Friday, March 14, 2008

explanation

On Memorial Day of 1975, Cliff and I moved to this very house with our two children.  With the house came six and one-half acres.  I won't go into detail about why and how we sold our original twenty acres.  But we came here with five or six Jersey cows; there was only pasture enough for one or two, so one by one, we sold most of my pets.

This is an old, two-story house.  Cliff and I occupied the downstairs bedroom.  We had one closet between us, a very narrow one (we still do).  Our children each had a bedroom upstairs.  They had one closet between them.

Those kids grew up sleeping in the upstairs bedrooms:  unheated in winter (daughter took a glass of water up with her one night and when she awoke, there was ice on top of it) and hotter than hades in summer.

I was proud that we were so tough that we didn't need air conditioning.  After all, we spent most of our time outside.  My mother told me, "Wait until you're older; you'll have to have air conditioning."

Well, my grandma never had it, and I was sure I'd survive just fine.

Somewhere in the intervening years, we bought thirty-seven adjoining acres.  Now we had room for several cows and horses.

The kids grew up and moved on.  We purchased more and more electrical things:  Fancier televisions, a microwave, a computer.   Meanwhile, the hard water from our well clogged up pipes and coffeepots.  There was no way an ice-maker would work longer than a week around here.  Forget even trying a dishwasher.

The wiring in this house, probably installed in the 1930's, wasn't up to all our new-fangled gadgets, and I soon learned not to operate certain appliances at the same time.

Summers seemed to grow hotter, and Cliff and I finally bought a small air conditioning unit for the bedroom.

The living room here only has room for six people to sit, tops.  There's a huge crack in the wall of the basement.  Plaster started falling from the ceilings upstairs.  If you tried to fix everything wrong with the house, you'd spend more than the cost of building a new home.  And the living room would still be too small, and there's no place to put another closet.

I grew discontent, and we figured we'd buy a mobile home and bring it here.

Planning and zoning said no.  We already had a trailer house, put here for my parents, on the property.  It was "grandfathered in" before zoning became stringent.  We would be allowed to put a mobile home here if we agreed to tear down our house within a certain time limit.

Unfortunately, we'd refinanced twice:  Once to buy the adjoining land, and then to build Cliff's shop and put siding on the house.  So the bank owned this old house and we weren't allowed to tear down "their" house.

Last week we told Cliff's brother, who is in real estate, to come and put our house on the market.  We figured we'd buy a place across the road... an acre and a-half with a very well-kept, fifteen-year-old double-wide mobile home.  We'd hope to get $200,000 for our place.  We'd hopefully get their place for not too much over $100,000.  We'd be out of debt.

Cliff would lose his nice shop, although there's a big shop over there.  It's just not as well-equipped as ours.  I'd get rid of all animals except Blue.  We'd buy hay year around in order to keep him.

Cliff's brother came out to take pictures.  Then he asked if I had the legal description for this place.  I did, and produced it.

That's when we realized our property is in two tracts:  The original six-and-one-half acres, and the thirty-five or so we bought twenty years ago.

Two tracts?  Hmmm.

I called planning-and-zoning and found out that we could put any sort of structure we wanted to on the second tract, since there are no buildings there.  We could live in a hog-house there if we so desired.

Cliff's brother told us which banks to contact; we obtained a home equity loan (at lower interest than we were paying).  Our place didn't go on the market.  And we started shopping for manufactured housing.

And that's the rest of the story.

I'll keep you informed as we continue this adventure.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL....LOL....YOU JUST ANSWERED MY COMMENT FROM THE PREVIOUS ENTRY THAT I JUST LEFT YOU!!! LOL LOL
LOVE YA,
CARLENE

Anonymous said...

Hog-house...LOL  Never heard that term before....did you make it up?  

Anonymous said...

Great for you!  It's always nice to own something free and clear and someone will be happy to buy your farmhouse with the lesser acreage.  

Anonymous said...

Great for you!  It's always nice to own something free and clear and someone will be happy to buy your farmhouse with the lesser acreage.  

Anonymous said...

I sincerely pray that you find the perfect house for you.

Anonymous said...

It does sound like an adventure for sure.  But a fun one...I'll be waiting to hear about it for sure.  'On Ya' - ma

Anonymous said...

I am sending up prayers for you and Cliff to be able to find something just right for you and that is will be in the price range you need it to be. Hugs, Helen

Anonymous said...

Lotsa prayers for you both that the right home comes your way and the right decisions will be made...big steps...but for the better I am thinking...God Bless...Hugs..Ora

Anonymous said...

Pictures!  Pictures!  Can't wait to see the new house!

Anonymous said...

Oh this sounds like such an adventure.  Worriesome at moments and abundant relief at others.  Good luck with all of it!

Anonymous said...

It was SO much easier back in the day when you didn't have to have permission to do this or that or call this person or that person.  OH to go back to the "little house on the prairie" days!  When land was FREE and you just choose where you want to settle!  

Anonymous said...

Well that is great news! Glad you are going to be able to get what you wanted and keep your land too.

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful.Could I come live with you?Hillbilly from N.C.

Anonymous said...

Cliff's borther has been very helpful! Good luck finding your new home :-)

xoxo

Anonymous said...

Good.  I'm glad you'll be able to keep the property and all your animals, and still have a home with more modern conveniences.  And there's nothing wrong with a tr- I mean, a manufactured house, is there?  You'll still have your get-away cabin, right?
Lori