And Change Again.

Across the street.

Our trips this weekend didn't happen because my car flex plate needed repairing, our AC broke Friday night (again) which both add up to we're just too broke to make the trip and get anything accomplished. Also, after looking into the solution of paint-on vapor barrier, that option isn't going to happen. One of the only places to find it is Amazon and it's close to $100 a gallon. Yikes. We've decided to go with either a plastic vapor barrier or just the insulation which we've read is sufficient enough on one of these buildings.

We're pricing out our insulation and drywall now. We need to build stairs to the loft and run the electric lines before we dry wall it all in. The electric is a good option considering we'll be running the shed and multiple power tools at the same time once building commences. The $450 price tag isn't too steep but will wait. Running the electric after drywall isn't a very smart idea hence getting that done before hand. We're trying to work smarter not harder.

Last time we were up the 100 or so acres across the street had been virtually cleared away. The photo at the top shows just the sparse barrier of trees that line the road side. We could see lots of construction equipment but no signs saying what's going on over there. Did the owner just sell off the timber? Are they clearning it for homes?

The sad part is the deer that we've seen skitter across the street from our property to this now cleared one, will not have a sanctuary so close to our home. Our woods isn't big enough to support a Cervadae family. Looking on the bright side of things, if the land was cleared for timber, it has the possibility to grow back. If it is cleared for homes, there's a possibility of new families moving to the area which for a farming business that will sell fresh eggs, meat and produce, having a community of potential customers near might be beneficial. I can't see a cookie cutter development getting set up that far out, though I know anything is possible.

We're still planning to go up soon but not making any plans right now as they seem to change and change again.

New ideas

We have had zero luck trying to find something to camp in for our stays  up on the land. With our lack of luck in that department we'd better get a surplus somewhere else. But until then we've thought up a new idea that just might work.

Our county doesn't require permits for ANY premade (meaning delivered fully assembled) structure. No plans to submit, no permit fees, no inspections. Even if later on we want to add electric, water and septic to it we just have to go through those departments. Where they have a no-permit limit on structures we build ourselves, the largest being 8'x10', these are good to go. Hmmmm... The largest prebuilt shed we can get is 12' by 32' with a loft.

It is completely discouraging to look for mobile home structures like RV's, 5th wheels, campers, small mobile homes. People just want too much for things that are almost as old as I am, and needs repairs, refinishing or some sort of work. They are averaging three to six thousand -for the ones we could afford. Even for a twenty year old bus the price is up in that range. We have limited funds so forking out that many grands and still needing to pour more money into it is frustrating to say the least.

Again, the sheds might be an option. They have free delivery, no to little deposit and low monthly payments with no bank financing. Even the largest unit's monthly payment is reasonable. Not having to shell out so much initially makes fixing up a shed to be livable easier. In three years (assuming we don't pay it off early, or pay extra monthly) it would be ours. Plus working on the shed is good practice for building a house. 12'x32' is a good size for a studio for me or a school house or converting to a small barn or even just using it for a shed. We have to have somewhere to stay after our three hour drive up, hotel stays can add up fast and we have a dog now too that we'd either have to kennel or get a pet sitter.

Speaking of pet sitters, we've been toying with the notion of finally getting chicks. I'm just about desperate for them and have to really stop myself from picking them up (and bringing them home) when I visit the feed store. I see the possibilty with them, the materialization of our dream and hope that we can do this. That we are doing it. Leaving them to go up to the land to build is something that we have to recognize and find a solution to.

But then again, we're nothing if not solution finders.

Our Five Acres

So, before we get into what we're going to be doing on the land, I thought maybe we should actually tell you about the property. We do in fact have a 5.3 acre parcel in Lake Butler, Florida. We found these really great guys up in Gainesville, Jim Jean Realty, that deals with owner financed land parcels and pretty much only that.

Doug was our main guy there and he was terriffic at helping us out. Initially, I went up with the kids and put down a deposit on the land. It has a partly wooded area which is great and a low lying area which we could excavate later into a real pond, it's a pond during the rainy season. According to them, these features lowered the price, to us they're boons and the lower price made it even better!

When Rob came home on his 2 week break in Feburary, we all went up again and checked it out and signed the final paperwork. Jim and his family were wonderful with our kids. They're also a large family and familiar with military life. If you're interested in land in North Florida, I suggest getting on their email list. They'll send out updates when they get new comminuities.

Here's a few shots of our land.

As we understand we'll have three neighbors. It already has road access. We'll have to build a well and septic. Electric is present but will have to be hooked up to whatever structure we start with. We can't get a mailing address yet which is very frustrating. We can't have anything delivered without an address but we can't have an address without anything on the property, which makes getting shipping estimates for containers difficult.

The land used to be a sod farm, so there are uneven tracks through out where they used tractors to pull up the beds of sod. We'll have to get the ground leveled and packed. I want to go out soon with the soil testing kit so we know what type of soil we're dealing with. We'd also like to plant some saplings or small trees which have time to mature and throw down some grass and flower seeds which will help to tighten up the top layer of soil.

Early next year, we're planning on taking another trip up to stake out some preliminary positions for structures and get more acurate measurements on tree positions. Then we can map out where we want the drive way and other things. There's a big difference between 5.3 acres and a lot that's 30x100 which is about what we have now. I think we had figured out we could fit 63 of our current sized lots on the new one!