Permsteading.com

We currently have a 2.5 acre mini-stead. It is way, way too far away from my dream job. Therefore, we must move.

We put in an offer on a new place. It is just shy of 4 acres. There is an old farmhouse and its outbuildings, and some stock fencing.

It needs work, but it could be a good place for us.

My fingers and toes are crossed! I will keep posting here as it goes.

I'll cross mine for you too. It sounds lovely.

Good luck! Where abouts in Illinois? I'm up in the NW corner of the state.

I hope the new place you are looking at is more convenient to the job, Myrth. Waiting to hear more!

Well, the 4 acre place did not work out. It needs a lot of work and they want more for it than we are willing to pay, given what it would cost to make it work for us: home repair, fencing, repairs to out buildings, removal of large concrete slabs (remnants of old buildings). So, we've kept looking.

We came across another prospect. It is just over 3 acres. The house is a bit more than half the size of the previous prospect, at about 1200 square feet. It is actually a better size in my opinion because there is just the two of us now, with occasional visiting family. I want to downsize a bit to cut down on heating, cooling and maintenance costs. And it just seems wasteful to me for two people to live in a big house. Of course many people would view 1200 square feet as big, but by modern standards it is modest.

The house is in much better shape than the last prospect, needing no immediate work. The outbuildings and fencing are also better suited for our needs, except for a huge building that I am not sure how we would put it to use. I have been mulling over that for a day and ... well I don't know what we would do with an 8000 square foot building!!! So that is one of the less than ideal aspects of the property.

There are a few apple trees that are young yet - I don't know the varieties yet. The soil appears to be very good. And the main portion of the property is a blank slate. We have a bit more research to do, but may be making an offer on it soon, despite the big building, as this is the closest to our ideal that we have seen yet.

I wish you good luck with the purchase Myrth!

What was the large building used for in the past? Storage, garage, business? To help with cost you might be able to rent it out for awhile to help cover any cost you may have with the land such as mortgage, taxes, fencing etc. Once the land is paid for you can always use a bit of extra storage, Of course junk does expand to the space allotted so be careful, with 8000 sq ft you may get a lot of junk, Maybe you could rent out space to store boats in the winter, or antique cars . Their owners would not cause you much trouble and there is not much in and out with storing boats for the winter. I am thinking of things that would cause you the least intrusion on your living there and yet still give you an income to help with expenses.

I believe it may have been a machine shed, except that it has a dirt floor, which is unusual (good for my purposes though). It clearly suffered a fire at some point but it looks structurally sound. It is not situated well for being a rental as it is inside the pasture. I would not want people coming past the house and opening gates to get their stuff. Plus, bio security for livestock would be impossible with people coming and going through their midst.

It will end up being used for livestock, but given that the property is now only 3+ acres, it is far larger than our needs. I don't want to have a commercial confinement operation. The building would not be suitable for that now without considerable upgrading anyway.

My concern is that the building is really too large to maintain. I would not want to have to re-roof it. So eventually it may have to come down. Meanwhile it would be a greatly over-sized livestock barn.

We have been negotiating, and I think we finally have an agreement. I am waiting for the contract to come back signed and then I will begin that whirlwind of pre-closing activity. I am excited and a bit nervous!