After all the craziness with getting the loan approved, the closing itself was relatively low key. The seller wasn’t there, nor was their realtor, so it was just us, our realtor and the title agent. We got an excellent explanation of all the paperwork from our Title Agent (a former teacher) and we were in and out in about 45 minutes. So finally, I am willing to share pictures of the house (didn’t want to jinx it) and the upcoming posts will provide more information on how we filled it!! Some people may get excited by a blank canvas (Lee is one of them) but I felt intimidated to be honest. I also was surprised by my pangs of sadness for the RV lifestyle. We keep trying to tell people that we didn’t just buy a house but rather changed lifestyles but not everyone gets that. I am sure all you readers will though!

When we started looking for a house I wanted a small single floor house on a nice piece of land. Lee also was adamant about it being “move in ready” and I am so glad he stuck firm on that. This is hard enough with minimal immediate repairs. The house itself I largely considered a “throwaway” as we cared way more about the outbuildings and the land, but as we have worked on the house I am really starting to like it more. It has some quirks, as any old (63!) house does, but it has good bones and is in a great location.

One of my major complaints is they (poorly) slapped a white coat of paint on everything including the outside. There is a stone front under all that white paint, and we want to see what’s under there. I get it, white paint sells, but they did do a pretty crappy job inside and out. Thankfully Lee is an excellent painter although the painting is slated for the winter. Speaking of that, we made one of our famous spreadsheets, to list the things we needed and what time period we were slating them for. We have a bit of money set aside but obviously you can’t do everything at once. Largely we have stuck to this list, and I am so glad we did this prior to moving into the house. I love a good spreadsheet!

The inside as I mentioned has some quirks including two fireplaces which may not work, and a closed in area between the garage, which was originally detached, and the house. One of my major complaints is the door to the back yard is in the far corner of the house, but I am certainly getting my steps in. There are multiple kinds of hardwood floor through the house (which Jack is trying to get used to) and three different types of plumbing. Like I said, old house.

When you walk in the front door there is a small dining area to the left and a nice long living room to the right.

Around the corner to the right are three bedrooms and a bath with a deep tub. For the age of the house it’s not a bad shower, but the rooms are on the small side. I am taking the back facing room for my office and Lee is taking the front for his. We talked about having a dedicated guest room, but we both are really looking forward to our own space after all those years of sharing in the RV.

Despite the smallness of the rooms there is a surprising amount of closet space, and with each of us having minimal clothes and an extra closet in our office it sounds like an abundance of riches. I am crazy excited about being able to use regular hangars again. It’s the little things. One of my absolutes for a house was an open kitchen and I really like this one. The kitchen also has a 1/2 bath and laundry off of it and we are going to used the closed in area as a HUGE pantry. Super exciting.

The laundry goes into the original garage which is going to be my pottery studio because there is a HUGE pretty new garage on the property. The big garage will fit both our vehicles plus so much more and all it really needs is electric run to it.

If you are wondering why out buildings mattered so much to us, we looked at tons of property in the same price range that had no buildings at all. Garages, barns and fencing are expensive, and this property has all three. This will allow us to get some immediate use from the outside and work on the inside as we can afford to. Our goal is no more debt (aside from the mortgage) so for us we needed a pay as you go situation.

So let’s get to the best part. It’s amazing how much the weeds grew in the 30 days from the showing to close, but it has a HUGE garden with beds and some metal structures. A practically new small two stall barn (the former owners had alpacas) and 4 fenced in pastures. The property also has a large wooded section in the back and at 3 acres is exactly what we wanted.

The back side of the house itself is nothing special and the entire patio needs replaced. One of our biggest complaints is there are no good views of the back yard from inside the house, but our long-term plan is to build a four-season porch to enjoy the back views year-round.

In my mind the absolute best thing was the mature trees. There are several gorgeous trees on the property, and one in particular that I absolutely loved. Honestly for me the trees were what won me over because you can upgrade a house, but you can’t make trees grow faster!

Lee’s favorite thing is there is only one house we can see from our house. He would prefer none lol, but I like that our next-door neighbor has a fire truck and an EMT vehicle in their yard. It’s great in case something happens. We are 20 minutes from major hospitals but it’s nice to have a trained person close by. Across from us is a giant crop field and on the left of us (facing the road) is a 34-acre farm that actually wraps around the back of our property. They let their cows into the field next to our house the weekend we moved in and Jack was VERY excited. Actually, as hesitant as Jack is about the house, he loves the outside and is already guarding his territory which is great.

It’s all pretty exciting but next up we had to move in and I have a lot to say about that! Save it for next time though.

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

• You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
• You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itune