Hilltop Farm-THEN

Several years ago my husband and I decided we wanted to move to the country. We looked and looked for some land, but at that time the economy was good, and no one was selling. If they were selling, it was out of our budget.

Then, about five years ago, we found some land we loved and it was going to be auctioned off. We got our finances together, went to the auction, and bid on it. We went higher than we could afford, and we still lost.

After that auction, we decided we were going to stay put. We had a couple of phases that we were going to do to our home. Phase 1 was to build on a dining/sitting room that looks out into our back yard. We have a double

lot in town.

That doorway looking into my kitchen used to be a window looking out into the back yard. The door to the left, used to be the back door. It leads into our basement.

This is the entry walking from the kitchen into the new room.

This is the room we built on. It look different now because we have curtains, things on the walls, etc. Back to the story....

That room was almost finished when my husband came home and had this look on his face.

I said, "what is going on?"

He said, "well, you remember that land we bid on at that auction?"

"yeah"

"I heard at work today the guy wants to sell it."

"Are you going to call him?"

"I already did."

So, after a few discussions, and phone calls, and inspections, and negotiations, and contracts, we bought it. It was in rough shape, a diamond in the rough you might say.

Nothing had been done to it for several years.

At one time it was an old farm. The house was gone, but there was farm equipment lurking everywhere. We hauled most of it in to be recycled.

The tractor is still there.

More farm equipment hiding in the woods. The land is just less than ten acres. It has woods, farm ground, my bee yard, and a house site.

This was the barn. I say "was" because...

two days before closing on the land,

the barn mysteriously burnt to the ground. Very sad.

We bought the land anyway, but before we did, we had it inspected for a septic system. I know, sounds crazy, but the septic laws here are very specific, and can get very pricey. If you don't qualify for a specific type of septic system, then the price can go up in the thousands....like 30-40 thousand. We qualified for the least expensive so we are fortunate.

We are now in the process of building on this land. Something neither one of us has ever done. I decided I would like to blog the process. So, I'm going to post events that are going on now, and events that happened up until now.

If the Title says Hilltop Farm - THEN, that means it was Before Building. If it says Hilltop Farm - NOW, that means it is happening now.

And NOW.....I'm actually getting sleepy. It's 4:30 in the morning and I've been up since 1:00 a.m. I hear that's one of the hazards of building. You wake up in the night thinking about the what if's....are we doing the right thing...it's too late now.....so much to think about. Makes me tired. Good night....or I should say, good morning!

Cindy