This is the story of our first homestead - the one we built on family land that was then taken back from us and we had to decide on whether to fight for it or move on. We opted to move on but so much history and information was shown here I didn't have the heart to delete it all. If you are looking for information on building a homestead from the ground up then you have come to the right place. I hope our experience will help you if not for building ideas and techniques then for making sure you have all the legal documents needed before you start a home as you will see we left a big part of our lives on that acre of land. Lesson was learned and keep moving forward! :D
In the beginning... the Earth was chosen.
Belle walking up our future driveway
Destination: Norridgewock, Maine
Arrival Date: August 2010
It was a life altering decision to uproot our family again and leave the comfort zone that we had established for ourselves in Pennsylvania. The financial issues of the camp we were employed at was one big factor as to why we chose to move again the other was an innate calling... or maybe a warning that we needed to find a haven, a safe spot - a place we could call our own.
We first started the journey trying to figure out where in the world we wanted to go. We thought of all areas of the US we toyed with going to Canada or back to the UK. What can we afford realistically? New England. So that is the basic area... but where?? So thanks to the handy dandy internet we searched for what we thought we were looking for.. and old farm, we were going to start our life long dream of homesteading.
Well it didn't take long to see that we couldn't afford most farms that were for sale even after the housing crash. Land was still a commodity that was worth something. We finally narrowed the search down to Maine. There in the midst of Vacationland... were Farms - still affordable to the average folks. So in the car we jumped to visit the only Mainers we knew... Uncle Heinz and Aunt Carolyn.
It was Easter and we were experiencing very warm weather for that time of year. All the snow was melted, the sun was warm and it was Spring! Yes a time for new beginnings! We felt positive that we would find "it" the farm house of our dreams! The one we thought we could have in Vermont before realizing that we couldn't compete with the rising housing market in the resort areas. We were already packed and moving in our minds to start our new life. And so we set out with Lou our 83 year old realtor and began to find "it"! Well that weekend we must have looked at 15 or 20 houses/farms... but couldn't find "it". We were close but not close enough. So we went back to Pennsylvania and decided to keep going back to Maine until we found the farm we were looking for. Months past and April turned into July, and after seeing nearly 100 homes we finally started to lose hope that maybe "it" wasn't out there or maybe we were being to fussy with what we "had" to have. Too small for us, not enough useable land for us, too far away from everyone for us, only 2 bedrooms, only 1 bathroom, on a main road... ugh nothing fit the "it" factor.
The Lord moves in mysterious ways.... Back in 1985, Uncle Heinz and Aunt Carolyn purchased and moved onto 57 acres of land in the middle of Maine. With their two children, and with many hardships, they built a home on those acres. From that first day I visited back in 1985, and for many years after, I was always told "Heidi, anytime you need it you will always have an acre of land here in Maine". Well, after dragging Aunt Carolyn to see yet another house that wasn't "it" she turns to me and said "ENOUGH! Take the acre of land we gave you and build your own farm!"
Huh...talk about a light bulb going on... or for those who know my Aunt, a board upside my head as she is used to Gossman stubbornness, I stopped and thought about it, build our own farm...hmmm. So I mentioned it to Jonathan and we thought about it. Then we thought about it some more, we slept on it, we prayed about it, and the more we thought about it the more we started to see the beauty of it! Hey wait, did we just find "it"? "It" was there all along! Damn what were we thinking? The reason we couldn't find the perfect place was "it" didn't exist - yet... So out came the paper and pencils, the many discussions on size, style, what we "realistically" could afford. We brought out the old collection of Country Living and This Old House magazines to see what we liked. Of course those of you who know us, also know Jonathan can build anything if given two sticks and chewing gum so we were confident that we could build our dream home for all the money we had... a whopping $20,000. Yup, we were going to build our house for under that! And on August 2, 2010 we broke ground on our acre of land in the middle of the woods in Maine.
Arrival Date: August 2010
It was a life altering decision to uproot our family again and leave the comfort zone that we had established for ourselves in Pennsylvania. The financial issues of the camp we were employed at was one big factor as to why we chose to move again the other was an innate calling... or maybe a warning that we needed to find a haven, a safe spot - a place we could call our own.
We first started the journey trying to figure out where in the world we wanted to go. We thought of all areas of the US we toyed with going to Canada or back to the UK. What can we afford realistically? New England. So that is the basic area... but where?? So thanks to the handy dandy internet we searched for what we thought we were looking for.. and old farm, we were going to start our life long dream of homesteading.
Well it didn't take long to see that we couldn't afford most farms that were for sale even after the housing crash. Land was still a commodity that was worth something. We finally narrowed the search down to Maine. There in the midst of Vacationland... were Farms - still affordable to the average folks. So in the car we jumped to visit the only Mainers we knew... Uncle Heinz and Aunt Carolyn.
It was Easter and we were experiencing very warm weather for that time of year. All the snow was melted, the sun was warm and it was Spring! Yes a time for new beginnings! We felt positive that we would find "it" the farm house of our dreams! The one we thought we could have in Vermont before realizing that we couldn't compete with the rising housing market in the resort areas. We were already packed and moving in our minds to start our new life. And so we set out with Lou our 83 year old realtor and began to find "it"! Well that weekend we must have looked at 15 or 20 houses/farms... but couldn't find "it". We were close but not close enough. So we went back to Pennsylvania and decided to keep going back to Maine until we found the farm we were looking for. Months past and April turned into July, and after seeing nearly 100 homes we finally started to lose hope that maybe "it" wasn't out there or maybe we were being to fussy with what we "had" to have. Too small for us, not enough useable land for us, too far away from everyone for us, only 2 bedrooms, only 1 bathroom, on a main road... ugh nothing fit the "it" factor.
The Lord moves in mysterious ways.... Back in 1985, Uncle Heinz and Aunt Carolyn purchased and moved onto 57 acres of land in the middle of Maine. With their two children, and with many hardships, they built a home on those acres. From that first day I visited back in 1985, and for many years after, I was always told "Heidi, anytime you need it you will always have an acre of land here in Maine". Well, after dragging Aunt Carolyn to see yet another house that wasn't "it" she turns to me and said "ENOUGH! Take the acre of land we gave you and build your own farm!"
Huh...talk about a light bulb going on... or for those who know my Aunt, a board upside my head as she is used to Gossman stubbornness, I stopped and thought about it, build our own farm...hmmm. So I mentioned it to Jonathan and we thought about it. Then we thought about it some more, we slept on it, we prayed about it, and the more we thought about it the more we started to see the beauty of it! Hey wait, did we just find "it"? "It" was there all along! Damn what were we thinking? The reason we couldn't find the perfect place was "it" didn't exist - yet... So out came the paper and pencils, the many discussions on size, style, what we "realistically" could afford. We brought out the old collection of Country Living and This Old House magazines to see what we liked. Of course those of you who know us, also know Jonathan can build anything if given two sticks and chewing gum so we were confident that we could build our dream home for all the money we had... a whopping $20,000. Yup, we were going to build our house for under that! And on August 2, 2010 we broke ground on our acre of land in the middle of the woods in Maine.
To Continue with Building a House - Exterior click here