Kyle's piece of dirt

Photo updates#2

2013-10-22T03:50:00.001-07:00

Photo updates

2013-10-22T03:45:00.001-07:00

Update: Everything

2012-04-23T16:23:00.001-07:00

Well I think I've left you all waiting long enough without an update on the homestead. I know, I know, I'm sure you check every day. Your wait is over.

We lost two chickens this winter. We suspect a fox that's been hanging around. One afternoon I got home from work to shut the chickens in for the night (we have been letting them loose during the day) and only counted 6 or the 8. We'd like to think they were taken earlier that day, but truth be told we aren't 100% certain when they were taken.

Chaga has been doing his best to chase the fox away, and I've been doing my best at keeping one hand on the shotgun before I let him out. And of course, as soon as I set a trap out for him he hasn't been around. Go Figure.

We have a new order of chicks coming in June. This year we figured we'd start late so we can keep them outside right away. We plan on turning the existing permanent coop into a glamorous brooder, something we couldn't do this time of year. We're getting mostly meat birds this year, and some replacement layers. The meat birds should only take about 8 weeks to reach butcher weight. All will be out on pasture.

Our current flock of layers will be put out to pasture any weekend now. It hasn't been too cold for them for quite some time now.

The buildings are coming along, slow but sure. Yes, I said buildings. I'm building a combination chicken coop and woodshed in addition to the barn/shop. I tor down the woodshed I built from scrap. It was supposed to be temprorary anyways. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

With spring, I plan to bring more pictures.

Tractor Problems

2011-11-15T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well, the tractor isn't doing so hot. I've had some trouble starting it lately. Ultimately, I think I've got an electrical problem. I didn't come to that conclusion until I removed the starter to have it tested. And unfortunately when I reinstalled it, I broke the plastic housing on the magnetic switch. So it looks like I'll be spending $480 on a new starter. Parts for this tractor are very hard to come by. I'm considering trading up in the spring for something more easily repaired. Its a shame though, I really like this tractor.

The Barn: Update

2011-11-15T14:14:00.000-08:00

The barn project has slowed down significantly. After a bunch of car/truck repairs and many other tasks needing attention as winter sets in, the barn went on the back burner. Hopefully this spring I'll be starting it up again in full force.

Chicken Nugget (to be)!

2011-11-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

Well, we reduced our flock down to 9 chickens. They are delicious. And yes, they've final started laying. I actually preformed a C-section on one of the slaughtered chickens to retrieve and egg! And there were like 3 or 4 other shell-less eggs in their too. It was neat.

The Garden

2011-07-24T17:15:00.000-07:00

We decided to go with raised beds this year. Our soil is pretty terrible. Pure, nearly saturated clay. I used timbers milled on site, from the woodlot.We got a good deal on bagged compost from the guy that I bought gravel from. So, were starting small, and testing out the waters this year. So far we have
Tomatoes (big beef, and Cherry)
Peppers (green, and banana)
Lettuce mesclun, butter head
summer squash
zucchini
cucumbers
Broccoli

Peas
Potatoes (grown in old tires)
Celery
nasturtium
garlic
green onion
spinach
and a few others.
Shelley is the real gardener. I take care of the potatoes, but that's about it. I'll do a separate post on them later.

Start Your Chicken Tractors!

2011-07-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here is our first attempt at making a chicken tractor. We will almost certainly going through several versions in seasons to come. This one is made from scrap lumber, cut from my sawmill, and the portable garage that was taken out by a storm last fall. It has an automatic feeder, which holds enough food for about 2 days, and an automatic waterer using chicken nipples, which last for about 4 days. So far it looks like moving it every two days is best. This version doesn't have any wheels, you just drag it.

The tractor can be used on its own, but for added protection, we've decided to buy and electrified poultry net. It keeps the birds in, but also protects against predators, while the wander around for seeds and bugs. You have to clip their wings, so they don't fly over the net. We'll see how it goes! We're trying Kencove, but Premeire1 is also a well known brand. Here's how it looks:

So far so good. Both dogs were promptly shocked and ran off yipping and now keep their distance. Will it do the same for coyote? I hope so.

