We Have Cows... Sort of

We worked out a deal with the farmer up the road to house some of his dairy cows for the winter, and they are finally here! They are seven of the coolest pregnant cows I have ever seen. My hubby has already began teasing me for naming them, but I just couldn't help myself! My favorite is one I have taken to calling "Blue Bell," and let me tell you, no cow has ever looked more like a Blue Bell! I am going to try to use this e,experience to learn as much about cows as I can, so we can feel a bit more comfortable once we get our own miller. Who knows, maybe I can convince my neighbor to sell me Blue Bell...

I wish I was at the farm!

I can't wait until we are living at the farm and I am farming full time. Even though it's raining here, I wish I was at the farm instead of working. I have been sitting here planning my day off tomorrow since I finished my rig check! We have done a lot, but have so much left to do. This Sunday we will have to get up real early. I was hoping to have the walls up before the hubby's grandma came to visit, but I am apparently more ambitious than the amount of time we have. I am hoping tomorrow will be a day filled with pulling nails, and sanding the dry sink. Maybe I'll even get a coat of paint on it! For now my mind is sitting on the deck with a cold drink taking all of this in!

So much work so far!

We have now owned the farm for 2.5 weeks, and although we have a lot left to do, I am pretty happy with where we stand right now! We have gutted both bedrooms and the bathroom. All that remains of the room it once was is the toilet, but as soon ans we get ready to install a new one, that will be gone too. As you probably recall,

Stanley from the dairy up the road offered to take care of our fields for us, so far the front hay field has been cut, and baled. There are big huge round bales scattered about, and it really gives you a better feeling for just how big the farm really is! I think they decided against haying the pasture, but he promised to brush hog whatever he can't use. I would imagine that once all the hay has been done he'll swing back through and cut that down for us.

This is obviously before it was baled, but I got to meet another neighbor, Stanley's grandson Shawn. He did an awesome job!

The highlight of the week has been the purchase of our new to us antique dry sink!

This pic is in our bathroom just about where it is going to go. I think it is perfect for what we are going to do in here, and I LOVE the towel bar next to the mirror! I am going to get a corian counter top to go over the top of the wood in designer white and match the paint to it and paint the whole thing white. I need to add a piece of wood below the mirror to bring it up a little higher, and we are going to put a box behind it to secure the mirror frame and to keep the mirror away from the wall so it can still tilt! We are just super excited the search is over, and we got it for over $75 less than his original asking price! I <3 Craigslist! 

Okay, now the James and the trailer have been packed full of another load to go up to the new house, and I daresay I am holding up the hubby, so off to the farm we go!

It's All Ours!

It has been a whirlwind of a week! Wednesday we FINALLY closed on our dream farm! It has been a long time coming, and it we were a tad to busy starting to get things ready up there to blog! I will say this about the closing though, it was a little anti-climactic, but never the less exciting. We haven't moved in yet, so there is no interwebs, but we are making do. We met our closest farm neighbor within two hours of owning the property. He drove up our driveway, got us up to speed on the local gossip and offered to clean up our hay fields. It took a huge load off our minds, since the other fields in our area are on their second cutting and ours have yet to be touched. We have gotten the kitchen into running order, and tomorrow my parents are coming up to give me a hand in purging the 70's from my bathroom. We picked up a couple of lawn tractors, and got the acre of lawn cleaned up. The kitchen is now clean starting to fill up. We even had our first meal there! So far this farm is turning out to be everything I wanted it to be and more. I just can't wait to move in!

All that's missing is the hot dogs!

So Close We Can Taste It

Finally after all the trouble and drama with the bank and the inspection, we are almost there! Tomorrow is the walk through and closing! I can't believe it, the farm will finally be ours! The superstitious side of me is saying that the reason it has taken this long is that Mercury is no longer in retrograde tomorrow. It is kind of funny that last Friday when I told my mother that we had gotten the "clear to close" from the bank that I would feel better about it if we waited until Wednesday, then by happenstance that is the date that was chosen by the lawyers. I think it is a good sign, or just coincidence, who knows. The main point is that we are closing and I will soon be out of the suburbs! Now I will spend today packing some more and possibly looking at poultry on the internet.

Off to the Bank!

We're one step closer! The appraisal was finally approved by the bank and I am headed off there now in a few minutes with a cheque from my parents. I can't even describe how appreciative I am to my mom and dad for helping us out this way. We would never have been able to get this far without them! I only hope that some day I will be able to help my own future children like this. I wish everyone had parents like mine. I am going to strive to make this new farm successful, so I can prove to them that they made the right choice!

