[4cornersfarm]

Our current house has no insulation. Nada. Empty gaps in between the studs, built in 1910 in NW Montana. There was some theory floating around back then that empty air could be insulation! LOL seriously. So it's cold in here a lot but we have two wood stoves and it's small and when we come in from outside the fires are going and nothing heats you up faster than a red hot wood stove.

We have no other source of heat-just the wood stove. If we're cold, we keep the fire going. I also only cook on a wood cook stove in the winter... it's already hot, might as well use it...

Not saying it's always a good time but I still lean toward land and water more than creature comforts. Like insulation.

Do you have indoor plumbing? Does it freeze? We have a house of about the same age, same issue with lack of insulation, and we just finally got all the pipes thawed this week from when they froze up just after MLK day.

[4cornersfarm]

All of these are at this website:

http://www.equinehomes.com/new_hamps...es_2ac_LotDesc


How about this one, in the middle of nowhere, NH. Only 3.3 million, and no indoor! 270 acres though.

Listing # 4204211

This one has less land, but at least it has an indoor. North of Concord though, even more nowhere!

Listing # 4087848

This is the one I want. It's maybe 15 minutes from where we are now, so my hubby could still commute to the greater Boston area.

Listing # 4209192

Or this one, only 1 mile from the beach!

Listing # 4189077

I love to browse farms for sale. Never be able to afford any of them, but it's nice to look.

(Edited to add - the links don't seem to go to the individual farms. Drat. Follow the main link and search for the listing numbers. What a pain!)

[TheJenners]

This just popped up on Facebook, http://www.iplayerhd.com/player/615d...5-503e1b570650
Outside of Portland, OR.

I found this listing for it, http://www.willfendonproperties.idxc...ingID=12241398

And worth it!! Wow.

This is the place I am boarding at now... The pictures don't really show enough of it. Unfortunately there is no residence, and it is by no means worth that price in this market. But you can't beat the location.

http://www.homefinder.com/NJ/Allento...-524-89233956d

If you don't mind me asking...what does board at a place like that run?? Eeep!

[Showjumper28]

And worth it!! Wow.




If you don't mind me asking...what does board at a place like that run?? Eeep!

$650-$800 which is actually low for the area. Used to be a upper level show barn, but now is just a mish mash of all disciplines. The facilities are wonderful, but the whole place could use some TLC. It is literally a 5 minute ride to Assunpink, and the Horse Park is literally across the street. If I ever win the lottery....

[mvp]

If people ever look for something not too fancy, I have seen farms for sale in Wisconsin with indoors for under 300k. A foreclosure sold one near me for ~220k or so and it had an indoor and a heated attached barn with 9 stalls. Wrong time for me.

But here's another one with 37 acres, indoor, outdoor arenas and a nice enough home for $265k. More than functional for a lot of horse people I think.
http://www.trulia.com/property/10591...ahawk-WI-54487
http://www.jerichocreekfarms.com/house_for_sale.htm

Nice places for the money. Where is Summerville, OR? Is that local to you? Do you dig the area and make a living there?

In general, folks, it's cool when real estate prices are somewhat correlated to salaries in the area. That's as "must have" for me... and as a Californian living in Oregon, (and having been a grad student in Ithaca, NY) I am well aware what "imported" money does to local real estate prices.

[CDE Driver]

Nice places for the money. Where is Summerville, OR? Is that local to you? Do you dig the area and make a living there?

In general, folks, it's cool when real estate prices are somewhat correlated to salaries in the area. That's as "must have" for me... and as a Californian living in Oregon, (and having been a grad student in Ithaca, NY) I am well aware what "imported" money does to local real estate prices.

Summerville is north of La Grande, kind of qualifies as middle of nowhere

[TheJenners]

Or on an island . Hence why we'll have to move off the island to buy.

[starrunner]

I live in a little more $ area of Wisconsin, so the $265k looks good to me. Hah, my small foreclosed home was ~$120k, but it's cozy and affordable, so there you go.

Further north in Wisconsin is oftentimes cheaper (cheaper hay prices too), but not always. There are some random pockets of millionaires near the area where the farm I posted is.

My folks live in S Oregon and it is very obvious what imported money did to the economy. Lots of Californians living there, which is fine, but how does anyone locally afford the $$ farms? I will say though, I am quite envious of my family's taxes in Oregon (and many other places). My taxes on my weenie house were ~$3500 and theirs were <$1000 for 3 tax parcels.

[JumpQH]

I pretty much have it down pat which house the househunters people will buy.

