Old farmhouse with at least 3 bedrooms on at least 5 acres (but more would be fantastic); must be at least 2000 sq. ft.; must have a barn or some other cool outbuilding; must be rustic and have character; must be set back from the road; must have a great garden space; must have a basement......
What we ended up with:
Newer ranch with only 3 (small) bedrooms on only 2.25 acres; only 1250 sq. ft.; fantastic barn/garage with art-space on upper level (that part of our criteria manifested quite well); fairly modern and fairly plain (all-white walls and popcorn ceilings); set back from the road (score again!) ; would have great garden space, except for the fact that we have a beautifully open, big yard that is continually wet because of poor drainage and clay soil; no basement (but there's the barn, so we're okay with that).......
We had big dreams for our house: We were going to grow tons of food for ourselves and for our community; we were going to raise animals (mostly chickens and goats at first, but possibly branching out to sheep, and renting out our expansive fields for cows to graze on); we were going to open a shop where we sold our homemade edibles and nature-inspired crafts (along with other bizarre artwork that I don't think I'll ever really stop creating; the list lengthens at our whim.
We had all of these big dreams and when we realized that the house we were about buy was nothing like what we had envisioned we started to wonder if we'd made the right decision.
Well guess what? Big dreams can still manifest even if you don't end up with what you thought you wanted. With such a small, plain house, we've become fully aware of two things:
1) Our energy consumption will be so much less than that rustic old farmhouse we'd been envisioning (uh... we paid $3,000 in oil heat during ONE fall/winter at the last farmhouse we rented... and that was with the landlord paying some, too!!!!), and
2) We can build on, rip out, extend, smash, sculpt, install, uninstall and dig up anything and in any way we want (within the town's code regulations of course).
It's been four months since we moved in. During that time we had our second child (at home, the day after we closed on the house and started moving in - it was amazing!), I got mastitis once and plugged ducts twice within the first month-and-a-half, Ryan lost his job (thanks a bunch, RT), and our truck came down with the "I'm broken again" syndrome three times. We also acquired three rabbits with hutches for free (two does and a buck) after deciding we'd like to start breeding meat rabbits. We now have 15 bunnies, along with the three adults. And just yesterday we got some chickens (12 hens and a rooster who got out of his cage somehow and so is still running amok at the previous owner's house) which are now inhabiting our makeshift chicken coop!
So, some ups and downs for sure (and there are plenty more events, big and small, that I could have commented on), but through it all we have tried like hell to stay positive and continue to shape our reality as we desire. And it is happening, folks.... we are manifesting what we've been dreaming about for years, and although it isn't starting out exactly the way we're (still) envisioning it, we feel pretty optimistic that in the end, it will be so much more.
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