out where they came up with the asking price and trying to figure out what a good offer on it would be.  The place has been on the market nearly 250 days, so I don't think it's going anywhere fast.  Dad offered to go look at it with me and tell me what the building is worth (or what it would cost to build an identical one.)  I told him that in  a week or two, we'd do that, and that way I can take DH to see it too.  I think he'd appreciate it if I could schedule the showing the same day as the cousin's wedding, to be honest, as he told me he was trying ot figure out how to get out of going! ;D :o

Not too sure how many more places I'm going to get to look at before the baby gets here... not planning another trip until the week after next because gas is so darn expensive (and I've been doing all the driving to avoid having to move the car seats.)  Besides, the realtor doesn't usually schedule the showings in any particular order, so sometimes we backtrack a lot.   Want to do as much looking as I can before MIL gets here in June, though.  Not because I don't want to take her along, but just because I don't want to wear her out. 

After last weekend getting stuck for two hours in traffic headed south out of the city on Friday, we have decided that we definitely do not want to look south of the city anymore.  Waste of time!  One of the other reasons that we also wanted to look north from the city is that some of the engineering department folks are still trying to get DH to teach some at O State at some point in the future, and if he ever decided to do that, even if part time, he wouldn't have to relocate again if we were already north of here.  At this point, I don't think he really has any desire to do that as he is really enjoying his new job immensely.  However, we just like that area and want to find something up there.  All the places I looked at last time are in that general direction-- Guthrie, Coyle, Edmond.  I'm thinking of making a trip over in the next week or two and putting up notices on the post office bulletin boards asking if anyone has land for sale to contact us... I like our realtor, but she's a city girl and really doesn't know what to look for in a rural property.  (That and she thinks I'm a little crazy.) [crz]

Nothing I hate more than stalled city freeway traffic, except being in it when they all slam on their brakes when doing 70 MPH.  I have a 12000 lb truck with 11000 lb brakes.  d*

Ain't that the truth!  I-35 south of OKC is only two lanes, but it is always, always heavy on traffic between OKC and Dallas.  There's not another quicker way down there, usually, and so it gets really congested.  The traffic north, west and east of the city usually isn't too bad unless there's a wreck and everyone slows down to look and say, "Bless their hearts!"

Well, found out the pretty 40 acres I looked at this weekend (mentioned in the counting chickens thread) is already under contract.  It was really reasonable, too, darn it.  Beautiful place.  I told the realtor that if the deal fell through for some reason to please call me. 

The more I look at the 20 acres with mineral rights, though, the more I think it might be a serious possibility.  DH and I drove out there again yesterday and crept by at 5mph two or three times.  There isn't a front fence on the place, but as far as I can tell, the north and south boundary fences go all the way back to the back of the 20, and I think there was another boundary fence at the rear of the property.  Since it is a long, narrow lot, it wouldn't take a lot to fence the front of the property.  At the back, I could see it was more open grassland, and up on a hill... probably a nicer place to build, even though the septic, well, and electric are toward the front of the property.  No one would build directly to the south as it is a low-lying area and might be prone to floods (though the whole of the 20 acres I'm considering is up on the hill) and on the north, it looks like an old vacant farmhouse that's about to fall in.  DH keeps asking if I seriously think the house couldn't be used for SOMETHING rather than having to tear it down right away.  I think if you tore a couple of the worst lean-to's off of it, you might could use it for a chicken house.  It might be nice to have running water in the chicken house, I guess. (and flush toilet???)  Maybe we could toilet train the chickens....

 ;D ;D ;D  I found the place I want today.  It has a contingency on it that is going to expire soon.  It is 40 acres with one of the best views, close enough for DH to commute to and from the city.  Beautiful.  It has an old kind of plain farmhouse on it and a little garage converted to a MIL cottage.  Nothing fancy, but certainly adequate....The barns are kind of run down except for the pole barn.... but everything else is fairly well maintained.  It was cool enough up there on the hill that you really wouldn't need to use the AC very often.  I'm in love.   ::) ;D :)  Now if we can just get our other house sold... I am really hoping this place is still available when it comes time to buy! 

Looked at 3 other properties, too.  They were all nice, but the first was my favorite.  One was a cute, immaculate little house on good roads, but it was just a little too far to drive every day.  It was just listed last night, and it doesn't even have a MLS# yet.  The last one we looked at was huge and on 20 acres.  I am still trying to figure out how the house could look so tiny on the outside and feel so big on the inside... some weird optical illusion, I guess.  The pasture there looked overgrazed, though, and they hadn't maintained the outbuildings to the point that it would probably be better to tear two of them down rather than try to repair them. 