Primary Coop Almost Done!

2011-07-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

We've been a bit too busy to post much these days. Here is an update on the progress with the primary chicken coop. Not quite done yet, but close. It's insulated, and built for 6-8 layers, once the rest have been slaughtered. For the summer though, the chickens will be out to pasture.

Lumber conversion

2011-06-08T03:47:00.001-07:00

Hunt Update

2011-04-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

I know I left everyone in suspense about the hunt I went on last fall. No deer! It sure was fun though. Well as fun as camping in gale force winds and rain can be. Which is very.

Beer Brewing!

2011-04-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

I got a Groupon for a beginners beer brewing kit from Midwest Supplies. Shelley and I have been talking about brewing our own beer for some time. Two years ago she bought me Homebrewing For Dummies, but I never took the next step- buying supplies. The groupon was just enough of a kick in the butt to make us HOP in to action.The kit includes everything you need, except a brew pot and bottles. We ordered a 36 quart brew pot on Amazon and bought used bottles from the redemption center for $3.75. Can't wait to start brewing!

Chickens: Delivery

2011-04-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

Monday morning Shelley got a phone call from the post office. The chickens have arrived! We ordered 25, all hens. They also include one free rare breed chicken with every order. Unfortunately, our rare chick died during delivery. Cause of death is not know, but I suspect foul play.

The Barn Project

2011-04-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

As the snow melts, I've been thinking more and more about building the barn. I've been milling wood for a couple of months now, but I'm getting anxious to dig some dirt.

I've been using Google Sketch-up to make a cut list for milling. It's a pretty neat program you can use on just about any project, large or small.

So far I've got about 2/3rds of the lumber milled. I'm using mostly 6x8s and 4x8s for the structure itself, and lots of 2x6 decking for the plank and beam floors and roof.

Plank and Beam roof... I'll be using blind splines instead of tongue and groove...

Instead of tongue and groove, I plan on using a blind spline. I should be able to make a simple jig on the sawmill to cut a groove on both edges of each plank. I could theoretically do tongue and groove, but I would have to handle the wood a lot more, and make more adjustments as I go. I should be able to park a tank on top the barn when I'm done.

On that topic... what qualifies me as an engineer/architect? Nothing! But the idea of this type of timber frame, is to overbuild everything. Not only am I using timbers that are bigger than necessary, I'm also using larch (one of the strongest woods available for this purpose), I'm keeping my spans between posts fairly short, and I'm only using simple joints (almost all of which are over posts). A great resource for this kind of construction is Timber Framing, for the rest of us, by Rob Roy. Traditional timber framing requires quite a bit of skill. Many amateurs have attempted projects using the traditional method, with great results. But it takes more time, better tools, and more patients. All things I have little of.

Right now I'm having a dilemma over foundation options. Originally I was going to go with a post and pier foundation. Unfortunately they aren't good in cold climates, and often don't last as long as other options. Despite their drawbacks, they are relatively easy to install, and are well suited to soft saturated ground (which I've got). But since I've burnt all the barn debris, I've noticed I need to deal with whats left of the original barn's foundation. It was more or less a rock filled ditch. Those rocks are likely to be in my way when digging post holes for the concrete piers. If I were to dig them out, I'd be left with a hole much larger than I intended. That's not ideal when back filling on your Sonoco tubes. You want as little disturbed earth around the tubes as possible. I'd be worried about the shifting and expanding of my clay soils. Now I'm leaning towards a rubble trench foundation.

A Rubble Trench foundation uses the idea that if you eliminate the possibility for water to collect or saturate the ground underneath you, then it can't freeze and heave. To do this, you dig a trench below the frost line, place perforated pipe at the bottom sloping to daylight, and fill and compact with crushed rock. This saves on concrete, and the labor that goes with it. You can even use urbanite instead of paying for crushed rock. Then you build forms for steel reinforced concrete grade beam on top of the rubble filled trench. From their you can start building, and use it just as a perimeter foundation, or you can poor a slab within the perimeter. This does mean however, I will need to rent some excavation equipment.