I will admit I am still nervous though. There have been several times that my hubby and I have thought we were completely on our way, only to encounter unexpected setbacks. All I can do right now, is deposit the money and keep my fingers crossed. It wouldn't be the first time the bank said we had bridged all the obstacles and they were wrong. I am sure the sellers are just as eager as us to close on this sale! I am truly hoping that the next time I post it's to say are new farm owners!

Progress!!!!

We finally got a call from the bank today! The appraisal has been accepted. We now have to send them our last pay stubs, as the previous ones expired today, and deposit the money from my parents in our bank account. The next step is a closing date. I was hoping we would be able to close by our anniversary, but I will just be happy if we have a closing date by then! Fingers crossed that all the unexpected humps have been overcome and we will be well on our way to the farm of our dreams!

I love Avon Bottles!

          So, while we still sit here waiting for the appraisal company to respond to whatever ridiculous questions the banks underwriter seems to have. (insert frustrated sigh here) I thought I would change topics a bit. Anyone who knows me a bit will tell you I try to be a responsible shopper. I try and buy new things made in this country, or if I can't, I get them used. My German car is from an American used car dealership, I shop[ at the Goodwill and Salvo etc. So, today while we were shopping for some summer clothes at the Goodwill shop I came across this beautiful Avon Cape Cod Cruet for a mere $1.99. That got me to thinking, I wonder how many people know how to get the perfume smells out of Avon bottles?I certainly don't. So I thought while I sit here and stew over the fact that my dream house is sitting back on the market and my loan is in limbo, I would do a little research on this quandary.
       
          I have found through the vast resources of About.com and the various other sites on the inter webs, that there are several accepted methods to do this. You either fill the bottle with fresh lemon juice, vodka, rubbing alcohol or white vinegar. You let it sit over night, up to a week, then dump it out and wash it with dish detergent, then allow it to air dry. I am going to try this, and I think the white vinegar is the way to go. The only things I am sure I currently have in my house are the vodka and the white vinegar. Let's be honest, who would want to waste perfectly good vodka cleaning out a perfume bottle? Even if I had lemons, which have been awfully expensive this season, I wouldn't want to put the effort into juicing them unless it resulted in lemonade, and I'm sure my Hubby would agree. I probably have rubbing alcohol somewhere, but by the time I found it I would probably forget why I was looking for it, so I will proceed with the white vinegar. The plan is to leave it in until I get home from work tomorrow, dump it out and see how we're progressing. I'll keep y'all updated!


*Update*- The vinegar completely removed the smell from the cruet itself, but not the stopper, so I placed the stopper in a bowl full of vinegar and plan on leaving it there for a day or so. We'll see what happens.

Well it's an hour in to Monday, and we are still waiting to hear from the bank. At this point I would just really like to be in the house for our second anniversary, but it looks like that won't happen either. I am so tired of WAITING!!!! My husband and I spent yesterday decompressing, but today we have decided to get the heck out of dodge and go SHOPPING! Well we're going to BJ's, the pet store, Ocean State Job Lot (I need to return a pair of shorts, Idk why I thought it was a good idea to get shorts there!) and maybe even CVS! I know, we're being crazy here, but even errands are better than sitting around staring at the phone. Fingers crossed that we hear something today!

Facebook Page

I just wanted to throw a quick comment out to everyone. My blog here at Farmward Bound is now linked to Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Farmward-Bound/401054166617704. I will be putting up quick status updates and pics of the farm if and when we get it. You should all go and check it out!

Getting Tired of Jumping Through hoops!

I am starting to get to the point now where a simple yes or no to whether or not we will get our mortgage will make me happy. I am tired of getting the runaround from the bank, and I am thoroughly pissed off at the appraisal company. Is it so much to ask that the bank promptly return emails, or keep us updated? This is our future they are holding in our hands! We have been spun around and around and now we are back, stuck on the appraisal again. We overcame the PMI hurdle, but now the bank is the one who doesn't like our appraisal! I am so tired of all of this and just want it to be over. At this point, we had better get this property, because I am not sure I can go through all of this again for another chunk of land!!!

Actually on our way...we hope!

So let me just say this. I officially hate banks, appraisal companies and insurance companies. We were supposed to have closed on this house 3 weeks ago, but we are still waiting. I erroneously thought the quicker we took care of our responsibilities with the home purchase, the quicker we would be able to close. This, if you haven't figured it out yet, is completely not the case. We had all of our inspections and paperwork filled out within the first week of this whole mortgage process. The appraisal alone took 8 weeks! It began with the appraiser who was contracted by the bank farming the appraisal out to another appraiser who failed to submit it when she was done. The bank failed to follow up, so after a slew of e-mails and phone calls from both us and our Realtor the bank finally received it and we were back to waiting. After a few days we hadn't heard anything so we were back to harassing the bank yet again. We then found out that the appraisal wasn't good enough and the bank had sent it back to be reworded and have more comps added. Finally a week later we were back in business. The appraisal came back and was forwarded to the PMI company. Our contact at the bank told us she would call us to set up the closing that afternoon, as soon as they heard back from the PMI company. Three days later we had still heard nothing. We were back to harassing the bank. We finally found out that we were turned down for PMI. It never even occurred to me, or the bank, that this would be an issue. I went onto the great land of the interwebs and found numerous forum and blog posts about people having similar issues. Ours was refused over lack of comprables, size of the acreage and the existence of a barn, among other things. So we began the process of trying to find a money tree or some other source of the remaining 15% of the now necessary 20% down payment. We were lucky in the fact my parent were able to help us out.

