Abundant Blessings Homestead

3 years..

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of our big move to our farm here in Tennessee. It was a life changing event to be sure.

We were married in 1991. Shortly thereafter, we began talking about moving to a farm. We had talked about it before marriage..but now that we were one, it was time to think about our future in terms of actually doing this...

My Honey had lived in our home, or on that property, for most of his life. To leave it would mean he was leaving all of that behind. But, the memories would always be with him. It did take him some time to be ready to leave...little did we know it would take so long to actually move! Perhaps it took longer for Toby to be ready to leave than we thought..or perhaps it just took that long for things to finally be right for us to move.

We had a for sale sign in front of our property for a long time. It was in a realtor's hand for awhile. No sale. Finally, in 2001, a friend of Toby's told him that he really wanted to buy our property. About the same time, another party offered to buy it. We countered their offer and they accepted it. Yet, we didn't sign anything with them...something held us back. The Lord told Toby to wait for his friend. So we did. We waited for his friend to be ready to buy it.

10 years had passed since we first began talking of this. We had considered moving to north Florida, and made several weekend trips there to decide. It just wasn't the place for us. We wanted out of Florida and the hurricanes and heat. We wanted four distinct seasons. We wanted a truly rural place. We wanted to move to a state with no coast line. What happens in one area of the state affects the entire state...insurance, taxes, etc. That limited where we would look. Tennessee always called out to us. It sounded "right".

Toby's friend was almost able to buy our property..and the great move began...it began with an "where are we going to move" cry! So, the first of two trips was taken to Tennessee. This first one showed us we loved this state! We began our search in east Tennessee...a truly beautiful area. Toby didn't care for the mountain driving...being a flat-lander, he was white knuckled most of the time over there. That coupled with the land prices, made it not a real possibility. But, we went home knowing that Tennessee would be our new home state.

Finally, the papers were signed and the terms of our sale gave us one year to actually move. Toby was still driving a truck..and hating every moment of it. We said...why are we still here? Why aren't we out finding our new home and getting on with this new life?! So, we took another trip to Tennessee.

Now, in the time we had been searching, I had looked online for homeschooling groups in Tennessee. One in particular had been very welcoming. So, when we got to Chattanooga and wondered where we should head...this area seemed like the logical choice. We headed to middle Tennessee to search.

We liked what we found. My folks, who are full time rv'ers, lovingly arrived here and met up with us to help us search. Bless their hearts, they spent the next two weeks with us driving around the countryside looking for property. It was a long two weeks...living in hotels, riding around all day long. The children did wonderfully. We really wanted to find a home.

We met up with some of the members of the homeschool group for an evening of food and fellowship. It was a fun meeting...and showed us that we had made friends already in this new area. We also found a realtor to help us look...

It looked like we had at least narrowed down the area we wanted to move to, but not the new home. The day before we had planned to head back to Florida, our realtor called to tell us about a place that was newly advertised in the paper. We thought we'd humor him and go look at it before leaving town. We knew the asking price and that it was 83 acres, home with an unfinished second floor and that was it.

So, the next day arrives, and we meet the realtor and my folks at a local church to ride over to the house. As we are driving, we see this pretty white house set off the road and pastures out front. We had seen so many of these places on our way to the dumpy place that was actually for sale. We looked at each other and said..."there's another one...why can't it be that one that's for sale?". Imagine our surprise when the realtor turned into that pretty white house's driveway!!!!!

When we pulled up, Toby got out and went inside with the realtor. I had to tend to baby Mary, so I wasn't there yet. Toby stepped back outside and had a big smile on his handsome face...he told me I had to see the kitchen!! That was a good sign!!

Well, then I walked in and saw a big kitchen, with lots of cabinets!!! That was one thing lacking in our Florida home...not enough cabinets, and not a large enough kitchen.

No, the house wasn't perfect, but it was nice. Would need some work..that upstairs had potential for bedroom space, which would indeed be needed. Only one bathroom...that would need to be changed as well...

Next was the land..so we took a ride up back to see the rest of the property. It was so pretty! It was November, so the fall colors were ablaze up there!

We came down the hill and sat on the porch for a good long time. I walked out to the road and took all kinds of photos. Could this be our new home???

Prudence tells you to offer less than the asking price..so we did. We offered $5000 less than the asking price..which was quite a reasonable price. We had looked at enough places to know what things were selling for...and this was the first one that was both reasonable and nice. We had seen other places that were affordable but dumpy.

We went back to the property and drove up top again. It was so peaceful up there..

What a fitful night of sleep that night was after we made our offer! We had never bought (or sold for that matter!) a piece of property! What had we just done??? And it was my birthday the next day to top it off!

We decided if our offer was turned down, we would just go home. When we stopped the realtor's office bright and early the next morning, the children and I waited in the Burb while Toby went inside to find out if they accepted our offer. He was sitting in front of the window and gave us the thumbs down sign..they had not accepted our offer. A strange feeling came over me...relief and sadness both. Relief cause we felt overwhelmed by the whole buying thing..and sadness cause we really loved that place.

Our children were not at all happy...they were in tears. They wanted to live there. Especially Thomas..he wanted it so badly.

So, we began our journey back to Florida. Now...we had what we were missing while living in hotels...time to talk...and really talk. We made a pros and cons list about buying that place. The pros completely outshone the cons. What had we done? $5000? We'd spend some of that making yet another trip up there! We'd walked away from that place for a mere $5000? (I say mere...I'd love to have $5000 right now..but in light of the price of the home, it wasn't that much money!)

As we got closer to Florida, we knew we had made a mistake. We wanted to buy that home!! We stopped in Tampa for lunch...and called the realtor to ask if it was still available...and he said he thought so!
He was in Knoxville and the selling realtor was in Florida. He would call the other realtor and make the full price offer. We went home and waited..and waited..and waited.

Turns out, he had the wrong cell phone number for the other realtor..and couldn't get in touch with him for a few days. Our offer was finally accepted and we were moving!!

The great pack-a-thon began. We had so much to pack and move. And yet again, my folks arrived to help. They helped get up packed up along with the rest of our wonderful family. Dad drove the Burb, pulling a trailer, Toby drove a semi pulling our trailer filled with our belongings and I drove Mom's Jeep...all the way to Tennessee. What a long trip that was!!

The rest of the story is yet to be written. Much has changed around and within each of us in the 3 years since we moved. We love our new home. We have been blessed with such incredible friends and incredible generosity from my folks and Toby's Mom and fiance...each making such improvements to our home and farm. It is truly humbling to see such love and gifts given to us. We are blessed beyond measure!

We look forward to many, many more years of happiness in this pretty white house. It is filled with love. It is filled with stuff. It is filled with us. And we love it so!!

How wonderful!

{ 08:16, Monday, April 16, 2007 } { Posted by blurose }

What a beautiful story of your moving and your home. Thank you so much for writing about it, it was a blessing to me!
-Jeanette