RANT WARNING
I'd like to take a moment to mention why I do things the way I do. That is to say; the hard way. Its not really to be "green". I don't like that term, if its good for the environment, its generally a byproduct. The real reason is it's cheaper, often more efficient, and satisfying! Did you know that even though the US has almost identical acreage of productive forest land, 2/3rds of construction lumber comes from Canada? Some of that lumber was harvested in the united states, shipped and milled in Canada, and sold back to us! That's ridiculous! Whether or not you believe in man-made climate change, diesel fuel is expensive! In fact, fuel prices often make or break the markets for forest products these days. If fuel is too expensive, its not unreasonable to expect timber to stop being harvested. And what's it all for anyways? A spindly, crooked, waney piece of kindling for $2.38 plus tax? Sorry, its not worth it. And stop calling them 2x4s if they aren't 2x4! I guess one and a half by three and half studs don't roll of the tongue so well. I'm proud to say the stumps from my lumber are within a few hundred feet of where they were milled and used. And they are 2x4 inches! And if I were the kind of guy who would order a prefab barn, I'd probably be the type of guy who wouldn't need a barn at all. After all, the only reason I need a barn is to pursue all my DIY activities. If I were the "other guy", I'd be paying other people to do everything for me, so I could watch TV in my spare time. No thanks.
RANT OVER

So hopefully I will get the trenches marked out soon, to start breaking ground. I'll be sure to post pictures as I go. If I forget, I'm sure Shelley won't!

The new sawmill

2011-02-08T04:25:00.000-08:00

After we bought the house, we knew right away we were going to need a barn or garage. I've got too many tools and toys to keep or use in the house, and Shelley would like a place pot plants and raise seedlings. We quickly determined the existing barn was not going to fit the bill. We've been brainstorming for a while, trying to design a multipurpose outbuilding. That said, I didn't want it to cost much.

So why not build it ourselves, with lumber from our own woodlot! This was the perfect opportunity since we were having it logged. I simply paid the loggers, by the cord, to haul logs to my back yard. How do I make the them into usable lumber you ask? A bran new Toy!


Logs, fresh from our own property

Logosol M5

I bought a Logosol M5 sawmill. Logosol is a Swedish company that makes a lot of high-end, innovative wood sawing, planning, and shaping products. The M5 has been around a long time and is used all over the world. The idea is to take a powerful chainsaw, with a special ripping chain, mount it on an aluminum track, elevate the log to the appropriate measurements, and saw away. Whats great about this type of chainsaw mill, is there is no pushing. You winch/crank the saw through the wood; much easier on your back. Likewise, elevating the logs into place, small winches are used. You do however half to get the log up on the "Deck" some how, but its not as difficult as you would think. A little prep work before the logs arrive solves this problem, or you can build a log ladder. If the logs are REALLY big, you can actually turn the mill upside down, on top of log without moving it. The size log you can mill is only limited to how much guide rail you buy, the size bar and chain you have.

First Cut

Turning the log over

So far I'm having a bit of trouble getting things adjusted. By I'm confident I'll get it all figured out. More to come.

Barn Burning

2011-02-08T04:05:00.000-08:00

Well, 9 months after I took it down, I'm finally able to clean up the mess!

It was taking a considerable amount of time trying to tear it apart with little fruit for my labors. While we were having our woodlot log, I asked my logger if he could pick out some of the nicer timbers with the excavator and pile up the rest. He charged me $80, which was well worth the time it would have taken me to clean it up by hand (several more weekends).

After the excavator separated and piled

This past weekend I took some diesel to her and set her ablaze. With the proper permits of course (unlike the demolition itself). The first pile took right off, the second pile burned into the night, but with much success. That night though we got our first winter rain and the "leftovers" wouldn't burn well the next day. So we have a couple little piles left to go. Hopefully this means little site cleanup in the spring, and I can dive right into building the barn.

Before

After

I spoke too soon!

2011-02-08T03:44:00.000-08:00

Operation free heat hick-up! Chimney fire!

