Fall is always too short in the South

Fall always sneaks up here in Texas and when it does arrive, it usually lasts only a couple of weeks. Blink and you miss the the leaves falling off. The relative cold of a southern winter begins. I love that I can live in a place that boasts 50 degrees as being 'cold'. During January when we get our annual week of low thirties and high twenties, we just bear it knowing that it wont last long and that in a few months we will all be complaining of how damn hot it is outside.

finding the right lengths for each section, blech!

it's no palace but it's much better than seeing into the bathroom.

and besides, Ellen is now able to crawl around safely

We have been making our weekly trips to the property and making pretty good progress on the trailer. We put up some bead-board over where the walls had been torn out because of the water damage, we replaced a toilet, we started putting the skirt back up on the house, and we made a couple of connecting trails through the woods exploring the property. There is still so very much to do but each weekend brings a little more progress and a little more creature comfort to the place.

temporary new counter. (much better than washing dishes in the tub)

There is a constant struggle going on in my head about the place. Our plan has been to make this place just habitable so we are able to move in early this next year after baby number two arrives. The long term plan is to build a more substantial and more efficient home on another location within the property As we go about making this place livable, we continually come across new questions as to how far we should go and how much money we should spend to make this place 'habitable'. Every dollar we spend on this 20 year old trailer making it comfortable is a dollar not saved for the construction of the new place. I will give a prime example: The water lines in this trailer need to be replaced. We are on borrowed time with the ones we have and I don't want to replace wall board, carpet and insulation just to have them burst again and be back to square one. In replacing the water lines, the options are quite varied in price. Ten feet of pvc is $1.45 where-as ten feet of copper is $15.00. Ideally you really should use copper for plumbing, besides, who wants the plastic in your water but the difference in price is ridiculous. I hate doing things half-assed but this may be a time where it is warranted. We can always use a whole house water filter right? When I am faced with these decisions I am usually paralyzed to inaction for a while until I figure out a solution. I am also going to be rushed to get all the new insulation in soon after the pipes go in before our annual hard freeze in January. Oh, the joys of new-old home ownership.
Outside of the construction challenges, we have been enjoying the land immensely. I am continually both glad we didn't wait to do this till it was much easier financially and also sad that I didn't do this ten years ago when I was younger and more physically resilient. I feel this work is both feeding my soul and tearing my body down at the same time. It's ok, I need the exercise anyway.

Officially indebted to the Texas Land Bank for 10.38 acres!

It is official. We signed the papers on the 15th of September and now have a place to spend all free money and time (as if we all need an excuse.) I took a few days from work and we spent our first long weekend making the old double wide habitable. First I got the air conditioning functioning. The visits there would be pretty miserable without it. I also re-hooked-up the septic system and got the well pump up and running so that we would have running water for the toilets and such. After all of that productivity, the rest of the weekend was spent just relaxing and doing smaller less important tasks like sweeping and cleaning toilets etc... As I have mentioned before, the place was empty for a year and had not been kept up for much longer than that so our work is cut out for us. There was a water heater that had ruptured over the winter while the trailer was empty and flooded the majority of the home so all of the flooring has been removed and the first vertical foot or so of the sheet-rock has been removed as well. In a way, this creates more work to finish it out but I like to think that now there is less carpet to remove (it was blue shag.) Here is a visual so you can see how the place looks with "underwall ventilation" Fortunately for now, the toilet in the first pic is inoperable so any awkwardness is avoided.

We have also picked out some exterior paint so we can at least make the place look good from the outside. Plus it really needs it. Here is a before and I will include some afters once it is done. Other than that, Our time on site is limited for now to weekends. This make tackling large projects difficult for lack of an ability to finish them, or at least get to a stopping point before having to pack up and head back home.This weekend we plan on continuing with the water lines that need repairing and hopefully get a new toilet installed. Living for the weekends...

We are committed now...

And the option period has ended. Not a problem, for we are ready and willing to take this leap and in time make this piece of land our permanent home if it will have us. Closing date is fast approaching and the to-do lists are growing faster than a weed in spring. Right now there really is nothing to do but wait for the title company and lender and real estate agent to do their work and hope that words like 'snag', or 'problem' do not enter into the dialogue. We are looking at taking a few of our vacation days here and there to give us additional time once the deal is done so that we will have more than a short weekend to tackle some of the big tasks at hand. Here is an abridged list of the many things that need taken care of first off the bat.
1.) Reconnect waste line to septic line where the pipe was knocked apart. (This is not as bad as it sounds. The two pipes are connected with one of those compression sleeves that can be tightened and it just slipped off one side of the pipes.)
2.)Repair the broken water supply line leading from the well (It froze and broke last winter when no one was living there.)
3.)Replace missing duct cap on ventilation ducts so wife can have A/C. (the cap was removed to allow the water to drain when hot water heater busted and filled the home and all the duct work with water.)
 It is plain to see, each job will create new and ever-expanding jobs and opportunities to both spend money and gain strong feelings of accomplishment. I actually look forward to the tasks at hand.
These are the first priorities and will allow us to function on at least a basic level while more permanent and substantial repairs can be prepared for.