Any bites in Wis. yet?

" We got 210,000 lbs of horse manure from the Yosemite stables about 3 yrs ago    What bothered me was the flies    Glenn would take his Bobcat & turn the stuff, bring me out there & stick his had down into it & try to get me to stick my hand in it to feel how warm it got...   "

An old meat thermometer works just fine.   rofl

It's not the same as feeling your way through the white smoke and just sticking your hand in it.  The smell goes through everything.

I really can't think of anything worse than liquid manure.  Farmer in the panhandle would store it in ponds or lagoons and then pump it onto the fields with large liquid cannons.  If you were driving by it would enter the vents on the cars and be there for weeks at a time.  Then everone complained and they started to use chissel plows to plow it into the ground.  Beat any hog pen I have been around.  But for making things grow it was hard to beat.

Quote from: glenn kangiser on July 14, 2008, 07:42:15 PM
Any bites in Wis. yet?

Unfortunately, no. :(  Living in town really gets to me...
I emailed the realtor up there last night and asked if she's had anyone interested yet, but she hasn't replied yet.

Considering the rental thing anymore yet?

Maybe I should check into what it'd cost to hire a property manager... we could probably get $1400/1500 a month for it.  Still, I really don't want to go that route unless absolutely a necessary.  I'd just like to have it off my plate entirely.

Homegrown...

Dont get too disheartend..If you end up renting it out for $1400-$1500 if that covers your outgoings, you at least are not operating at a loss. The situation is similar in the UK, people that could afford to buy drove prices up and now there is the wicked backlash as per the U.S market. My parents want to sell up in the U.K and move to the South of France, but with the way the market is they would be lucky to break even... maybe it is best to rent it out whilst you can. Maybe in 3-4 years when the economy gets off its harris you will get what you want, in the meantime you have an income.

Just my 2p's worth of course :P

Brian

Quote from: Homegrown Tomatoes on July 15, 2008, 11:19:49 AM
Maybe I should check into what it'd cost to hire a property manager... we could probably get $1400/1500 a month for it.  Still, I really don't want to go that route unless absolutely a necessary.  I'd just like to have it off my plate entirely.

The longer you wait the more you lose is my only thought about that.

good points.  We would not be taking a loss if we were to rent it out.  The house payment is less than it would rent for...

It could help pay for building materials and advance you toward your goal of getting your place there.

Long distance rentals are not my idea of the greatest situation but maybe if you find someone with a good record as a manager you could come out OK.

maybe I could rent it out and still keep it on the market for sale, too.   :-\  At the end of August it'll be six months since we moved.  The company agreed to pay six months of temporary housing and to "work with us" if we hadn't sold by then.  I hope their idea of "working with us" isn't sending me and the kids back up north and putting DH in some cheap apartment here until the house sells because that AIN'T gonna happen.  I don't care if I have to call the "we buy ugly houses" folks.  Speaking of that, do they actually give you a decent  price for your house?  Anyone ever sold something to them?

What about offering it  with a lease-to-own option?  If they close at 6 months, they get a discounted price, or if they wait a year, the price goes up.  If they choose not to buy, they can renew the lease at a year, but the price goes up for every six months that they wait to buy it?

Various creative approaches can work better than a straight sale somtimes.

Talked to the WI realtor yesterday and got an email from her this morning.  She bought a dehumidifier and is hooking it up for me today...  I have also been watching the housing market up there.  A house nearby that is smaller with one less bedroom and a lot about half the size sold just the other day for about $10K less than we are asking.  It was on a different lake which is a less desirable neighborhood in that area.... but it sold anyway.  That gives me hope.  Ours is cuter... and it is on one of the cleanest, nicest lakes in the area.  If someone would just make an offer--any offer--then we could negotiate.  When I talked to the realtor the other day, she was waiting at her doctor's office, so I didn't get to talk long, but she agreed that she should add that it is only five minutes away from the Metra station (the commuter train into Chicago) as an added plus about the property.  Didn't get to discuss a lease-to-own option yet... maybe I'll call her again at the beginning of next week if we still haven't had any offers.  I want that 40 acres so bad and am so ready to get out of town... :-\

if your realtor hasnt even mentioned that you are 5 mins from the nearest metro station then I would be concerned that they are clueless, this is obviously a major selling point for any property and one of the 1st things that should be advertised...Perhaps a serious word with your realtor or start looking for a more competent one. It may be a weak time in the U.S housing market, but its also ripe for buyers too with lower prices and interest rates...

it  can be a bad time to sell a house... Unless you want to sell it for 50% less than it was worth 2 years ago. Cheap houses are selling...And foreclosures are selling like hot cakes... Cheaper home sales are up... by a huge margin.

