If Only…

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Continuing our house hunt, this weekend we saw two houses. The first didn’t wow us, to say the least. After seeing our “view” off the horizon and down was our neighbor’s house; Mat joked that my morning cuppa would be ruined by being greeted by our neighbor, a greasy man in a wife-beater with a farmer tan, stretching and smoking. *cringe* Not to mention the foundation was questionable. My equilibrium was not happy while I was walking around the house. Uphill and downhill. Weebles wobble…

Unexpectedly, we were able to see a home that grabbed our attention just the night before. So we headed down to take a look. It was an estate sale, meaning the previous owner had passed and the family was selling it. The man’s family was there when we arrived, one of the sons came out and greeted us at the suburban and offered to show us around since our Realtor and their listing agent hadn’t arrived yet. Wonderful family. Hospitable, kind, hard working, and genuine. And they adored Charlie.

The farmhouse was built in 1920, sits on 2.67 acres. Beautifully maintained land, outbuildings {a couple of them would need to be torn down sadly} aplenty – there’s even a fruit cellar where the father kept canned fruits and vegetables from his garden, small creek on the property, fruit and nut trees galore.


The house itself was a charmer. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, with an office and a walk-in pantry. Each corner we came around my breath was taking away. The house maintains its old farmstyle characteristics in every room. The front room sitting area is filled with natural light, very inviting and comfortable. The bathroom has a gorgeous claw footed cast iron tub. The kitchen had a modern range/oven but also an original and WORKING cast iron range/oven. I didn’t notice it at first, Mat was waiting patiently, but when I saw it I swooned. I could have all of my cast iron cookware on that stove alone! The house also comes with the original refrigerator that the family’s parents bought, probably 1920′s {?} and a separate reach in freezer. Beautiful wood flooring, wood exterior, with a nice sized deck…

There literally was not one thing we saw about the property or house that was a turn off. Not one. The father took a lot of pride in his home, worked hard to maintain it – even doing the landscaping himself – and it really shows.

“What’s the problem then? Why don’t you buy it?“, you ask.

There are two rivers near by and the “100-year” flood plane this house is on was raised an inch recently…which would mean this oh so beautiful house would have to be raised 10 feet. Hiking up its skirt, so to speak. And that costs about $75k — we could go for an FHA rehab loan that requires at least 3% down, then we would get additional money for rehab repairs {ie raising the house}. Unfortunately, that rehab loan amount tacked on to our mortgage, homeowners insurance {not including flood insurance} is not something we can afford.

The other “option” is to take the risk as is. The home could flood again, it could not flood in another 10 years? But that also of course is assuming the house and land would be approved by the USDA assessor and the sellers accepted our offer about $15k less than listing.

If only…

*sigh*