The Old Farmhouse Of Our Dreams?

Dateline: 13 November 2013

(click pictures to see enlarged views)

The picture above shows the view down our road from the front yard of our house. There is woodland all the way down the road on the left side and we purchased that land a couple years ago. In the distance there is a two-story grey house. The house sets on 2 acres of land. It is an old farm house. We have always liked the place. 

The house has been abandoned for several years. Maybe four years ago the roof fell in with a heavy wet snow. It fell in because the person who owned it had removed all the collar ties from the roof rafters. There was no roof on the place for a couple years. Then a roof was framed up and sheathed but never finished. Then the man who owned the place died.

I wrote a letter to the estate and expressed an interest in purchasing the property. That was around two years ago. I never heard back. Then, last Friday I was driving by the place and there was a "For Sale By Owner" sign in the front yard.

I called right up. The man who owned it left the property to his son. The son is selling it. I asked how much he wanted for it, and he told me. I asked if I could go look at the place and he gave me permission. So Marlene and I went down and looked it over.

The place is a real dump, outside and in.

A first floor view

Most of the interior wall and ceiling surfaces have been gutted. The windows are all broken or in disrepair. None of the doors are any good. A section of main beam in the basement has broken, and the floors above have dropped down. 

A second floor view

It had been raining the day we went to look at the place and the roof, without shingles and with much of the tar-paper blown off, is leaking all over. 

In other words, the place is a disaster. Most people would look at the old house and see it as a structure that has to be torn down. That might end up being the case, but there is one aspect of this building that makes me think it can be saved.

The main house is a post and beam structure. The beams are hand-hewn and big. Most of them are still sound. The "lines" of the house are straight. The walls do not bow out or in, and the perimeter foundation beams look to be sound.

If the main frame of the place is still in good shape, and the foundation is still (mostly) good, the house can be saved. That's the way it looks to me.

I called my attorney and have an appointment to see him tomorrow. I called the owner back and offered him a price. He said okay and asked me to take the sign down. He said three other people had called about the place. The sign hadn't even been up a whole day.

We will see what happens. I have the savings to buy the old place, and probably enough to get a good roof on it. But not to do anything else. So this will be a long-term, one-step-at-a-time project.

The first step is to get it bought.

My wife has always wanted an old farmhouse……

This view, taken from in front of the garage, looks up towards our home (where the first picture above was taken)