My main reason for posting all of this is my concern on how this type of problem is growing. If my parents hadn't have been able to help me, I wouldn't have been able to get my farm. Even if I had been able to scrape together that kind of money, I would have been out of funds and unable to actually start my farm until I was able to save the funds up again. Other people may not be as lucky as we were and a situation such as this will cause others to postpone, or worse, give up on their dream of self-sufficiency.

Updates to come when we ACTUALLY close!

We got it!!!!

So we put in an offer on the aforementioned "one" and they said yes! Me and the hubby couldn't believe it. It actually happened on Wednesday, but the appointment making and legal checks have taken up most of my time! The lawyer signed off on the purchase agreement, the inspectors will be in on Wednesday and soon, but not quite soon enough, it'll all be ours. (Unless there is an unforeseen catastrophe, that is.) I have been full gear ahead on figuring out floor-plan changes, picking tile and bath tubs! I will admit, when the hubby called me and told me they had accepted the bid, I cried (from happiness of course) and my head hasn't been on straight since! I am worried to jinx it all by making it facebook official, so we've kept it slightly low key. I never realized how long it takes to actually close on a house, or how much money it costs! Well wish me luck everyone, and I will keep you posted. Just glad to be one step closer to a farm!

A Second Look

So we went out to the previous mentioned property a second time, this time with my parents, and I thought I was in love with the place the first time we saw it. This time we spent a bit more time looking at the house, which could be in a TV special entitled "Paneling of the 70's." My mother, the remodel queen, was armed with a tape measure and graph paper. We followed her through the house, room by room until we came up with a master plan to make the house our home. Satisfied that the work was something we were up to, we continued out into the land. Last time we walked from the front of the property to the back. This time we walked approx 1/2 of the land, through the woods, over the creeks and back into old cow pasture. It felt like I had come home. Rather than the usual thrum of activity in my head of ideas on how to make the farm work, I simply felt at peace and, well, happy! The realtor is drawing up the paperwork right now for our bid. Our fingers are crossed! I really hope this is the one!

Farm Search

My husband and I have been looking for a farm for what seems like forever, but only seriously looking for about four months now, complete with a Realtor.  I thought now was a good time to start documenting the search, and hopefully the trials and errors of starting our very own farm.

Here is some of our back story...

I have always wanted a farm, and my DH has always wanted land. The reality of our situation was about 1/4 acre of shady clay and a house we had bought with the hope of flipping it. I will just say this, It is HARD to remodel a house when you and your significant other work 60 bizarre hours a week each.... and those hours don't match up with each other! Long story short, we are deep down country folks stuck in the dreaded Suburbia. 

As I have longed for the rural farm life and the release from the bonds of emergency services, I have made several "improvements" to the property. I planted a vegetable garden among the 4 shade trees that choke nearly every bit of sunshine from touching my hard, immovable clay. I finally decided on raised beds made from repurposed plastic decking from my mothers house. The garden actually performs surprisingly well. I obtained 6 cute little chicks, and a few weeks later traded 4 baby roosters for a 3rd baby hen. We have had the girls for 3 years now and they still lay great. I have gotten a rotary composter. It is too small, we have pet rabbits and the litter pans fill the composter far too fast. I look forward to the day when I can use up all those composter tutorials I have hoarded throughout the years and determine which is the very best before settling on a big pile I will move around with a tractor.  

So what, you may ask has sparked this sudden rush to the blog? I think we have found the one. Now anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes can tell you that this is not a new development. I am pretty sure I have thought I found "the one" nearly every time we have ventured out with the realtor, and even once before we had him at a house that wasn't on the market..... but I digress. I have found enough of "The One's" close enough together now that the end truly has to be near. Is 50 acres with a house and barn really too much for a girl to ask for? Well I hope not, this last one doesn't have power lines, random gullies, or tenants that refuse to be evicted, so we shall see. We have a list of questions to send and another bid to make, hopefully this time the owner says more than "no." I am beginning to think that counter offers are also too much for a girl to ask for. Stay tuned for further developments!