I came home from work one afternoon to see Shelley standing in the doorwaym with smoke billowing out, in tears. Apparently the elbow from the cook stove got red hot and was pretty scary.

Luckily we are having our wood lot harvested, and the loggers saw the black smoke from the chimney and leaped into action. It just so happens they were volunteer firefighters too.

So once the stove pipes were all cleaned out we got to thinking. Is it a good idea to burn what we're burning? After a little further research I discovered that not only does all wood have the a proximate BTU per POUND, all wood produces about the same amount of creosote. There's a trick to this though... softwood CAN burn at a higher moisture content than hardwood, and is more tempting to burn before its properly seasoned. I think this is our problem.

We've decided to only burn only the dead standing trees I cut this past year, not the stuff that was still alive. I have heard larch takes quite a long time to dry. So hopefully, no more chimney fires.

As a byproduct of the timber harvest we've got about well over 15 cord of firewood, about half of it larch. Some of it I'll be sawing up into lumber with the new sawmill, but I think it will be ok to burn as long as we wait long enough. I need to get that split soon if we want to burn any of it next year.

Barn Demolition

2010-10-19T03:08:00.000-07:00

I thought I should take a moment to share my wisdom of barn demolition and salvage.

Step 1- Tie one end of a rope around a vertical timber.

Step 2- Tie the other end to your compact Japanese pickup truck.

Step 3- Pull

Step 4- If Barn is still standing, repeat steps 1 through 3.

Seriously, some barns are not worth the trouble of dismantling from the top down. I read up on the subject before I tackled this job, they suggest dismantling a building esentially in the reverse order you would build it. There was no way you were going to get me up on the roof of my barn, not with daylight shining through in several [hundred] locations.

Not to mention the sagging roof line or the sill plate and posts in the dirt. It seems to me that if the barn were stable enough to dismantle from the top down, there wouldn't be any reason to take it down in the first place.

Several neighbors stopped by to introduce themselves in the proses. Like barn raising, there is nothing like barn demo to bring a community together. I got lots of comments and suggestions to how I SHOULD be doing it. All of which revolved around the assumption that the barn was strong and sound. It just wasn't so. How the heck could I have pulled down a barn, bigger than my house, with a 4cyl Toyota? It was half rotten. Not to mention it had gotten an overhaul or two in its 120 + years of service, one of which appears to have been a ruthless butchering.

Its too bad though, she must have been a beauty in her day.

Planning a Hunt

2010-10-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

I've been toying with the idea of a hunting trip to Long Island in Blue Hill Bay for a year or two. My friend Brian is coming home from Russia for a couple of weeks, and seems interested.

Long Island is a very large island (OK, maybe not as big as the OTHER Long Island, but pretty big), with only a couple of seasonal camps. Like many coastal islands off the coast of Maine, this one has an over abundance of deer.

The plan would be to launch from East Blue Hill/ Brooklyn, evaluate wind conditions, make a mile open water crossing, and follow the islands shore south, and setting up camp on the south east corner. Depending on the time, maybe just scouting out some good spots, and cooking some dinner. The next day, we will shoot two deer by 9 am and get ready to go home. Ha. That would be nice. Two to three nights might be a possibility.

The only question is, what are we going to use to get over there? We aren't suicidal, so canoes are out of the question. I have one sea kayak, we could rent a second one. I've got an old wooden skiff that needs a LOT of work. All of my other boats fall into similar categories. Looks like its time to acquire another boat!

My Grandfather offered me his tandem kayak he built a long time ago. It should be just about perfect for what we want to do. He designed it himself, with the idea of a very large middle compartment between the two paddlers for a large payload/dog/passenger. It would probably fit two sickley dismembered deer just fine. I plan on heading down to Connecticut to pick it up in the coming weeks.

Operation Free Heat: Success!

2010-10-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a slow process, but all the wood for the winter has been felled, bucked, hauled, bucked again, split, and stacked. Next year I'm going to be looking at ways to improve the efficiency of that process. But for now, what I'm doing works well enough.

