In our search for a new home.....Oh, my!!!

Posted on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at 05:28

Good Morning,

Well, as many of you know, we are in search of a new home.  One that is closer to my DH work.  We have really been convicted that we need to be debt free.  So in order to do this we have been looking for something well below our means.  This lead us to yesterday's great adventure.  I had found a home on 3+ acres in a town half way between our current home and DH work.  It would cut his drive time down by 40 minutes.  Then we could still travel and do some of the activities with our local Homeschool group.  Well the land is beautiful and it is surrounded on 3 sides by Georgia Pacific land.  Which means that it will probably never sell and always be somewhat wooded.  Except when they come and cut down for lumber.LOL  Its about 1/4 of a mile down a road all by itself.  So needless to say it is secluded.  No more looking out at neighbors.LOL  However, the home is a 14 X 80 mobile home.  It is in terrible shape.  We would first have to go in and paint every wall and pull out all the carpet.  We would probably put plywood down and refloor one room at a time.  It had some mildew in a bathroom ceiling that would have to be pulled out.  Oh, it is in such bad shape.  I do think it has good bones.  It's all just cosmetic.  It is considerably smaller than we have had for years.  So we would need to simplify even more.  I would love to say that I am all the way there and that downsizing even more would be no problem.  I'm not quite there yet.LOL  I could do it though.  I know I could. Then outside there was a 28 X28 shop.  It was plumbed and had electricity.  Behind it were two other outbuildings and one of them had electricity.  I would turn one into my chicken coop and use the other for my freezer and extra refrigerator.  The whole place would have to be cleaned.  He had a huge trash pile that would have to be taken to the dump one load at a time.  I don't understand why people do that.  Why not just take your trash off?  Why leave it for someone else to, or worse yet, for your next generation to?  The house and land also has it's own well and a brand new pump.  There is a water filtration system from the pump into the house.  Anyway, so the land was just what we are looking for but the house is just a nightmare.  The price is about $5,000.00  more than what we think it is worth.  I think, he thinks, the house is worth more than it is.  My DH use to build houses and we think we pretty well know what this place is worth.  However, maybe the outbuildings add more value than we are thinking.  He says he is firm though.  So we are now seeking wisdom....

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.       James 1:5-6

We will still be looking, but something in this price range would allow us to be 100% debt free, including our home, in 2- 2 1/2 years.  I can not even imagine being completely debt free in 30 months.  Oh, how I wish we had sought wisdom 17 years ago and thought how nice it would be to owe no man.  We have always had a really nice house with a really nice mortgage.  That is no longer my desire.  I do want a roof over my head but I would rather it not take every dime my DH makes to pay for it!!!  After, we are free from bondage, we could save for our home that DH will be building us one day.  Or better yet, buy more land as it came available.  We really feel that this world is becoming more unstable by the day.  Therefore, it is very important that we own our homes.  I don't want to have to worry about our financial system collapsing and someone being able to cart us off of our homesteads.  I hate to sound all dooms day, but if you read the Bible, you can clearly see that things are going to get worse, not better.  I want to be as self sufficient as possible when these things occur.   

Have a great day!!!!

Blessings,

Trixi

Untitled Comment

Posted by heritagehill on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at 08:29 - Link

Thanks for leaving a comment on my site. I have visited your blog and really enjoyed it and added it to my friends list. The place you are looking at sounds great......except for the house and that is quite an important part of course! Since your dh is a builder, my thoughts are that if the land, location, outbuildings, water, electricity are suitable......then the house could be made liveable for a short term and then could build what you would be comfortable in fairly soon. The Lord will lead you to the right choice at just the right time!
Marilyn
at Heritage Hill Homestead

Untitled Comment

Posted by morningsunshine on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at 08:42 - Link

my thoughts: take it! if it feels right, and the Lord WILL answer that! and your husband can fix it up, I would take it.... maybe tell him he has to remove the garbage if he wants the extra $5000, or something like that... I have found you can stipulate all sorts of things in your bid!

Land & Debt Free

Posted by ibuwolf on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at 08:02 - Link

Hi! I saw you'd added me as a friend so I thought I'd read your blog too! :) Funny this should be your topic for the day - I was just going to blog about buying land today too! :) We've been married 8 years (almost) and I have a LOT of student loan debt so we're aiming for debt free in 5 years but b/c of the military life aren't looking to buy land yet. Goal is get rid of debt then save for the rest of the miltary time and have a nice down payment (or even cash in hand) to buy our land. With the land being so nice and the outbuildings being pretty good - could you just tear down the trailer and build a log cabin? If you have to completely re-do the inside anyway.... Are there enough trees there to log it for a house w/out stripping it bare?
Blessings in Christ
Jenn
www.homesteadblogger.com/gonorthyoungpack

TV Question Reply

Posted by ByFaith on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 at 11:47 - Link

Thanks for posting a comment on my my blog about your TV preferences. We have Sky Angel also and have had it a couple of years now. I really like it and I have HGTV, FOX, the Hallmark channels and and the hard rock Christian videos channels blocked so the kids can't just watch them at anytime. Although I love having Sky Angel, I've been considering canceling it out all together and just using the TV for videos from time-to-time.

Thanks for your input! I'll have to visit your blog again!
I also read your post about being debt free. I know what you mean. We've been debt free for four and a half years after several years of paying things off and it is a wonderful feeling to know the bank doesn't own anything!

Edited by ByFaith on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 at 12:49

The basic fixer upper! :)

Posted by quiverfull on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 at 09:00 - Link

Sounds like your basic fixer uppper.. all the homes we have owned (our 2 and some rentals) have all been fixers.. my hubby is quite handy and in the end it does pay off! Due to having one fixer and fixing it up (and then selling it) we were able to buy our current home and be debt free.. it is a wonderful feeling indeed!!

My thoughts are with you on making your decisions!

Thank you for the nice comments on my blog too.. :)

Blessings,
Crystal :)

Untitled Comment

Posted by HandsNHearts on Saturday, February 10, 2007 at 10:08 - Link

Well...first, let me say that mobile homes might not be the best in terms of worth and potential, but speaking as a large family of 11 living in a 3 bedroom 24x60 mobile home, it can be done and it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be ;o)
Flooring can be pulled, new plywood laid down, and you can paint that and it works really well until you move on to whatever the ultimate choice will be. Mildew - well, mobiles are prone to that I've learned. We tore out our bathroom and what they considered "walls" in there. The studs are useless I think (but what do I know?? LOL) so we doubled them up from the pityful little 1 by's that they were, and then put in plywood...they were just plain ol' paper-thin sheeting. No wonder they attract mildew in a bathroom.
My biggest plus -- we are DEBT FREE. That might have happened had we moved here and found a "real house" and some land, but we found what we found...the Lord led us here. Our interest has always been in land. If the roof doesn't leak and the toilets flush, I can work around everything else as long as I find a heart for the land it's on and the location its in.
I wouldn't trade our little place here for anything....but, yes, we are hoping to build back into the property more soon :o)

Deanna

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