Yeah - the one that they complain about and put down the most!

[rmh_rider]

I have an open floorplan, granite and stainless steel. And we cook A LOT. During the summer, we normally have people over all weekend cooking all kinds of things. And my house doesn't stink. I also have a huge master bedroom, 36 acres and a private lake. Doesn't make me a snob, makes me someone who put an addition on my house and we decorated it how we wanted it. I can paint too. So don't lump everyone with high end tastes as worthless and incompetent.

When you walk into the front of our house it has a huge 2 story curving open staircase going upstairs from the foyer. Our library has a 2.5 story ceiling, which is off to the right of the front door, formal dining to the left. Go past both of those is the den/kitchen area. Also we have a downdraft stove in the middle of the kitchen. It has a telescoping downdraft. It is better than the other one we replaced, whereas it had a downdraft fan in the middle of the stove. The culprit is the down draft. We have alot of echoing in our house due to all the hard woods, and huge tall ceilings throughout the house. There is another staircase going upstairs on the other side of the kitchen off the laundry room. So smells in our house can get around. We have a 4 ton a/c downstairs and 2 ton upstairs to run the house.

I want a small house, a gourmet stove on the wall of the house with a ventilation system which will suck all the garlic, fish, brussel sprout stink (or the hair off my head) out of the house! We didn't build this house. We only have 15 A. It was the least messed up house and property when we were looking for a house.

I so have house fever, but due to the drop in house prices we will be here another 5 years.

[rmh_rider]

I guess on the house hunters I just see people who balk at having to do any work on a house to make it their own. They seem to think the perfect exact house is out there. Many can't even paint a wall. How easy is that? I have seen them whine about a chandelier. Ok, change it your self! Easy.

We are no sissy to painting, flooring, fencing, plumbing, spackling, and a bunch of other stuff. We are pretty much like most all on COTH too. We all are a handy lot we are. Tough too.

Our house is loaded with crown moulding, top bottom chair rails and some wainscot. My husband and I have personally painted every inch of crown moulding with 2 coats of high gloss paint. Every room/closet has been painted with 2 coats some 3, some had hideous wallpaper, which we took down. Every door has also been painted, both sides. The initial paint job was not good, they missed lots of places. I can not imagine what somebody would charge to paint this house. Holy cow. Took a long time. But it wasn't "hard".

Now it is time for carpet. We can not lay carpet. I cringe at the price. House is 18 years old. Carpet upstairs is 18 years old. sigh.

[cowboymom]

Do you have indoor plumbing? Does it freeze? We have a house of about the same age, same issue with lack of insulation, and we just finally got all the pipes thawed this week from when they froze up just after MLK day.

We DO have indoor plumbing (I made it sound like we don't! ) but it hasn't frozen...yet. All the pipes are under the house in the crawlspace, nothing in the walls, and the crawlspace is pretty tight. We did have the septic line freeze last winter though and that was loads of fun to fix!

[katarine]

When you walk into the front of our house it has a huge 2 story curving open staircase going upstairs from the foyer. Our library has a 2.5 story ceiling, which is off to the right of the front door, formal dining to the left. Go past both of those is the den/kitchen area. Also we have a downdraft stove in the middle of the kitchen. It has a telescoping downdraft. It is better than the other one we replaced, whereas it had a downdraft fan in the middle of the stove. The culprit is the down draft. We have alot of echoing in our house due to all the hard woods, and huge tall ceilings throughout the house. There is another staircase going upstairs on the other side of the kitchen off the laundry room. So smells in our house can get around. We have a 4 ton a/c downstairs and 2 ton upstairs to run the house.
... We didn't build this house. We only have 15 A. It was the least messed up house and property when we were looking for a house.

I so have house fever, but due to the drop in house prices we will be here another 5 years.

Well, we built my/our house. I found a design, we tweaked it, (added 4' of depth, a basement, swapped a few small things...that's about it)....and it has an open kitchen that doesn't stink and the TV doesn't echo. Maybe, just maybe, your house isn't every house, so every open floorplan with SS apps and fancy counters does not, in fact, sucketh with the ferocity and surety you initially stated. RMH, you bought a bad design you didn't like and one you're stuck in for 5 more years. I'm 42, and my 32 acres and custom, wonderful, home- not house -will be paid off, in full...this year.

Maybe that bitter taste and smell is more than just brussell sprouts

http://coastallivinghouseplans.com/plans/SL292

[cowboymom]

Hey! We like it when our tiny little house smells like dinner, even brussels! I've known a few open design homes and hope to have one in the future and I'm not at all worried about *smells*. Not from the kitchen, anyway. I do want a full concrete bathroom complete with urinals and floor drain and dog washing station...

