When I left you last, I was sharing part 3 of our journey from a doll house to sugar house. We had just toured a house and property hoping to find lots of maple trees.
Instead, we found three trees.
If this is your first time here, you can start from the beginning:
We knew right away that the house was a “no-go”. I returned home later that afternoon and sent the sweet couple an email. They already knew. They knew for us, it was all about the trees.
As I was on the computer, I reflected back on our conversation after we left the house. The town we were in was quite interesting. It was totally rural, quiet and there are a fair amount of lakes. The bonus – it was only about 30 minutes away from our house.
Would it make sense to look for a house in that area? I got onto a real estate site, and began looking. There wasn’t a ton of inventory, but there was one house in particular that was very familiar. I kept looking at but couldn’t put my finger on it.
Then, I realized that I had seen the stairway and gallery wall on Pinterest before – that I had already “pinned” this house!
And I knew I recognized the greenhouse made from vintage windows – something I had also “pinned”.
You can view the whole house in this NY Times feature.
So, of course, I called the realtor. And, she actually called back, to tell me that the house was sold.
Actually, as I looked into it further, there had been a full on bidding war. And of course, there wasn’t a huge amount of property and it was a very small house. I could overlook the small – but as I said, trees were our deal breaker.
But, now we were on the phone with a realtor. We told her what we were looking for, and she began her search.
Fast forward many months, a few realtors and a lot of Sunday drives. We drove past many houses to get a sense of the area and the land. We eliminated whole towns and areas to look in, solidifying what we did like. We only went inside two houses when it was all said and done. One, gross with lots of trees, but it was beyond repair.
One, that I still plan the decorating for in my head and was amazed by all the space for such an old house. But, you guessed it, no trees.
We drove past one that I didn’t even want to pull into the driveway – it gave me the “heebey geebees” for some reason. Dana agreed. Oh, and it looked someone was squatting on the property. Not a can of worms I wanted to open.
Then, we gave up on the house idea, and just started looking at land. And, we started looking even closer to home if there was no house included.
In our heads, we kept just thinking that we knew it didn’t really make sense “on paper” for us to buy an old fixer upper, but somehow it just felt right.
Much to the disappointment of me, and it seem many of you have been following along, we have not bought our dream country house with acres of maple trees. And, we probably won’t be any time soon.
But, we both know with confidence, that some day, that will be our plan. That we will find that great old house with nooks and crannies that we can customize. And that house will walk out to land with lots and lot of maple trees.
By the time we took this picture above, it was November of last year and we were ready to make a new decision. We weren’t finding the house and we weren’t finding the land, but we had big plans!
Stay tuned!
Thanks so much for reading! I promise, I am not trying to torture you – in just too much for one post!
Click here read part 5
I love to be continued and Laura, I have a confession to make, I’m not a patient person. I read endings of books to make sure they have a happy ending 🙂 Is it possible for you husband to make a move? Go where the maple trees grow!! Wouldn’t that be your solution. How about further NE? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you. xoxo
I see a happy ending in your future …..I look out in my inbox for this series!
Looking forward to the rest of the story!
I am really enjoying this “series” and keep an eye on my in-box for the next installment. I would love, too, to hear more about how you refurbished the doll house that was a part of this story.
I think we are all enjoying the journey, and looking forward to the destination.
Love this series ….
Enjoy your day!
Gloria
So loving ready your journey of “Finding the Maple Trees”….can’t wait to hear about your new plans…..Have a wonderful weekend!
Well it seems God has planted a seed and in His time will grow it up into a full blown blooming thing 🙂 and apparently He has planted other seed of a different kind also. Even though I am on vacation and have very spotty internet I am keeping up…:)
🙂 Today I read a devotional entitled “Miracles always come from unexpected sources.” I can’t wait to hear YOUR story, and I’m applying that devo mightily to MINE! Have a great day!!
OOooh! It’s like Christmas every week! Thanks for the suspenseful series…I can’t wait to see how this all unfolds!
All caught up – I love this story Laura!! Will we get the last part before Haven?? 🙂 xo
That was our plan too Laura. I’m pretty sure I told you about it before. Only about five months ago we were in the same place. We had a realtor come to the house and go over a “to do” list of things to fix before we listed. As I thought hard about that list it dawned on my how much I love my house and that if I’m going to put that time and money into it, I won’t want to sell it. So what did I do instead? I bought a store!! LOL In a quaint nearby town with lots of charm. Doors open in August. Stay tuned for more on my journey girlfriend. Wishing you and your family lots of love and joy as you continue yours.
xoxo,
Kim
Nooooo, please don’t stop! This is like a real good book, it’s 3:00 am and you have to go to work in the morning but you just can’t put it down. Ohhhh, I’m suffering!