I had a sorta funny and a little depressing (but not a real tragic depressing, so don't worry) thing happen to me this morning. Since it is horse related and probably something most of you might understand, I thought I would share... :-)
The city that I live in is situated east-west. We live in the far west end and work in the east end. This wasn't planned, it was just where our jobs have ended up taking us. My husband is on a long-term contract and there is maybe a 60-40 chance that he will end up working there permanently (we hope!).
I mentioned to a co-worker that is a good friend that if Richard ends up permanent, we would like to move to the east end to cut down on our brutal commute. Since she has lived in the east end all her life, I said half-jokingly that I would need to consult with her to find out the best places to live. She and her family live on a 200 acre dairy farm and she has relatives all over the country-side. So, we laughed about the situation and I didn't think anything more of it.
Lo and behold, this morning she came in and told me that there is a small hobby farm (only 5 acres) for sale across the road from her! There is a small barn, riding ring and a bit of pasture. Her cousin built the house initially for her horses and then needed more room, so they moved next door. My friend's aunt and uncle own the farm "behind" this small farm and my friend and other family members of hers own the acreages across the road! I thought it was so funny that she knew everything about the property, when it had been built, by whom and everything (her uncle built the barn...)...
It is a really cute place - and here's the sad part - it is waaaay out of our price range. We could maybe swing the mortgage with equity in our current house, but we would be house poor for many years to come. It has been on my mind all morning and I thought that by writing about it here, it would help.
It is/will be so frustrating trying to find a home/farm that suits our needs - nice-ish house, barn, fields, etc. and sort of close to work AANNNND within a reasonable price range. We weren't even starting to look for a new house yet, this one just sort of popped up on my radar and got me thinking. Thinking isn't always a good thing for me. I know this isn't the right time or place to consider buying a new house, let alone a farmette, so I need to move on. I'll be ok in a day or two, I'm sure. :-)
I have been dreaming about a small farm to keep a couple of horses - I would love to keep Rusty at home when he is retired, so I know that he has good care. I also long for the days when I could look out my window and see a horse out back.
(Edited to add: upon re-reading this, it sounds a bit whiney. I don't mean it to sound that way, like I'm a spoiled brat that can't afford a $500K mortgage or something... I was more trying to convey the coincidence on the timing of this and the frustration of it all. Also, it is a bit of a wake up call that maybe this dream might not pan out, with the restrictions I happen to have...)
Name That....
2 days ago
7 comments:
Don't worry you don't sound whinny - we looked and looked and looked for the longest dang time and never did find the place we were looking for in our price range - we are still trying to make our current place into that "perfect place"....
You didn't come across whiny at all!
And I totally relate - Pie & I have been looking for an acreage for 3 years now and its very frustrating. Especially since there are 2 we missed out on this year due to our lazy realtor (I we for sure would have bid on, the other very probably we would have bid on)
Oh gosh-You don't sound whiney. It's tough when you find something you know would be PERFECT and just can't quite swing it. I've been in that position many times in life.
Don't worry-your dream will come true.
Another way to look at it is maybe they will lower the price if the property is on the market for long enough. Not many people are out there scooping up properties like that in this economy. Wait and maybe you can make an offer. You nver know.
You dont sound whinny...you sound wondermental...lol... that's not a word, is it? That property is really cute and looks very well kept. I believe that you have to have your eye on what you want in order to ever get there...so you could consider this a step forward in that at least you have a very fixed image at this moment or at least a good idea of what you want and where you want to be in the future. Now you just have to figure out how to get there! LOL... ok...maybe it is not that easy... but you get what I am aiming at!
not whiney at all! i looked at all the details on that property, looks like they've done a lot of upgrades to it and that pool looks amazing. i'm not sure what area it's in, but are there riding trails nearby?
as you probabaly know, we just bought our first home and had to "force it" to become a horse property by also buying a field, and changing a tool shed into a stall. there's absolutely nowhere to put a second horse, so if we get a buddy horse it will have to be small enough to share a stall (!!??).
what i wanted to say is, we couldn't have afforded that either, but having to convert a 1/2 acre property into a horse property was the only way we could afford it. if we sold it now, we could sell it as a horse property. but in germany, there's scarcely a market for this - people love their boarding barns, and home ownership is not the norm here. (less than 50% of germans buy homes.)
it turns out a barn on the property is not 100% necessary to keep a horse at home.
i hope you find something you can afford so you can bring your guy home.
~lytha
I don't hear any whining. Yearning and hope...and disapointment...yes. But no whining. I feel for ya. I wish home prices weren't so overly inflated still. It's rather ridiculous. $500,000...for a farmette? Crazy. Sounds like a mansion price.
Of course, tiny bungalows on itty bitty lots, in California sell for double that price.
Now THAT's crazy!
Hang in there and don't give up that dream. I was in your same place about 4 years ago. And it finally happened for us after a long wait.
HUGS
~Lisa
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