The Little House

Our 30 acre mini farm.

Background - On January 11th we made our first offer on this piece of property. We ended up going back and forth with the owners. We made 3 different offers. There ended up being only $4,000 between our top offer and the sellers bottom offer and believe it or not we walked away. A couple of days later, the sellers came back with another offer and we accepted. Some people might think we are crazy for walking away for such a small amount. I get my negotiating skills from my mother who walked away from their current home for only $1,000 difference. It ended up working in their favor, so I thought we would try it. Plus, I have heard it's a buyers market...lol!

House Inspection -
Not really any surprises here. The house is a mess. Our inspection report was 20 pages long of defects and issues. Everything leaks. Plumbing, electrical, roof, fireplace, porches all have issues. Thank goodness we are handy people, because this place is a handy mans special. What Lance and I figured because it is only a one bedroom/one bathroom house it wont take much to fix this little bad boy up. So we are taking it as is.

Financing -
Kind of strange how things work these days. Even though we were pre-approved for a loan we were not able to get a loan from a traditional bank. It has something to do with the land being more valuable than the house...even with 20% down and fantastic credit. So, we contacted the Farm Credit Services. They have been great to work with. We are now all squared away with getting the loan. The last step is they have to appraise the property which will happen on February 14th. Hopefully everything will go well and we will have a nice Valentines Day Surprise.

Above - The ONLY bathroom and the master bedroom on the first floor. The master bedroom has the original wood floors that someone painted white which I think is charming.

Above - The Attic

I think it is hilarious that they said that this was a three bedroom house. when there are no closets upstairs, no walls dividing the two spaces and no heating, insulation, or drywall. They through up some plywood on the walls and hung some peaces of fabric.

The upstairs is going to need the most work. Frankly, we plan to gut it and start over. We are going to have to shove all the kids upstairs so it must be heated and insulated.

The Kitchen is nice, but of course very small. All of the cabinets were recently updated, but the appliances are very little. They are half the size of my current appliances.

The PLAN - Yes we have a plan. The plan is to get the keys to The Little House and start working on gutting it and painting all of the walls to get it livable for our family. As soon as it is ready to go, we will get more aggressive with selling our house. When our house sells we will move into the little house while we are building a new house on the property. It is going to be a fun couple of years. We will have plenty of projects and I love to decorate and create so I will have two house to express my creativity. After moving into the main house, Lance wants to rent out the little house. I would like to keep it for a guest house or better yet a pool house. We will see who wins out on that one.

I will continue to blog like crazy as we make changes to the house. This is something Lance and I both enjoy so it will be cool to document the changes and progress of the property. I have so many ideas already. I am getting really excited.

On top of everything...Lance and I are expecting our forth that will be here in late July...NOT any earlier!!!!