For years we have been browsing real estate listings online and in the newspaper and keeping an eye out for listings in the South Haven/Bangor area. Since the kids were little I had always dreamed of moving out to the country so they could grow up more like their father and I had. Jason grew up on a dairy farm, and I had lived in the country for most of my growing up years. We always had a large garden, barn cats, and various other animals, from deer, to pot belly pigs, wild boar, pheasants, and goats. We wanted the kids to experience country living, and to be closer to Jason’s family. This past June I saw a house in Hartford that I initially thought was out of our price range, but the covered back porch made me pause.
Look at this porch! It was so big! I loved how the porch was behind the house overlooking the property. I already started imaging how to set furniture on the porch, or maybe a swing, and how wonderful this space would be on summer evenings. At our old house I had always dreamed of a covered location to have a nice set of outdoor furniture, but it never made it to the top of our to do list.
But the property was priced a little high for the budget we were looking at, so, while the porch was nice and the land looked promising, I did not pursue this any further.
A couple days later, Jason also happened to see the same house and mentioned it to me one evening after work. I remembered the porch so I knew which listing he was referring to. When we were visiting Jason’s parents the next weekend we discovered that there was an estate sale happening at the property we had our eye on. Jason looked at me and asked, “Do you want to go to an estate sale?” I answered, “Sure,” and we were off to check out the farm.
We almost immediately fell in love with the location, the land, and the farmhouse. The house was small, but cozy, and the land and outbuildings looked perfect for our future farmstead. It wasn’t long before I was imagining how our furniture would fit, what colors I would paint the rooms in the farmhouse, and looking at aerial shots of the land and imagining how we would lay out our garden plots.
At this point however, I had not even contacted a realtor to get our house listed, though I had been working like crazy to clean and paint and get everything ready. This is when the whirlwind began. First we contacted a realtor to setup a meeting at our current house, and a showing at the farm. In less than two weeks, we listed our current house, had dozens of showings, two open houses, received multiple offers, visited the farm, put in an offer, had inspections done, had our offer accepted, accepted an offer on our current home, then closed on both properties 30 days days later. Phew! It felt crazy fast, but it also felt like a really good fit for our family.
Want a tour of our new house?
Coming in from the back porch, you come into a small hallway with a closet to the left and the kitchen to the right. On our first visit to the house, the back hallway felt really tight and small, but on a second look, it actually is larger than we remembered.
From the back hallway, you come into the kitchen. The kitchen is too small for a table, but still plenty of room to work with.
The kitchen leads into the main living space which will be a combo dining and living room.
From the living and dining room you can access the bathroom, master bedroom, or head upstairs to the kids’ bedrooms.
That is a brief look at our new farmhouse. With furniture, new paint colors, and our own touches it will start to feel more like our home!
One response to “We Bought a Farm!”
What fun it will be to make it your own!