One more visit...

The option period ends tomorrow (23rd of Aug.) and after that we are unable to back out without losing our earnest money. So... I went back to the property yesterday with my mother to explore and look for any final reason why we shouldn't do this. We went with the intention of taking more samples of the well water, measure some of the various fittings and stuff that need to be replaced, as well as just do some general exploring of the ten acres of woods. I wanted to get an idea as to how bad the poison ivy situation is and just get a feel as to how much work it will entail to clear a few spots here and there. We were successfully able to bushwack our way through various parts of the woods. We got a good feeling about the land, how the breeze sifts through the trees, where some good views could be found, how difficult the briar and ivy will be to wrestle and just visited with the place and let it 'speak' to us. It was nice.
So far the poison ivy has yet to break out on us (24 hrs later) and I have a renewed excitement and anxiousness to get the entire purchase process completed so that we can start our work. The well has tested clean of pesticides, arsenic, iron, lead, copper, and bacteria. We believe the septic to be in good shape and most all of the basic necessities will be up and operational within a day or so with some basic maintenance performed. Now we must wait for the title company to prepare all of the necessary paperwork and handle their part of the transaction while we use the next three weeks to make lists, purchase minor supplies and necessary parts for our first weekend on site. Here we go!

Let the option period begin!

The contract has been approved by all parties and now we enter the option period where we have all the inspections we can get (and afford). There is a double wide trailer on the property that we will be trying to renovate as temporary housing until we can start building our own home. We are mainly interested in the fact that because of there already being a home on the property, there is already water, electricity and a septic system in place. These things are what made it worth paying more for the place than what the bank appraised the raw land for. We are getting the land at a bit of a premium but the improvements for a steal, so it evens out in my mind. Unfortunately, it will be like glorified camping at first until we can get some basic comforts stabilized. The trailer has been empty for a year now and there was some damage done over the year that needs attention. We officially close on September 15th. The list making and the preparations have begun so that we will be ready for the first weekend on site. The list grows longer everyday. First on my list is water and septic. The first thing on my wife's list is air conditioning. Go figure.

Contract submitted!

We submitted a contract to the seller today... and I am not letting myself get excited. There have been too many disappointing let downs in the past to allow myself to get excited. Once the contract has been signed and the option period begins, then the excitement will be allowed to creep in a little. It will probably take a day or two to hear back. The seller has other family to consult before a final decision can be made. We shall see.

Finding the space...

   The past year for me has been a time of continued and almost obsessive searching for a piece of land that I feel that we would like to call home. Looking for land is a process that, for me, tests the resolve. I don't think that our criteria is demanding but here is what we are looking for:
-We are wanting ten acres minimum. (I would like some insulation from other people in the world and some stretching room.)
-We would like to be less than two hours from family and the big metropolitan area. (As much as my misanthropic tendencies may want to be cut-off from society, it probably wouldn't be a healthy thing.)
-We want trees. (They speak to me.)
-The price needs to be under 100k. (In this part of the world, that is more than reasonable.)

    That's it. Really. I don't think that is too much to ask. Each request on its own is quite reasonable. The challenges arise in combining the desires into one piece of land. The combination of size, price and proximity to the metropolitan are not difficult requests. Unfortunately, much of the land here in north Texas is either natural prairie grassland or it was scalped of trees years ago for farming reasons. I would not try to make a prairie into a forest and I am not young enough or patient enough to wait the years it would take to reforest a formerly forested property. Therefore the dilemma. Fortunately, without the immediate funds available to go ahead and purchase a piece of land, we had nothing to do but look and educate ourselves about the buying process for when the time did arrive. Well, as we all know, life seldom plays out as we plan or expect it to. We have found a piece of land and at the risk of fully jinxing the whole possibility of a sale happening, I post a photo here of the site....

   Ten acres of trees an hour away from the city. Pretty much right on target with what we are looking for and well under what we were calling our max limit of cost.

   Now, there are almost always downsides to every possible transaction and every story is more complicated than it appears, but with that being said, I am not going to go into all the details here. Let just leave well enough alone for now and I will update things as they progress. Because now I have an actual place in mind to consider.