Truthfully we needed a huge market correction Prices were doubling every 6 years or something and it was not healthy or natural and it could not last..The bottom had to fall out and it has.

I do not want to see you lose money, but have you considered just lowering the price another 10-20k so that it will just sell and be done with it?

We have already lowered it $25K. :(  Can't afford to lower it much more.  Especially since we just poured more money into it to repair the water damage and fix the cause of it.  However, did get an offer to rent it to the contractor's son ( a neighbor we trust) for two months until he gets his house ready to move into.  That would offset the cost of the work done on it, and we could still have showings/open houses  in the mean time.  Even if an offer is made, we could set the closing to coincide with them moving across the street into their own place (they bought an eyesore across the street from us and have spent the last year getting it ready to move into... it is almost ready, but they're expecting a baby at the first of next month and want to get out of the inlaw's house and have a little more privacy and space.)  It is a thought.  I think it will sell at the price we've lowered it to, especially now that the basement is totally repaired.  My realtor is on a road trip for two weeks though, so I don't know when she's going to get around to holding an open house.  Hope something happens soon with it.  I am going completely stir crazy here in the city....  it IS a terrible time to be selling.  A year an a half ago, we could have sold that house at our original asking price in a heartbeat.  Folks probably wouldn't have even tried to get us to come down on it.  Now we'll be doing well to break even... there is no way we'll make back all the work we put in to it, either.  Maybe the actually money, but certainly nowhere near enough to pay back all the backbreaking labor on it.  Kind of makes you sick. :P  Never the less, I've found the place I want to buy here, I'm pretty sure.
Just hope we can get in it before winter.

trust is a difficult thing...renting my property out scares the hell out of me... Good luck!

I would probably rent it out for a while... to create some money to offset expenses and tide you over until it sells... As long as the renter takes good care of the place you should be okay...

We are going to list our home in SC in the spring and it is a tough thing to navigate through.. I just hope that there is some kind of good news between now and then... maybe continued lower gas prices or increased employment...Something anything will make me happy. We do not have a lot of money in our home....But we worked like slaves on it... And it is very upsetting to think that our houses were worth 30-40% more 2 years ago...If I can sell my house for 20% under it's  value I will be very happy....If I can get for it what the tax acessor would value it for...I would be happy

I hear you.  At this point, we'd be thrilled just to get an offer.

Last night, I had my Mom come up and watch the big girls and DH and the baby and I went back to the 40 acres I like.  It has an old house on it.  DH borrowed the realtor's flashlight and was crawling around under the crawl space and checking out all the details. He didn't see the big things like the ponds and the barns, etc. until I pointed them out to him because he was so busy going over the house with a fine-toothed comb.  I'd told him before that the  house was nothing special and I think it is overpriced by about $50K.  However, I figure they should be willing to negotiate to some degree; they have to come down at least that much or I won't even consider it.  So, his analysis was that it was a plain-jane house with work to be done and was overpriced at least $50K, which was exactly what I'd already told him.  We also looked at another 40 acres nearby with a manufactured home on it.  The house was on a foundation but had some serious foundation problems... cracks in the drywall everywhere, and they'd done a really shoddy job of trying to cover it up, apparently right before we got there and I reached up to feel a spot on the ceiling and got wet paint all over my hand!  The land was pretty, and looked like a good place for horse people... there were trails all through the woods, three big ponds, etc.  However, probably only 1/4 was farmable land, and it was out of sight of the house, meaning that it'd be hard to keep an eye on livestock if they were in either of the front pastures.  From the hill up above the house you could see for miles.  I could see the train going through the little town down in the bottom land, etc.    The biggest negative IMO was the defunct oil well out in the back yard and the four tank batteries at the entrance to the drive... mainly from an aesthetic perspective.  My thought is always for everything they tried to cover up that we actually noticed, how many more did we miss?  I'd rather buy land with nothing on it than the land with the mfg. home.  Also, they situated the house with the ugliest of views when there were so many great ones to choose from... can't for the life of me figure out why. 

We see houses built in terrible locations and a lot of the time is involves cost time and effort.

People put their houses right on top of the highway practically because it means you do not have to pay for additional power poles, you have a shorter driveway, less cost to hook into town water and sewage..

Other times someone will put a house in a bizarre location simply because it was the best spot for drainage in terms of septic or it was where the best water was found. Sightline, view and privacy sadly almost never go into the equation when deciding where to build for most people

We had a friend who bought a place like that.  Had a crappy little trailer practically sitting on the road, and 80 acres.  They lived in the trailer while they built their house a quarter mile back from the road, and then they moved into the house and let their daughter and son-in-law live there for a while until they could save up enough to buy their own place, and then after they'd pretty much trashed it, my husband went over and helped them tear it down and burn up the rubble.  I'm sure the original owners just couldn't afford to run all the lines, etc. back to the back of the property, but why buy 80 acres if you're not going to use any of it?