I think what rmh-rider is smelling is regret and that does leave a bad trace. If you're not into smells RMHR definitely do not do carpet!

[mvp]

When you walk into the front of our house it has a huge 2 story curving open staircase going upstairs from the foyer. Our library has a 2.5 story ceiling, which is off to the right of the front door, formal dining to the left. Go past both of those is the den/kitchen area. Also we have a downdraft stove in the middle of the kitchen. It has a telescoping downdraft. It is better than the other one we replaced, whereas it had a downdraft fan in the middle of the stove. The culprit is the down draft. We have alot of echoing in our house due to all the hard woods, and huge tall ceilings throughout the house. There is another staircase going upstairs on the other side of the kitchen off the laundry room. So smells in our house can get around. We have a 4 ton a/c downstairs and 2 ton upstairs to run the house.

I want a small house, a gourmet stove on the wall of the house with a ventilation system which will suck all the garlic, fish, brussel sprout stink (or the hair off my head) out of the house! We didn't build this house. We only have 15 A. It was the least messed up house and property when we were looking for a house.

I so have house fever, but due to the drop in house prices we will be here another 5 years.

Oh, good! Someone who can speak to the realities of living in the Tall A$$ House.

1. The open floor plan for the kitchen means that your TV room or even living room will smell like garlic or fish or whatever? They don't show the smells on HGTV.

2. For Tall A$$/Great room designs. Does this mean that the downstairs of the house is cooler than the upstairs?

That would suck for me insofar as I'd like having bedrooms upstairs, but I like the "warm under the down comforter while snow blows on your face" sleeping experience.

Thanks for sharing your experience with those of us who live in short houses.

[apprider]

This is the place I am boarding at now... The pictures don't really show enough of it. Unfortunately there is no residence, and it is by no means worth that price in this market. But you can't beat the location.

http://www.homefinder.com/NJ/Allento...-524-89233956d

That place has been for sale forever. I seem to recall that development rights were sold on it some time back, which if so, makes the price completely unrealistic.

[suz]

i adore my beamed cathedral ceiling bedroom, but he!! yes we froze sitting in front of the faux woodstove --until i placed a small fan on top of a tallish secretary and aimed it upwards. that's just enough to blow the lovely warm air at the peak of the ceiling back down to me where it belongs.
and now i don't regret replacing the vintage 80s fan with an elegant chandelier either!

[JanM]

That is the down side to tall ceilings, where all the A/C or heat goes up. A friend had a theory that many smallish rooms have high ceilings so you don't realize that the room is small. A local builder has the tall ceiling great rooms, and for some stupid reason has put one of the smoke alarms on the ceiling. Can you imagine when that battery runs down, and the alarm starts beeping? Besides, you have to put smoke alarms in sleeping areas, and hallways outside, not in the top of the 14 foot tall living room. And from years of watching House Hunters from year one, many people who want the gourmet kitchen never cook anyway. Years ago there was an early episode in L.A., and the lady was doing a chicken-in-a-bag, because 'I don't have a decent kitchen to cook in, and I can't wait to have a big kitchen. Apparently, the crew and editor didn't like her, because when she bought the big house, with the huge gourmet kitchen she was shown doing another chicken-in-a-bag. You can certainly tell when the crew dislikes someone.

[twelvegates]

Love this thread. Just popped in to post a fantasy property in Florida. I don't even think my horses would feel comfortable in this one -- they are definitely not fancy enough.

"...Two Swans Farm offers a fully modern facility with an unmatched, old-world charm. The property houses a 12-stall European style courtyard stable with Argentine granite cobblestone, a glamorous 80' x 220' covered arena, computerized European horse walker, a chic owners apartment and 2-bedroom groom's apartments. The property is also known for hosting clinics with Olympic dressage rider Steffen Peters...."

[hey101]

How is the real estate market (equestrian and/or general) doing at the moment on the East Coast (mid-Atlantic)? Not the elaborate high-end properties- I'm assuming those are a little more immune to the market since they will always need a very specific buyer with the right interest, funding, and timing- but more more along the mid-500's to mid-700's. It feels like the market is really picking up steam here on the West Coast. We have a horse property we've been hanging on to and renting out on the East Coast (kind of got trapped into holding on to it by the plunging market), but it's starting to feel like we wouldn't take a bath on it any more, so we are exploring all options.