One one trusty tool I've acquired since my last post is a large garden tractor (actually very small compared to non-garden tractors). Its a 24hp, 4wd, 2-cyl diesel, with a front and rear PTO, category one 3-pt hitch. The previous owner welled up a light "cage" to protect the operator from brush and small trees. It has essential 18 speeds, with the very lowest being virtually crawl settings. Maybe a little better suited for pulling down the barn than my Toyota Tacoma. The tractor didn't come with any implements, so I bought a standard draw-bar (with 2 ball hitches, and a hook), and a carry-all. Both from Tractor Supply Company. The carry all is perfect for how I want to harvest wood from my woodlot.

Being a forester, I'm rather picky about how wood gets cut, so I try to practice what I preach. Low Impact Logging (LIL)has unlimited benefits to your woodlot. Those benefits range from protecting soil and water quality, to maximizing long term economic output of your woodlot. So the process for harvesting your own wood goes as follows:

1.) Select and fell your trees- Pick trees that are suppressed, stressed or would otherwise die within the next ten years or so if you didn't cut it yourself. Already dead trees are another option, but they can be dangerous to fell, or may have some excellent wildlife characteristics that certain animals depend on. A chainsaw operation class is strongly recommended.

2.) Buck the trees up into manageable lengths- For most of the trees I felled, 4.5-5 ft lengths worked best for most trees I felled. The larger the diameter, the smaller the length, which ill make them lighter and easier to handle. Even when felling very small trees, 5 feet was the maximum length I would keep them at, so they would fit behind the tractor... which leads us to....

3.) Load your the bucked logs on the tractor- I have two handy tools to help with this. A pulp hook, and log tongs. A pulp hook has been used for, well, at least as long as pulp has been around. Its great for keeping a firm hold off the wood and throwing the wood. Log tongs are small hand held tongs that are used to pull longer small diameter logs. You can also use them together with a pulp hook to save your back a few inches of extra strain when picking up wood off the ground.

The idea to carrying the wood to the tractor and save the ground from getting torn up, and to keep your machinery going further off the trail then it needs to. Dragging the wood behind a tractor (also known as skidding) may be necessary for hauling our larger logs that will be sawn into lumber, but it isn't really necessary for something your going to be cutting up into small pieces anyway. And in some instances, light surface disturbance is a good thing, and can regenerate trees more quickly. But, you also run the risk of rutting, or creating extra mud. Two things that don't naturally happen often in a forest. If I think forest regeneration is necessary, I may take a metal rake and conservatively stir up the first inch or so of soil.

4.) Drive out and unload- Preferably next to the woodshed, off your lawn. Cut them up into smaller pieces that will fit in your stove. I built a log stanchion to hold logs at waist level while I cut them up. Only problem there, is that you're handling them one more time, compared to cutting them where you dumped them.

5.) Split 'em and stack 'um- I bought my stepfathers log splitter which is a big luxury. I find splitting by hand almost medicinal, and would recommend it to anyone who has the time. I however, do not. Stack them up in the wood shed, or anywhere really. Most people at the very least cover their piles, although I've seen plenty of people that don't. As a general rule, the fresher (greener) the wood is, the more important it is to keep it dry. For example, a wood pile you cut in the fall is more important to cover than a woodpile that you may have cut the previous fall. An uncovered dead piece of wood, off the ground, will still dry out quite a bit given enough time.

The woodshed probably won't be finished this year, but at least its got a roof.

Some people choose to burn wood out of principle, others choose to do it to save money. I do it for both... so lets look at how we did for saving money....

Cost of Wood........ $0.00 (my own woodlot, and logging waste)
Cost of Tractor...$4000.00 (grain of salt, not used just for fire wood)
Cost of Gas........@$15.00 (Chainsaw, splitter)
Cost of diesel.......$0.00 (Came with a partial tank and haven't needed a refill!)
Cost of Splitter...$500.00 (Used from family)
Cost of Shed.......@250.00 (Treated posts, roofing, the rest was barn debris)
Total Cost........$4765.00

If I just burned Oil, at $2.70/gal, and oh... 500 gallons, it would cost around $1300. So...