That is an easy question about the 80 acres and not use it. Even though we are mortal we can if lucky live a long time. I would gladly buy 80 acres of land and live in a piece of **it trailer with the hope that someday I can build my dream house back on the hill out of sight.

I would much rather do that than live in a wonderful house in town. This is kind of funny because a few years ago when we bought an amazing old house dead in the center of town...We fixed it and now we are going to sell it for a piece of land that has no house it is not cleared no power poles nothing...

We will have to build a camp or live in a motorhome the first year at the new land..And we would gladly do it just to be on the land.

People sometimes do not get all the way to the destination before the ride is over...They get the land, they just never get to burn the old ratty trailer and build their dreamhouse.

I still like to think that they have the dream to build that perfect house on the perfect spot on their 80 acres...Just like you and I ;)

Well, yeah, I know WHY they put the trailer right at the road and so forth, but in this case they didn't do ANYTHING with the land.  In a heartbeat, I'd live in a tent on my own property in the country rather than live in a relatively luxurious rent house in town (or even a house I owned in town.)

I am in exactly the same boat as you on that...

HG,
  i can't wait until i have that opportunity. land, used travel trailer, build house. hopefully not too long from now. 2009

It is a great time to buy a motorhome... You can buy a 25 year old 25-30 foot motorhome for a couple thousand dollars...They are everywhere. Gasoline is expensive it is getting harder to insure them cheap and they charge a lot of money for hook ups at campgrounds for the motor homes.

My wife and I are currently looking for something around a 30 foot...I will fix a leaking roof or whatever..minor damage does not bother me either...It is short term investment...if it is cheap enough I will junk it when I am done...

I gave mine away to get rid of it, but got my moneys worth out of it.

Make certain the appliances work... fridge, water heater, furnace are the ones that give the most problems. And the A/C if so equipped. Try 'em out. The one we bought years ago had faults with all four and we negotiated the price downwards to where it was nearly free.

yes I know all about trying to find someone to repair a propane fridge... That said the appliances are great to take out of cheap nearly free motor home when you are done with it for a hunting camp

I used to haul those pop up trailers away all the time cleaning up yards and I would get a couple hundred bucks for the propane stove and fridge to someone wanting a small hunting camp... They would build something like 8 x 10 in the woods and use the furnace and fridge in it.

the appliances out of the motorhome would be even more valuable for that sort of application

We almost bought a big pull-behind trailer before we left WI.  It was still in immaculate shape, and they only wanted something like $1,500 for it.  We have a vehicle big enough to tow it with, too.  My thought was that we could live in it temporarily if we needed to build (it had plenty of room for all five of us) or if we ended up buying a place with a house, we could always use it for vacations or sell it for what we paid for it, or very close to it.  DH didn't want to rent a lot in some seedy trailer park until we could buy though, so we didn't buy it.  Now we're stuck in this $1100 a month rent house and with no buyer for our house in WI yet.  It could get bad really quickly if his company quits paying our rent here... it's been more than six months now.  Last night we were trying to decide what additional jobs we could take in the mean time so as not to have to go into debt for our rent on a credit card, or where/how we would get by until we do have a buyer.  DH suggested we move in with my 81yo Grandma, but that's kind of a mean thing to do to an old woman!  Even if we bought all the groceries and did all the cooking and cleaning, I don't think she'd appreciate having her peace and quiet interrupted for any length of time.  I figured I could sell my quilts and other sewing projects on the internet maybe and babysit one or two kids during the day.  In the mean time, I'm hurrying up to finish up a couple of paid quilting projects for someone in Wisconsin.  Even though it would've been really difficult to be in a little pull-behind trailer with a newborn, I wish we'd done that because at least the possibilities of being unable to pay either rent or mortgage wouldn't be looming so realistically on the horizon.  Just another reason men should listen to their wives!  I hate debt of any sort.

$1100 a month is a lot of money to rent a house...I mean you could have a mortage for 150,000 for less than that a month...Is the housing market really that precious in Oklahoma

$1100 is pretty steep for OK. We have a nice 3 bedroom brick house rented out in a suburb of Tulsa for $800. Must just be the OKC market.

