Should I go for it?

[houseodessey]

The threat of demolition has been negated by my overinvestment in the house. It's in good shape now but needs a lot more money in landscaping, drainage issues, tennis court resurfacing, touchups, etc,etc. When I bought it, the most prudent thing would have been to tear it down and start over for most people. I didn't want to see that happen to it, so here I sit in my moneypit...

I do need to get historic designation, though, to get the city property taxes frozen for 10 years. That would be another selling point. Thanks for bringing that up.

[bluelacedredhead]

Glad to be of service Ma'am

[plantsnobin]

Any news on the land? Sounds like the house you are in now is pretty special. Are bed & breakfasts' popular in your area? Seems like it might be a good candidate for something along those lines.

[houseodessey]

It's a crazy place, for sure. I have considered a B&B or a corporate retreat or spa. It would suit any of those purposes. I'm just worried that no one will have money for those much longer. Maybe I should just think more positively. We're going back to Roxton tomorrow. I'll have pics to post then. Hopefully Chuck will like it more this time and we'll be making an offer soon.

[bluelacedredhead]

Sheesh, I just posted to ask if you are going to see it again tomorrow, when I realized that you had just said that,

I think I need to go watch the boobtube and knit for a while...

Drive safely; watch out for cows (and those chickens on the far end of Dallas) and we'll be waiting to hear. ;D

[houseodessey]

Well, Chuck liked it this time. Instead of wasting Alan's bandwidth, I'll just point you to the photobucket. There's other stuff on there, but nothing too racy, I don't think.


s172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/houseodessey

Let me know what you all think. I didn't take a lot of land pics because it all looks basically the same but it's just about 1/3 lake and 2/3 land with lots of cedar trees and a few real trees, too. I figure that probably 8 acres is useable for farming with an acre for house and yard and the rest for goats and chickens. The goats, of course, could roam around the "unuseable" areas around the lake, too.

[bluelacedredhead]

Did you take pics of anything other than the lake??

I just had to sneak a peak at Rudy & Radley and their Christmas tree, LOL, they looked really happy to be all dressed up for Santa, hahaha.

See you have pics of the Money Pit too...working on your sales pitch??

All kidding aside, I think it would be a good move. All that room to roam, and none of the stresses of living in a large metropolitan area like DFW. You're going to hate to leave "my" Mexican restaurant behind though, aren't ya?

[downinmyback]

That is some beautiful land there it almost makes me want to move to Texas i said ALMOST LOL>

[houseodessey]

Here's a larger aerial that SB asked for, if it works.

<a href="http://s172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/houseodessey/?action=view¤t=quarrylarger.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w28/houseodessey/quarrylarger.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[houseodessey]

There were really no pics to take but the lake. It's all dirt and cedar, which is fine by me. We saw roadrunners, hawks and rabbits out there, as well as lots of deer tracks. It'd be a nice place to just camp until we had it ready for living. I'm thinking we'll go for it with a lowball offer and see how it goes. Hopefully, he'll come to his senses and sell the other half, which really is useless except for recreational uses to us for even less/acre.


Jeff, Thanks for your input. I think it's pretty, too.

Blue: The boys didn't like their getups much. Our cat was most pleased with his. Did you see Roky in his bow? Super cute with a nice shot of my underwear drawers in the back ground. Classy, yes? ;D

[plantsnobin]

Nice tree cover, with plenty of grasses. Looks like good wildlife habitat. That is good or bad depending on how much of your food crops they eat. Many 'city folks' think bambi is cute, until they eat the garden. Not calling YOU city folk, please don't be offended. I just don't know if you have ever lived in the country or not? If you haven't, a rural area can be a real adjustment, just something you need to carefully consider. I think the property looks good. One thing I did notice though, the pond looks really shallow-maybe just an illusion. You mention goats and chickens, but you also said you saw hawks when you were there. Hawks love chickens, goats love flowers. Looks like you wouldn't be able to really let your chickens free range, they will need protection from the hawks. Goats will need to be fenced out of some areas for your sanity. I don't mean to be pessimisstic at all, really. You just need to be prepared, sounds like you worked plenty hard on your house, so that shouldn't be a problem. I still think it looks like a really nice piece of property, with some nice building sites. Hope you can get it for a decent price, and I hope he will come down on the rest of the land. It would be really sweet to have a buffer zone of land. Good luck, Karen

[houseodessey]

I am a city person but I spent my childhood and adolescent summers in the hills and holla's (hollers? hollows?) of middle TN. I can recall lots of rabbit and deer raids on the gardens as well as the opossum, skunk and fox raids on the hen houses and the duck and rabbit pens. I actually have hawks here in the city big enough to pick up a grown chicken, although the last one was too fat and ended up being dropped in the pool where it nearly froze. Thank goodness for blowdriers ;D We have a covered run here that's 8X20 for protection against the hawks but when it's really sunny, sometimes I chance a hawk invasion and let them roam just to give them some freedom. I've only lost one little chick so far, although I've seen up to 3 hawks latched onto the little tractor I kept them in. They're determined, to say the least.

I figure I'll bury the at least 6' tall garden fence 6 inches or so and hope that rabbits and deer are the least of my worries. If that doesn't work, I'll keep on trying. Our goat currently has the run of our yard and eats everything in site. Luckily, I haven't landscaped yet but I know what you mean. She'd give anything to jump the short garden fence and devour my peas and winter lettuces. In the summer, she just may find a way in, it'll be so irresistable. I think she's trying to prepare me for deer who can actually jump. I'll fence our "yard" so that I can grow flowers and such without having them devoured.

The lake is shallow. I'd guess that it's less than 6' deep in the middle but it's been pretty dry since June and there's room for it to go up a couple of feet so it may be a decent stock pond, at least. I'll put in a well so I'm not really relying on it for water after I get established. It'd be nice if it stays pretty like that, though. I may dig a separate pond for fish and such somewhere else, too.

I appreciate the thoughts and to have a "devil's advocate" who lives in the country to throw this type of stuff out at me. Lord knows that plenty of people have had a romantic view of that life only to be heartbroken by the reality. We'll see what transpires over the next week or so...

[Alan]

It looks good to me and I would definetly go for it. There will definetly be difficulties but nothing worth doing in life is easy right?

[downinmyback]

Alan are you talking about being married again. What does Miss Kimme say about that.
I am still waiting on the wedding invitation. CFF did you receive your invite yet and mine got lost in the mail. LOL

[sandbar]

Thanks for the pics!

It looks like the property has great promise. It may take a bit of work, but most any property you purchase will require a bit of work to get set up to suit your needs. A place like that is a dream for me.

Keep us up to date!