Years to recoup
investment........... 3.66

Not to Shabby. Next year I hope to speed up efficiency by splitting in the woods and bring just the finished product to the woodshed, along with a more efficient cut to length system.

Fuel for the stove

2010-07-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I would have liked to have gotten this done sooner, but needless to see we have had a lot on out plates. I figured I'd need 5 to 6 cord to satisfy most of our heating needs. We do have oil backup, but I'd rather not use it at all if possible.

I had been a little disappointed when I first discovered our woodlot had almost no hardwood in it. But then I realized I had an abundance of tamarack, and that would do just fine. I plan to supplement that with free waste wood from my logging contractors.

I've never burned tamarack before. To be honest, I personally haven't burned a whole lot of it in my life. We burned a couple of cords a year when I was a kid, but we mostly used coal. I also knew larch (tamarack) was rot resistant. So I figured some of the dead standing trees would be good candidates for firewood, because they are dead, dry, and off the ground. Problem was, most of the dead ones had been dead for quite some time. In fact most even had conks and fungus growing out of them. I cut a small one down, not expecting much. But to my surprise, the center was hard as a rock! The outside ring of sapwood was a little Punky. The way I figure it, once dry, its like a log warped in kindling.

So I decided to try another experiment. The previous owner of the house let the next door neighbors cut a bunch of trees, with he intention of... well I don't know what. Skidding them out with 4wheelers, or a tractor, or ....something? They had cut all of the merchantable wood on their own lot long ago. In any event, they either decided it was too much work or their method of wood extraction fell through because they left a couple dozen (of the largest) trees laying on the ground to rot. Some were Larch, some were spruce, some were balsam fir. I wanted to see if the larch on the ground was as good as the dead standing larch. It was! A little heavier, but still sound in the middle. So as long as they dry in time. I'm all set for winter!

The Purchase!

2010-07-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

Money Money Money Money. That's what it takes. I've always said to myself "No way am I ever getting a mortgage", :::insert foot in mouth:::: I've always been, well, cheap. I started selling bait when I was six years old, and have been a pretty good saver ever since. Now the game is more complex than just a coffee can loaded with singles.I'd always imagined buying the cheapest piece of land I could find, squatting for several years until I saved up enough demolition debris to build a house. Maybe mill some lumber if I was fortunate enough to have trees.

Right around Christmas time (2009)I decided I was going to go for it. A couple of friends had recently bought houses and got a decent loan and of course the tax credit. So where to start? www.Realtor.com was a good start. It lets you get an idea of what market conditions are like in your area, whats available for how much.

Then I started thinking about what I really wanted out of my purchase. I wanted land. That was a given. The area I was looking in, was rich in land and nothing else. Ideally, it would be fully or partially forested (not too heavily harvested in the past 15 years), and fairly high and dry. Shelley hinted that she wanted to live by water, pretty much any water would do. Doesn't sound to unreasonable, but in this area of the country* it is. Poor logging operations and low wet ground is extremely common here. There was lots of land for sale, problem is it was either swamp or heavily high-graded. Since I've developed a bit of a life sense I first started dreaming about buy property, I've acquired some... realities. The squatting, build it as you go method, is great for some people and it would have been great for me if some things were different. That scenario would require:
1.) Time
2.) Adequate $$
3.) Minimal possessions, or minimal need for them
4.) An understanding special person or a single lifestyle

I had gotten a good job a few months earlier that kept me pretty busy. That means no time (strike 1). I was pretty sure I'd get financing... for how much I wasn't sure. Enough I thought. But if I were going to go the squarer route, the hell with a mortgage. Loans are harder to get with "unimproved" land, and consequently have lousy interest rates. Besides, paying for building materials while I paid off a loan might be difficult. Worst case scenario I'd have to rent an apartment at the same time. That would be a LOT of money to put up. And who knows when I would finish the house. I have a good job, but not that good. So essentially, not enough $$$ (strike 2). When I graduated college, I had few enough possessions to get up and move all with one load of my pickup truck. Only a year later I had about two pickup loads. Now I had about 3, not including my 5 boats**. Not only did I have stuff, I also had company equipment (requiring electricity and internet access no less). Plus, Shelley has even more stuff than I do (Strike 3). If I gave a damn about baseball, I would be out. But since I don't, lets keep going. Speaking of Shelley, that brings us to number 4. This one I have. Kind of. Shelley is defiantly understanding and its pretty good at roughing it, but she has an online business (Shelley Creates) and needs the internet (as do I), and needs some place for all her stuff too(strike 3.5).

