A Potential Homestead

I last wrote from the other side of the world, when we were stuck in the time between, before we left Congo. Today, I'm writing from the US, in another time in-between, as we stay at our mission's headquarters while searching for our future homestead. We had a restful six weeks at our sending church in Illinois before we moved here to Idaho this last Monday. During the time in Illinois, we were able to connect to friends, family, and supporters, while we took steps to work on health and began the process of finding a new home. The six weeks of rest were very needed but it's going to be a long haul to fully recover.

Part of that recovery will be finding our new homestead for us to settle down in and find a new rhythm to life, bringing stability and rest to our family. Over the last almost two months we have found and lost one potential homestead (that I admittedly was in love with, so that one cut deep) and now are working through a complicated process for a second potential homestead.

Our boys climbing one of the large trees next to the house on the potential homestead

House buying is complicated enough as it is, but this one in particular has had some road bumps that are unusual. It started with us being second in line for a chance at this place. We were the backup offer and the current buyer's deadline for finding financing and getting an inspection continued to be miscommunicated by the selling agent or pushed out. You can imagine the stress of reliving the deadline over and over, hoping that we would get our chance.

We got our chance after two weeks of extensions and the seller terminating the contract with that buyer. Our agent, who is an amazing Christian man and good at what he does, discovered some mistakes the selling agent had made in the listing; including the buyers not signing our backup offer so we had to resubmit it, and that the current fixer-upper home was not titled to the land! It also is a serious fixer-upper, which in recent years has become more of a problem for lenders before they will take on your mortgage. This is part of what cost us the first homestead. So, we have been through many ups and downs so far with this current potential homestead.

Dave in the driveway by the front trees

We finally had the chance to go see this potential homestead in person this last week (yes, we had been doing all of this over the internet and video calls). It became real when we pulled in.

The land (4.2 acres) was better than we thought it would be with a lot of large trees and wonderful grass under them for potential grazing. The outbuildings with a workshop and a loafing shed (a three-sided barn) had so much potential too. It will need new fencing as the current barbed wire is down and in a tangled mess in the weeds, but again, so much potential.

In case you weren't aware from previous posts, we have been looking for a fixer upper on a plot of land that we could put sweat equity into and really make nice, functional, and productive. We hope to pasture-raise several species of animals with regenerative practices and rotational grazing. It looks like this land has water rights that we will be looking into more in the future. We will start with poultry, and eventually expand into sheep, and potentially some cattle to grow out for our family to butcher each year. We still have a lot to learn about what the potential land could sustain, but one step at a time, beginning with actually purchasing it.

So, we were extremely pleased to find the land was better than expected but we also discovered that the house was worse than we had expected, primarily because the previous owner had been a smoker, which we hadn't known about prior to visiting in person. This means there is a lot more work that will need to be done upfront than we had originally planned, and more expenses to get the home into a livable condition. There were a lot of cosmetic issues on the home as well, like unfinished drywall, missing sealant and trim around windows, some windows that needed replaced, other repairs, etc. but the major issue for us was the smoke.

Fixing the smoke problem involves ripping out all of the carpet, bringing in a cleaning service or perhaps doing it ourselves and having an ozone machine ran inside the home for up to a week, installing new flooring throughout the home, fixing the drywall and potentially installing more, replacing the windows in the kids' rooms which are missing glass, sealing all the walls with a special primer called kilz, and then putting a fresh coat of paint on everything. All of that needs to be redone before we can move into the place for health reasons (secondhand smoke, even lingering, isn't good for you in case you didn't know, and it sets off my migraines making the house unlivable for me). This is a lot more time and expense up front than we had imagined. It would mean living in a fifth-wheel for the weeks it will take to get this done.

Daniel in front of the mini forest on the property, near some small sheds

We are in the process of getting mortgage paperwork signed, the home titled to the land, we just got the inspection report, and are still in need of the appraisal, with potential visits from an engineer to look at the house, and another guy to look at the land zoning I believe. This process is so complicated even I forget pieces of it. The good news so far is that the seller is working with us on some things to get this place sold like getting the home titled to the land and paying the back taxes that are owed on the property. The titling looked like it was going to be a hurdle but the latest communication is that it is mostly done at this point in time with a few steps to go.

The outside of the workshop that has several rooms, including a storage room, and even a woodstove

The biggest hurdle that we're facing now is the upcoming appraisal. We heard it can be a wild card for who you get and it's usually up to them to decide how much the property is worth, which means if it's not appraised high enough to meet the listed and offered price, you could be denied the mortgage loan from the lender because they see it as a liability to take on. We need continued prayers for getting the right appraiser to come out, and for them to rightly appraise the property, and for that correct appraisal to be high enough to not be that financial liability. This will probably be happening this coming week some time, so that there is enough time to fix some potential problems before a final appraisal. I'm not certain if those items will be fixed prior to the first appraisal and then perhaps another round after that. We will have to see how it goes.

Jerry standing inside the loafing shed

All of this is going on while we are waiting on the sidelines, trying to figure out the timeline for buying furniture, moving what belongings we have, and even things like when to travel to go get the fifth-wheel or those belongings that are across the country. It's a complicated thing emotionally even at this stage. And of course, the most important question, can I manage to make an order of chicks before the fall season closes, and they're all sold out?

Jerry looking out over the view from the back porch of our potential homestead. Unsure if we can keep the chickens.

For now, we wait in-between the small baby steps of this complicated process, praying that God would be in this process and that if this is the homestead for us, He would work out the details. Waiting is never easy and now we're waiting to see if we get to enjoy this view in the future.