As I was typing the title to this post, my grandmother’s voice immediately popped into my head saying, “You shouldn’t love things, only people.”
I know she’s right, so I’ll just say that we really, REALLY like our house {a.k.a. we love it!}
There are so many things that still need to be fixed and updated, so many crazy “why the heck did the previous owners do that?” questions, and even more times when Dave and I look at each other and silently (because we’re both too scared to actually say it out loud) wonder if it would have been better to just build a new house.
But then we remember 3 huge reasons we fell in love “like” with our house in the first place…
1. Location
2. Location
3. Location
The location of our home is just what we were BOTH looking for — and as you’ll read below, it wasn’t easy to find.
.
I can’t remember exactly when I told Dave about my crazy farmhouse obsession, but I do remember his response. My even-keel, never-raise-his-voice, man of very few words said:
That’s fine, but I want to live close to stuff.
OK great, “close to stuff” like cows, horses, barns, woods, creeks? That shouldn’t be too hard to find!
After a little more prodding, I found out that what Dave actually meant was:
I don’t want to live out in the boonies.
I don’t want to live hours from my job, from the grocery store, from restaurants.
I don’t want to have well water or a septic tank.
I want to have neighbors, and sidewalks, and paved roads.
I want to be close to highways and main roads.
I don’t want to live out in the country.
Oh, so THAT’S what he meant by “close to stuff.”
No big deal, I could find a super old farmhouse that met all my requirements and all of Dave’s requirements and was in our budget… right?
.
Well, it was actually a bit harder than I thought, but after years of nightly Craigslist searches and walking through nearly every old house I thought might be a possibility, I finally found our farmhouse 3 years ago this summer.
As I mentioned in this post:
“Besides the fact that the entire inside of the house needed to be renovated, it was exactly what we were looking for!”
And after we negotiated a $60,000 lower price tag (plus a freebie extra lot) we signed on the dotted line! (read more about how we purchased our home)
So back to our location…
We live smack in the middle of town — not a huge city, but a small town.
We have city water and sewer.
We have a 1-acre lot, set back off the road, with neighbors all around us and plenty of little friends for Nora.
We have paved roads, sidewalks, AND since we live close to a school, our roads (and sidewalks) are the first to be plowed when it snows.
We don’t have a woods but we do have lots of really nice, mature shade trees (don’t they look pretty in the snow!)
We live less than three miles from 2 different highways, and there are several other main roads only 5-10 minutes away.
We are walking distance from a grocery store, a small hardware store, the bank, the post office, city hall, the library, a thrift store, a dollar store, a flower shop, a park, our dentist, a bowling alley, several fast-food places, ice-cream shops, and even a couple mom n’ pop restaurants.
We’re walking distance to one of my sister’s houses… just down the road.
We’re only 5 miles from my parents, and 12 miles from Dave’s parents (yes, that’s a good thing!)
We have several friends and family members all within a 20 minute drive.
So as you can see, the location of our home really IS exactly what Dave wanted — and although I originally envisioned a farmhouse surrounded by fields and pastures, it’s definitely nice to be so close to everything!
We can always change the inside of the house to fit our style, we can always change up the landscaping, but we can’t change the location of our house.
So I guess the old real estate adage is true — one of the most important factors when buying a home is “location, location, location!”
Janie says
You live in paradise..My dream too… except now I am in my 60’s, a widow now, and kids scattered but close for now…soo ..maybe i already have what I wanted (3/4 acre zoned for livestock and live next to a 631 acre park for equine use only..) but it doesn’t feel that way! Roads are treacherous here, and it take more than an hour to travel 12-14 miles during the middle of the day past rush hour which ends about 6:30! Forget walking the 1/2 mile to the nearest store..you take your life into your hands.. And taxes and utilities are making me poor… …so if we EVER (if I) moved..it HAS to be a better location..
Tammy Skipper (@Tammy_Skipper) says
this is exactly what we would love! I always thought you must live ‘out in the country’ until some of your landscaping photos recently where I could tell there was something visible beyond the fences…so funny you posted this!
Jeannine says
Ah,the part that caught my eye is the fact that family is around…sister,parents,in-laws as well as friends. Everything else sounds wonderful but even more special with that added fact. You do have the perfect location. Truly blessed.
Vivian says
I agree location is everything. I can walk to everything that is important if needed. My son’s school is right across the road. I can walk to the grocery store, library, C.U. walk in clinic and multiple second hand/thrift stores. There is a cold beer store for my husband and both his work and Big Box stores (Costco, Target) are five minutes away. This is not to mention that if I have to be on city water we have the best water in the city. I can drink water right out of the tap and I’m fussy. One thing I wonder about is why being on well water is so disagreeable to so many? Also we are on septic. Infact I grew up with well water and on septic and did not see it as a hardship.
Cheryl says
I agree, we built a house outside of the village and then 4 years later moved into the village and it was the BEST decision we ever made. We can walk to the village, stores, resturants and have a school playground almost in our backyard. I love our home we built but the location wasn’t the best. I am so much happier here with the better location.
Katie @ I Stay Home For This says
My husband and I are starting to think about looking for our forever home in the next year or so. My husband would be perfectly happy living in the boonies. I am with Dave, it has to be close to stuff. Not only stuff but ‘our stuff that I already like to do’. 🙂
Verity says
I laughed out loud when I read the definition of ‘close to stuff.’ We have the same sort of search going on right now.
Fun story!
Theresa says
I never thought I would like living in town either. I grew up in “the boonies ” and envisioned raising my family in a similar setting. (I laughed when I read that because we use that term a lot. Michigan thing?)
Debby says
It’s an Ohio thing also.
Georgia Gal says
So true! It took us almost a year to find our wonderful foreclosure home. We live in an older and quiet neighborhood in a small cul-de-sac. We love our big back yard and that we are under 5 minutes from:
– our dentist
– Target
– Publix ( my favorite grocery store)
– Dollar Tree ( my kids love that place)
– Gas station
– Walmart
– Fast Food places/ restaurants
– Shopping
– Post office ( right next to my neighborhood)
– Cracker Barrel ( this is one of our favorite places to eat at)
& more. We put in a lot of work to renovate most of our home, but we love the location and the great deal we got on our home. Location really makes such a difference! Hope your day is wonderful~