It is really high for OK because it's in some whoopty-doo northwest OKC neighborhood I could care less about... we were really bound by time to find a place to rent, so the company found us a few leads.  The one I wanted was even closer to DH's work in an older neighborhood and was over $500 a month cheaper, but the guy didn't call me back about it the first ten times I called on it, and it ended up renting out before I could send my mom up to check it out for us.  There is NO way this place is worth what the company is paying for it!  It hasn't been maintained at all and all sorts of corners were cut in the building of it.  If we had to pay the rent on it, I would've moved out before the first month was up.... it is ridiculous that they're charging this much.

In good news today, I just learned that we've had three showings of our house in WI this week, and there seems to be some more serious interest in it!  I am praying that someone will make an offer very soon!

Our realtor is having open houses the next two weekends.  I am really hoping.


Went to look at another place yesterday.  It was pretty, but I didn't like the fact that it shared the driveway with another 5 acres of interior land and there was no way you could shut and lock a gate at the road if you wanted to.  Also, because of the way it was situated, it'd be hard to keep your animals off the other person's 5 acres, and  vice versa.  I still like the other 40 acres the best, but am afraid they won't come down much on their price... I'm prepared to walk away if they won't.  There was another 40 acres right down the road from it for $50K less and with a bigger house on it.  The land wasn't as useful, but boy was it gorgeous, and it had great views, too.  I don't like it as well, because it isn't as practical, but it is a possibility... I'd honestly want to sell the solitaire home that is on it and build over from the ground up (because they apparently didn't set it on the foundation right, or the soil has shifted, or something, and besides, those things feel like cardboard boxes to me.... and they all look alike.)

Well, we think we've located "the place".  It is 46 minutes drive (and I got behind a few slow folks and a county road grader.)  Anyway, the drive is the one that needs fixed, but we really like the layout of the place and the land.  The house is small, but we think it would be fairly simple to build on a huge sunroom to the front of it to create a little more space....  Also, the next door neighbor is considering selling us ten acres of his pasture that is adjacent to the pasture of the 20 acres we want to buy.  Closing on our WI house is set (again) for tomorrow at noon.  Hopefully it will take place as scheduled; we are so sick of the process.  Anyway, we're praying hard that all will work out!

Homegrown, I am praying that everything goes well for you tomorrow and also for the property you maybe purchasing. You may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Real estate buying and selling is a nasty game. Some people like the game, but for myself I don't, even though I am in the game. Good luck tomorrow and keep us informed. ;D

That's the one with the creek too isn't it, Homey? -- it sounds good.  Hope it works out.

yes, Glenn, the one with the creek that I sent you an aerial map of.... we got estimates this week for the work to be done on the drive.  They are wildly different, but the one from the company I am most familiar with was $1750 (The other was over $4K???)  Anyway, the estimate was for a day's worth of dozer work, removing the boulders, re-grading the road and changing the slope where needed, and adding two large dump trucks full of gravel.  I think that should do it.  We'll (Lord willing) be making an offer within 1-2 days.  Gonna try to go back over there tomorrow, if possible, before making an offer.  Hey, we might get to move in for Valentine's Day... wouldn't that be sweet?  The kids have been talking about it ever since we went over there last time and they keep referring to is as "our house", like it's already a done deal.  I love the fact that it is at the end of the road, nestled in the woods and still has the open land we want, too.   The wiring in the house is scary, but that we can fix fairly easily... the structure is solid.  I love the cordwood living room and the wood stove.  They did the concrete counter-tops, and they look nice and are virtually indestructible.  It is small, but liveable, and I can see where it would be simple to add a big sunroom to the front (south) of the house, and it would add all the living space we'd need.  DH might find that after we move in that it is already big enough, seeing as how the kids won't be cooped up inside the way they are in the city. 

I'll try to take some pics if we go out tomorrow.  Last time the setting on the camera was messed up and the photos are all a little blurry.  I want to walk around a little more of the property this time, too.  Such a pretty place.

I think it sounds great, Homey.  Sounds like your dozer guy knows his stuff.

Looking forward to hearing more on this. :)

Homey, I'd love to see some of your quilts, I'm a quilter as well.

Wishing you and your family the best for where ever your new home is meant to be. You have a lot going on. Be  [cool] Hang in there....

Quote from: considerations on January 02, 2009, 09:38:34 AM
Homey, I'd love to see some of your quilts, I'm a quilter as well.

Considerations, there are a few in an album on our website... I am bad about forgetting to upload pics to the site and sometimes even forget to take pics when I finish stuff, which is usually to give away or sell.  The one that is labelled "Annika's quilt" has something like 60 fabrics in it.  There's not a lot there, but a few in the "michelle's projects" album.
http://homegrowntomatoes.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=422260203

Thanks for the kind words, Dog.  :)