WHAT A TEASE! House # 12 (AKA # 6)

SO.

In Spring 2017, I was studying the tax map - it lays out property boundaries and has information on house sizes, etc. I was trying to find acreage within our current school zone. Our zone is pretty built-up, so it would be tough to find a house with 10+ acres, but we'd like to try to stay here because it's so close-in (you can easily drive 20+ minutes to school and sports events in some parts of the county). And our kids wouldn't have to change elementary schools. So I was studying the map and came across a house we'd already considered and thrown away as an option.

The Two-Pond House. Remember - I wrote the owner asking if they'd sell their 100 acres and she told us about her 19 acres + house? I made an appointment to see it but she never got in touch with me.

Well, I wrote her again, asking if she was still interested in selling the house. She called back pretty quickly, and told she was thinking of listing it this year. Perfect! She lives full-time on the beach ~3 hours away, so making an appointment to see the house with her ended up taking forever. She'd be in town but then would cancel the appointment because something unexpected came up. Kiiiinda like last time.

But two months of scheduling and rescheduling, we got to see the house.

It's ugly but cute on the outside. The stone is pretty hideous, but I love the windows and the porch.
                                     
                                                                                                                        

  

The windows are SO cute!!

The stone? Shudder.

Pretty trees along the driveway


POND VIEWS
The upper and lower ponds are laid-out almost like an "8", with a grass berm/walkway between them. The upper pond drains into the lower pond via a pipe buried in the berm.
(a little too close to the house)  

   

That's all the lower pond. 

Upper pond:

  Upper pond views (above and below). You can see the grass berm/walkway that I'm standing on.

 Lower pond views (right and below) 

Pool views (good old-fashioned pool with a diving board!)

AND NOW FOR THE INSIDE (it took forever for us to see it, too!)

Family Room

  Bar area below; opens into a sunroom

The Sunroom!

Kitchen pics

Hallway from kitchen, past family room (on right) and dining room/entry hall on left. Goes towards the Master Bedroom and two other bedrooms (love the columns!)

Dining Room

A small bedroom best used as an office

 The master bedroom was spacious and light.

 Master bath/closet 

  

The other bedroom/bath (a beautiful view!!)

 Spacious laundry room; the door leads out to the pool.

Basement pics. Plenty of room/rooms

 

HUGE Guest room/bath. Would not keep the black tiles!! It's not 1980 anymore!!

(remember red/white/black? Reminds me of the kitchen in the Carousel of Progress (Disneyworld), or of Saved By the Bell (anything)) :)

SO - we totally saw ourselves here. Since it really only had 2 bedrooms (the other being an office and the basement bedroom not being an option for our kids), we would have to add-on to the house. I drew up many floor plans. We were pretty close to what the owner wanted price-wise. But she only wanted to sell the 10 acres. The property had ~1-2 acres in ponds, 4 acres cleared land an 4-5 acres on the other side of the ponds that were wooded. It didn't have enough usable land. We wanted the extra 9 acres that used to be a part of this property, but she said it was going to go to her kids, plus the 100 acre property behind it. We asked and asked and asked. She remained firm.

I saw the possibility in the property - you could clear-out a good portion of the 4-5 acres on the other side of the pond(s) and turn that into pastureland. Bob was against it. Too much work, time to get going, and of course money. I was afraid that it was going to be a Bob vs. Me battle in terms of seeing possibility in the property vs. being stubborn. Ten acres was enough for us! We should just say yes! But God stepped in. He drew my attention to the property line. Where the 10 acres was cut-off from the other 9 acre portion. The line was drawn RIGHT across the MIDDLE OF THE BERM. Hmmmm. So - that means we would share the berm with whoever bought the 9+100 acres from her kids. Like a housing development. And people would pretty much be able to walk into our backyard. And/or watch us in our backyard. Let's look at the pictures:

Look at the far left-hand side. That's the berm/upper pond. Hi to everyone watching us swim! 

 See it on the left side again, picture taken from "Lauren's" bedroom. Hi to everyone looking in this window!

This is the view FROM the berm (the lower pond in the picture is the one that would stay with the house). That's the house on the left.

I know, I know, we could put trees there, or a fence there. But (1) if you have 10 acres, wouldn't you think that that should come with some privacy? That's a huge part of the reason you want 10 acres!) (2) I don't want to have trees there, blocking my view of the pond, for safety reasons. What if my kids are playing on the berm or in the upper pond? I want to be able to see them! 

God was so good - instead of Bob and me battling because I wanted to make it work and he didn't, God gave me a 100% FIRM reason why I didn't want the 10 acres, either.

So even though we were shocked that this wasn't going to work out - we did hold out hope that she would call us and tell us she'd changed her mind - we kept trusting God. It was painful at times, for sure. I purposely didn't drive past the house because I didn't want to see a "For Sale" sign in front of it. We still haven't heard from her, nor have we seen any indication that it's for sale (via Zillow, etc). We heard she's unreliable, anyway, which is what we'd already experienced from our dealings with her. 

Siiiiiigh. Moving on.