Finding a New Homestead
In January 2014 we began our long hurried search for a new home to move to. With heavy hearts we scoured the internet and local papers trying to find houses to look at that we could afford on our small budget as we had just found out we could get no equity out of the homestead we built. We had a bit of savings and we had a choice to make either fight for the home we built and use all the money we had to our name to pay legal fees, or use the funds to put down on a mortgage on a new house away from all the negativity we were in and begin again. My motto in life is Keep moving forward... and so a house it was!
We found the perfect home right off the bat or so we thought. It was fannie mae owned and priced within our budget! It was on 5 acres, an old farm house and had a beautiful barn for our homestead! It was a dream come true. We put a bid on it and they countered. We were quite excited as their counter was easily met! Then everything went Topsy turvey when the computer generated application system glitched and put the house back on the market at a lower price. We don't understand what happened and of course there was no one to ask about it as fannie mae is all computerized - the house then had other bids on it and we lost it before we could figure out if our original bid was still good. I was crushed as time was ticking away at our June 30th deadline to be out of the other house and we had just lost the house of our dreams. But things happen for a reason we may not understand at the time. So we persevered and kept looking...
We had seen the house at the top of the page a few times online. It looked very dated on the interior and rough on the outside. It did have 10 acres of land but was located on a main road so we kept passing her by as who wants a homestead on a main road in Maine? After not finding anything else that we could afford and had the makings of a homestead, we decided to go see her. Built in 1863, she was a typical 5 over 4 that had been updated in the 1970s we are guessing. Paneling throughout and I do mean every room has paneling! The electrics were newer although not up to today's standards as the bedrooms only had one plug socket and most were not grounded. She had an older roof, some newer windows (20 years ago?) and a new furnace with chimney liner in 2012. It has an L section off the main house were a summer kitchen used to be going into a low roof garage and lean-to area. It also had a barn but that building has seen better days due to water damage, the building shifting and a porcupine who made its home there for quiet some time by the looks of things. The owner who passed on used to repair furniture and the barn was loaded with chair and furniture parts everywhere stacked up to the ceiling! All rotting and broken from sitting for so many years. There is also a lot of standing white pine that was planted probably 50 years ago that needed to be harvested out as they were starting to be crowded out and disease was setting in. A back field looked promising via the summer realtor photos, but when we saw the house it was February and blanketed with at least 2 feet of snow. In other words if we bought this house it would be a lot of work. But in a way she was like us at the time feeling low and needing a fresh start along with a lot of TLC. So after much deliberation we bought her!
Now our story begins anew with renovating this old farm house and making her our home!
We found the perfect home right off the bat or so we thought. It was fannie mae owned and priced within our budget! It was on 5 acres, an old farm house and had a beautiful barn for our homestead! It was a dream come true. We put a bid on it and they countered. We were quite excited as their counter was easily met! Then everything went Topsy turvey when the computer generated application system glitched and put the house back on the market at a lower price. We don't understand what happened and of course there was no one to ask about it as fannie mae is all computerized - the house then had other bids on it and we lost it before we could figure out if our original bid was still good. I was crushed as time was ticking away at our June 30th deadline to be out of the other house and we had just lost the house of our dreams. But things happen for a reason we may not understand at the time. So we persevered and kept looking...
We had seen the house at the top of the page a few times online. It looked very dated on the interior and rough on the outside. It did have 10 acres of land but was located on a main road so we kept passing her by as who wants a homestead on a main road in Maine? After not finding anything else that we could afford and had the makings of a homestead, we decided to go see her. Built in 1863, she was a typical 5 over 4 that had been updated in the 1970s we are guessing. Paneling throughout and I do mean every room has paneling! The electrics were newer although not up to today's standards as the bedrooms only had one plug socket and most were not grounded. She had an older roof, some newer windows (20 years ago?) and a new furnace with chimney liner in 2012. It has an L section off the main house were a summer kitchen used to be going into a low roof garage and lean-to area. It also had a barn but that building has seen better days due to water damage, the building shifting and a porcupine who made its home there for quiet some time by the looks of things. The owner who passed on used to repair furniture and the barn was loaded with chair and furniture parts everywhere stacked up to the ceiling! All rotting and broken from sitting for so many years. There is also a lot of standing white pine that was planted probably 50 years ago that needed to be harvested out as they were starting to be crowded out and disease was setting in. A back field looked promising via the summer realtor photos, but when we saw the house it was February and blanketed with at least 2 feet of snow. In other words if we bought this house it would be a lot of work. But in a way she was like us at the time feeling low and needing a fresh start along with a lot of TLC. So after much deliberation we bought her!
Now our story begins anew with renovating this old farm house and making her our home!
Story continues with Closing on The New Homestead