After a few years looking for our dream farm we gave up and switched to looking for land. We still wanted 40 or more acres but now we had to take into consideration building and putting in utilities. So it was looking like 20 acres would be all we could afford.
We also decided to concentrate in the Luck/ Frederic area. My mom is from Luck and my husband's mom is from Frederic. My mom also owns a cabin in Cushing, WI. She didn't want me to move far away so I thought if we were close to the cabin we could still see her a lot. I still have several relatives in the area and figured it couldn't hurt to have some contacts.
We would make a list of properties, go up to the cabin and drive around and look at land during the day. One weekend we were looking for a property in Bone Lake township. The directions from the Internet were horrible and we couldn't find the land for sale. I was working part time at an acupuncture clinic and had Mondays off. My husband went home Sunday night and I stayed over another day. My Husband called and told me he lost his front license plate and needed to come back up to get it.
I called the realtor listing the property and got better directions. We found the license plate and then we found 'our land'. The owner's had a 20 acre plot and a 40 acre plot for sale. We turned down the road and immediately saw it was a dead end dirt road. 3 houses were on the one mile long road. The 20 acre lot was first. It was next to the owner's house and it was nice. My husband wanted to look at the 40 acre lot. We drove down to the end of the road and pulled into an opening in the trees. We saw rolling hills with forest surrounding. One neighbor we could see. It was perfect.
I wasn't sure I could see a sunset and I was worried about the price. It just so happened we were there at sunset time and my husband said "get in the car". He drove right through the field and stopped on a hill. I got out of the car and turned around and there was my sunset and it was beautiful!!!! We both knew this was it.
We contacted our realtor and made an offer and while we were in negotiations we drove out there several times to check things out. I found the cutest church 3 miles away. It was a Lutheran church with a steeple bell tower and a cemetery next to it. We checked out how far from Luck and Frederic it was and picked which bank to use and grocery store and we started trying out the local shops and restaurants. Of course we visited the land every chance we could. Turns out 'the land' was almost exactly in the middle between Luck and Frederic.
On one visit, we decided to see if we could hear any noise from a nearby gravel pit. I sat on a bucket with a can of bug spray and listened for my husband to beep his horn. While I was sitting there I heard something snort behind me. I was too scared to turn around and look. I'm hoping it was a deer.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Quest for the country life...
We spent over a year doing drive-bys of properties in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It became apparent our wish list was too big. So we revised it to 40 acres instead of 80 and ended up concentrating in Wisconsin. We wanted to be between 1 and 1 1/2 hours from the Twin Cities. We figured that's where my husband would be working for awhile. I have a lot of relatives in the Luck/ Frederic area and spent my whole life visiting up there. It felt comfortable and I felt it couldn't hurt having relatives around in case of an emergency.
We looked at 4 properties on the inside. One in Grantsburg. It had a great barn 4 more out buildings and an American 4 square house. It wasn't on a dead end dirt road but we thought it was worth a look. The house had a huge kitchen and beautiful woodwork. It didn't have any heat upstairs just gravity heat. Open air vents in the floor. There was mold and mildew in all the corners of the upstairs bedrooms. The roof had been leaking for awhile. There was big rodent turds in the basement (rats I think). Last straw was an huge hairy spider in the kitchen sink. We were looking around outside and noticed most of the land was a swamp behind the barn. We could also hear traffic and I couldn't see a sunset. Cross that one off the list.
We next liked a farm in Prairie Farm. It had an OK house, huge barn, one out building and 5 acres with 20 more available. It was on a dead end dirt road and very quiet and beautiful. Then we found out the neighbors got to their house by driving right through our yard. I don't think so. Cross it off the list. We were bummed.
We looked at a farm next door to my cousin. It had a creek running through it and a bridge going over it to drive into the yard. The house was pretty beat up. There were holes in walls and the skinniest bathroom I've ever seen. The barn had one whole wall knocked out. It had 40 acres. Dead end dirt road. But there was a mountain in the way of the sunset. There was a really scary room in the basement and some toxic waste had been dumped on the property. Cross it off.
The last one we looked at had a really cute house. The barn was excellent. The only out building was in bad shape and if we rebuilt it we would have to move it because it was on the neighbors property. It had 25 acres with more available. It was on a paved road and busier than we wanted. This one probably came the closest to being the one. But no sunset either. The sunset was really important to me and a decent pole barn was important to my husband. If we got this property we wouldn't have had any money to fix the pole barn for quite awhile and I lived 20 years without seeing a sunset in No. St.Paul and wasn't going to live the rest of my life without one. So we decided to star looking at land for sale....
We looked at 4 properties on the inside. One in Grantsburg. It had a great barn 4 more out buildings and an American 4 square house. It wasn't on a dead end dirt road but we thought it was worth a look. The house had a huge kitchen and beautiful woodwork. It didn't have any heat upstairs just gravity heat. Open air vents in the floor. There was mold and mildew in all the corners of the upstairs bedrooms. The roof had been leaking for awhile. There was big rodent turds in the basement (rats I think). Last straw was an huge hairy spider in the kitchen sink. We were looking around outside and noticed most of the land was a swamp behind the barn. We could also hear traffic and I couldn't see a sunset. Cross that one off the list.
We next liked a farm in Prairie Farm. It had an OK house, huge barn, one out building and 5 acres with 20 more available. It was on a dead end dirt road and very quiet and beautiful. Then we found out the neighbors got to their house by driving right through our yard. I don't think so. Cross it off the list. We were bummed.
We looked at a farm next door to my cousin. It had a creek running through it and a bridge going over it to drive into the yard. The house was pretty beat up. There were holes in walls and the skinniest bathroom I've ever seen. The barn had one whole wall knocked out. It had 40 acres. Dead end dirt road. But there was a mountain in the way of the sunset. There was a really scary room in the basement and some toxic waste had been dumped on the property. Cross it off.
The last one we looked at had a really cute house. The barn was excellent. The only out building was in bad shape and if we rebuilt it we would have to move it because it was on the neighbors property. It had 25 acres with more available. It was on a paved road and busier than we wanted. This one probably came the closest to being the one. But no sunset either. The sunset was really important to me and a decent pole barn was important to my husband. If we got this property we wouldn't have had any money to fix the pole barn for quite awhile and I lived 20 years without seeing a sunset in No. St.Paul and wasn't going to live the rest of my life without one. So we decided to star looking at land for sale....
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