Buying Our Homestead

We are now officially in escrow on a 4-acre property. We expect to close before the end of the month. We are absolutely in love with the land -- the house, not so much. I wish it were a cute old farm house, but it just is not. It was built in 1938, which is just barely out of the range of housing eras I like. It is 3 bedrooms and 1 bath with 1,295 square feet. It needs major work. We hope to knock out the repairs and be moved in by June 30^th, since that is when our lease is up here. There is no character, no beautiful wood trim, no old windows, no vintage plumbing fixtures, no front porch, no wood floors, none of the things you would hope for in an old farm house. The ceiling is falling down. It needs a new roof. The bathroom needs to be completely gutted. We will add a bathroom and change the floor plan, since it is very funky. We are meeting with a contractor out there in a few days, so I will take plenty of pictures then and over time give a nauseating amount of details.

The land is absolutely gorgeous. It is square in shape with rolling mounds of wildflowers that work up to a ridge about halfway through the property, somewhat parallel to the road. It has a pond out back that is surrounded by trees. It has several outbuildings some of which I am tempted to call a barn, but I don’t really know what makes a building a barn, so I won’t. I mean, I would put animals in them; I am not sure if a professional homesteader would. It is rural with no residential neighbors in view. It is on a paved road and is only 5 minutes from town, a small county seat with just a few thousand people. This will be the second home we own. This is actually our third real estate deal in Arkansas. The other two did not work out. Originally we were the back-up offer on a meth house. Apparently meth houses are in high demand because we didn't get it. This is probably the 50th house we have looked at since moving here from California 2 years ago. We have made offers on 4 properties. If this one doesn’t work out, we are probably going to sell everything we own and move into a camper. That is no joke. Then I could change the name of this blog to The Portable Homestead Train Wreck.