Our Dreams May Come True Sooner Than We Thought

Mr. Yarnworks and I currently rent a nice home that suits us fairly well. It's not our dream space, but it works. Ya know?

We're not quite ready to buy a home again (after a money-pit of a duplex a few years ago), but I still check the listings weekly just to see if our dream home has popped up at a bargain price.

A couple of days ago, I found this home. First, the bad news. It all began as a double-wide and has been added onto.

The good news: It has 2 traditionally built additions, totally 3100 square feet. It has a 1600 square foot unfinished walk-out basement. It comes on 12.5 acres not horribly far outside of town...and it's in a direction in which the town is growing. The main space has 3 bedrooms with a total of 4 walk-in closets. The additions are primarily office space! The former owner ran a business from home. Sounding familiar? Now her business accepted customers, so there's a reception area, a bill-pay window, a half bath with a restroom sign on it, and all that. hehe. But that part of the house is 1000 square feet. It also has a 4 stall garage, with only 2 garage doors (a 3rd in the back for drive-through access....the rest is just workspace. And it has a HUGE barn in pretty good shape. It's even already partitioned for animals. Everything is vinyl (the fence, the deck, the siding). The 2 furnaces and AC units (to handle the additions) are all high-efficiency. And as far as acreages go, it's cheap. So cheap that with a little haggling, it might be within our price range. Which, for 12+ acres and so much living space is practically a miracle.

Despite our fears about buying a double-wide, we think we are going to try to make an offer. Obviously we need to secure financing first in order to make that offer. The space fits us very well and would allow JL Yarnworks ample space to grow. I've already picked out 2 offices in the house plus a bit of garage space for a dying station. And with that kind of land? Does anyone else see sheep in my future? hehe. If not, at least a huge garden and hours of canning area ahead of me!

I told my husband that this is what I want for Christmas. He still got me something else anyway. (He's that kind of guy!) But he's already submitted all the info for a VA loan voucher and we have plans to talk to the bank very soon. We also need to do some legwork to find out costs of utilities, property taxes, insurance, etc. before we can commit to anything. We've already set our personal "walk away" limits. We are both already a bit emotionally attached to the idea of living here, so we need black and white rules for ourselves.

If anyone has advice on living on an acreage, living 25-35 minutes outside of town in a blizzard-prone area, homesteading, gardening for year-long surplus, etc, please feel free to let me know. I think I need a mentor!