So I sat down with Shelley and tried to figure out what we were looking for. Besides the land (10 acres or more), we wanted some kind of structure, to keep most of our stuff dry, and have a relatively ready to go place to work and live. I was comfortable with a trailer/mobile home, Shelley wasn't so thrilled, but willing. So maybe a camp-like building would be great. In other words, a small stick built structure, preferably suited for 4 seasons, and mold free. I'm allergic to mold and cats. So cat free too. Then we would build or add on at our leisure. We didn't mind a run-down house as long as the price was fair. Like I said earlier, Shelley wanted water. I was impartial. I like water, especially the ocean. But I always assumed living by the ocean was out of my budget. So if we got water, that would be a plus. I wanted it to be within an hour of where I worked. Which is pretty far, I know, but its pretty standard for around here. All for around 100K or less. That wasn't the budget, but it was a target. If it ended up being 40k, that would be great. Basically, we weren't picky, as long as it was a good deal, and was livable.

In the mean time I had purchased a few home buyers books (see below) and figured I better start looking for a Realtor. I went to dorky route, and followed the books advice and set up interviews with 2 Realtors I had narrowed my list down to. I was inclined to look for a Buyers Broker, someone I knew would really be out for my best interest. There aren't many around here, but we did find one. And she seemed very nice, but it was a little hard to talk to. The other Realtor had her GRE certification, and was very easy to talk to. We thought the comfort thing was very important. You don't want to be nervous around your Realtor, you want to be able to let her/him know everything want in a house, and any other concerns. It was also important that the company she worked for didn't have a big monopoly on the real estate in the area. If she did, then the chances of us falling in love with a property where she or her company represented the seller was high, meaning our relationship would change because of her interest in the success of the seller.

So we started looking at houses! We bought the first one we saw! Well, we looked at 2 others afterward. Odd thing was, the house we bought wasn't really what we were looking for. It just felt right for some reason. I'm defiantly not in the advice giving business, but I would have to say going with your gut is a good idea.

The house was much bigger than I would have ever expected to buy, 1500sqft. It didn't need any adding on, or major repairs. Just cosmetics. The building our own house idea went out the window. We are 500 feet from the ocean (no shore frontage/view), 24 acres of mature forest, and 12 acres of hayfield/yard. The interior just needs some finish work, but is loaded with custom quirky carpentry work, old light fixtures, plumbing fixtures (including a claw foot tub), and new traditional plaster work. The kitchen alone has 11 different species of wood!

So anyways, the money. Lucky for us the economy sucks and I have a job. I snagged a 3.99% fixed 30 year loan! Total cost $122,000. 18% down, with the balance of the remaining 2% to make an even 20% when we get our tax credit money (so we don't have to pay PMI anymore). Sounds like scary stuff. It did to me at least, but the whole proses was easier than I thought. Not only is it a good rate, monthly payments of around $500 is not bad. That's cheaper than what I was paying in rent.

Anyways, needless to say we are very happy with the house. I think it is going to be a really good investment compared to anything I could have built. This is in a relatively undiscovered area, and the population has been on the decline since the early 1900's, and I'd like to to see it stay that way. But its inevitable. To see my investment increase in value over time will be nice. I look forward to adding to its already 120 year history.

Books:
Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home (book with CD-Rom & Audio)
Home Buying for Dummies

* For the time being I'm keeping my location secret. Obviously some of you already know where I live, but don't want to encourage anyone else to come live in the area! I have enough neighbors.
** I'm sure there will plenty of future posts about my boats.

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