oh boy, i may have found the perfect property!

[suz]

eekk--isn't there a saying about being careful what you wish for?
my dream my entire life has been to find a rural farm property on the water, so i can ride my horses onto trails from home and dh can walk outside and get in his kayak. plus this dream requires an east facing view, so i can see the sunrise and moonrise over the water. plus it needs to be within driving distance of my friends and affordable for me.
well, i may have found it yesterday. (it's a big, lovely lake and it's a little farthur out from town than i am now, but those are pretty minor issues, wouldn't you say?)
it's got three homes on 8.1 acres facing east on a small protected bay--the land across the bay is state park, so no homes to look at, only campfires in the summer. no close neighbors, a decent enough house, plus two cabins which are legal but teardowns. the lawn sweeps down to the water line, which hubby will love and there are around five acres or so of scrubby, weedy higher ground which could make a really nice paddock and barn space---the ponies now have around ten acres to wander on, but in winter rarely leave the small barnyard here anyway, so i think we could make it work.
so, please, could i have jingles that my place will sell for enough to buy and renovate this new farm for us? it's been for sale for a long time, the teardowns have discouraged people but doen't bother me at all.
i'm so besides myself with the wonder and possibility of it all that i'm verklempt and befuddled!

[MunchkinsMom]

Jingles for you that you can sell your current place and make it work for you. Sounds like a neat place.

Hey, this worked for me when I had to sell my home so that I could buy my dream farm:

http://www.stjosephstatue.com/

[Minerva Louise]

Oh wow, how exciting! I hope it all works out for you!

[avezan]

VERY Exciting! Jingling that you can sell your current home and buy the dream property! Just keep in mind that things happen for a reason. If, somehow, this one doesn't work out, an even better one will come along. But if this is the one....you will sell your house and make it work! Good luck!

[chai]

That does sound like a dream property! I will keep my fingers crossed for you. And don't underestimate the St. Joseph Statue! Our property had been on the market for a year, with the only 'bites' around the time of renewal of the realtor's listing. A friend bought us a St. Joseph statue and according to a tradition I had never heard of, buried it in front of our house.

Our house sold within a month, and strangely enough, it sold to a couple who were moving away from the town we moved to. Thank you, St. Joseph!

[Fancy That]

I know how you feel! We were house hunting for a horse ranch since last summer, and finally closed on a property we NEVER thought we could afford, due to the neighborhood/location. We closed in April and thoroughly enjoy having our horses at home!

We also weren't afraid of a fixer-upper. You have that going for you! Alot of folks are afraid of that aspect.

Good luck!

[Foxtrot's]

Sounds like heaven. My childhood dream was to be able to look out of my kitchen window and see my horses and every day I still get a little pleasurable mood when I realize I can see my horses from my kitchen window. It never goes away. Now, if I had a lake with a moon view, it would be perfect.

If it needs a little sweat equity, so much the better pricewise. Are the cabins really unfixable - could be mortgage helpers? That's what I tell my kids.

[suz]

thanks for the jingles and st joseph reminder!! i will make sure to find a statue asap---do you think that we'll have even better luck since dh is a joseph?! i am so high on the possibilities that i cannot sleep fro the planning going on in my head, and i am chomping at the bit at the thought of remodeling---such a rush!! and such huge potential there-- i can totally just see it all now...
and i really need to think about a barn--and i'll need a good size run-in for the tractor and trailer, etc. i'd really like a european communal style barn, but this property lends itself better to a 36x48 with huge overhang for a loafing area. so, four stalls and loafing area/overhang facing the house, trailer, tractor and shavings on the back/road side. this way it's poistioned well fro easy unloading of supplies, plus the horses are insulated from the road and i can see them all from the house. there, that's done!
plus it needs three bathrooms and the kitchen gutted, new windows and/or gables so i can see the ponies from the bedroom, etc. etc.
lol, it's gonna be a lo-o-o-ng night!

[suz]

one cabin is already falling down, the other dilapidated but rented. but both are in the line of sight from the main house to the lake, so i think i'd like to tear them both down, rebuild one on the far corner with it's own lake view (to sell or rent) and use the square footage of the other to add to the house. the house as is has one 16x24 sort of clumsy kitchen/dining/living space, i think that maybe should be the living room and the new structure the entry and large eat-in kitchen. everyone always gathers in the kitchen anyway, so that makes sense for us. dh is a retired plumber, we've done a ton of remodeling between us and know where to cut corners and where to spend the money, so we may actually be able to pull this one off.
i'd go with stained cement floors and recycled cabs, for instance, and spend more on a commercial range and fridges myself.

[nightsong]

How are the mosquitoes? They can be murder on horses. Does the zoning allow horses? And is there any environmental restriction on livestock within so many feet of water? Any wetlands to protect? What are the restrictions on building another house? Is it allowed? Setbacks from the waterline and the lot line? Flood plain? Check it out to find out whether you will be permitted to do what you plan. Or anything like what you want. Do not rely on a real estate agent's word. They are notoriously clueless and may be telling you information from a while back or for another property altogether. If they tell you you just need a "special exception" or whatever they call them in your part of the world, find out how likely they are to be granted, and likely restrictions to be imposed. And time to get any. You say "it needs three bathrooms. What about septic so close to the lake? Etc. Etc. Etc.

[suz]

don't worry, nightsong, i'll be doing that homework!!
i use fans for bug protection--bix box fans in the house and also in the barn if necessary. we live brookside right now and are plagued with no-see-ums, which thankfully don't bother horses. but i have been to a barn on the marsh which had huge box fans installed on both ends and spaced four feet apart in the run-in. each horse stood in front of his fan during the skeeter hours and it worked very well. and they had some amazingly huge clouds of mosquitos!
this is a farming community, no worries about four horses next to the lake--but i will be making sure there are no new regs to worry about--same with setbacks.
there is a functional septic now, with an approved engineered plan for a new one--and which the sellers will probably have to pay for.
i'll be meeting officially with the zoning adminstrator if we proceed--i met him at the realtor's office the other day and he said he'd be happy to help me figure it all out. the plans in place are comprehensive, but not necessarily my vision of what would work for me.
but first i've got to sell this farm!

[Nes]

Sounds beautiful :D Please post pictures as soon as you get it!

Hubby and I once made a list of our perfect plot, it went something like: on a hill, in a rural area, but near the city, close to family, on a lake, with good well-water, 50+ acres, something to live in while we build our house, pre-existing barn, and cheap enough we could actually afford to pay it off in 20 years... yeah we're not holding our breaths

But it sounds like you guys found your perfect spot! If the mosquito are really bad, those mosquito magnets work wonders!