A cow and a fire marshal were our introductions to the neighbors. Imagine driving up to your driveway and finding it blocked by a large cow that seemed to have no intention of moving...
When it became clear that the county inspector wanted us to find and dig some very specific access points for the septic system, Miles and I put on our work boots and headed out to the farm. Upon cresting the hill of the driveway there appeared a large blond bull. Standing in the middle of the driveway. Chewing. Luckily the "landscaping" currently consists of lots of open field, so Miles was able to drive around said cow and get down to business.
About an hour later we heard people in the lower field yelling "COW"! Cleary they are not the naming of farm animals type. Up came our neighbors to the north. They seemed nice enough and we enjoyed watching them attempt to get Cow to move with yelling, sticks, and anything else they could think of. All the while the wife is reminding the husband that she hates cows and he is trying to convince us to keep the grazing agreement that he had with the previous owner. Needless to say we left that arrangement up for debate. After about 45 minutes we had to leave and Cow seemed to have no intention of ever leaving.
A couple of months ago the friendly fire marshall took a look at our driveway. (Long insurance back story, which is boring) Fire marshal let us know that our mile and a half, gravel driveway, with 6 switch backs did not in fact meet current fire code and would have to be upgraded in order for fire trucks to get to the house in case of an emergency. Having 3 small children, hoping to open a small guest house and the fact that there are NO fire hydrants within a 10 miles radius, that seemed reasonable.
We began to get quotes. The first one was low because he had no idea of the current requirements. The second guy refused to give a quote because he won't work with said fire marshal. The third guy said it would be up to 200k. That's right. This seemed like it was shaping up to be a deal breaker.
I decided to work my magic with this guy. (Anyone who knows me understands that this consists solely of hoping for the best.) I met with the fire marshal, helped him understand what was happening on our end and came to an agreement that the neighbors driveway was much closer to code and that if we could strike an arrangement with them to use theres in an emergency then we would be clear to occupy the house. Oh, thats right. Unless we addressed this access issue he would not sign off on the occupancy of the house. Ever. Which means that at the end of construction we would owe the back hundreds of thousands of dollars for a house that we could not live in.
Thats how to got to meet the neighbors to the south. I walked up, introduced myself and said "Hey, do you mind if fire trucks come lumbering up your drive if our house is engulfed in flames?" To which they replied "Only if you pay to have it brought up to code (30k roughly) and never, ever use it for anything else."
Thats the nitty gritty. Really they are a lovely older couple who have been in the area for years. She is the retired McMinville librarian and he is a retired art professor from Pacific University. He was in a Night Before Christmas dressing gown complete with long grey hair, although no stocking cap unfortunately. Their home is filled with paintings and multimedia art work that is pretty amazing and I am looking forward to the day that we have enough money to commission one of his works. Also I bet she hosts a killer book club.
So driveway issues resolved (also adding a sprinkler system to the house and driveway sort of...) and the cow issue still lingering, along with all of the cow pies that are alarmingly near the front door.
Friday, March 18, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
A Little Back Ground
So apparently the process to buy 20 acres in wine country is full of hurdles and set backs. Late in the process I finally found the word that I needed; TENACITY. Patience would have been a good one as well, but that has never been a strength of mine.
Miles and first looked at the property in October, made an offer in November and had an accepted offer in December. Easy enough, right?
Then came the inspections. A general house inspection, well, septic, chimney, radon test, and of course the random county septic inspection that almost ended the entire project. So about 1k later, we knew that the house was not falling down and we could flush the toilets! After inspections came the appraisal from our bank. That took another 3 weeks and luckily came back favorable for us. Then it was time to deal with the county planning department.
After taking a year and a half of interior design classes at PCC, creating lots of project boards and countless Auto Cad drafts, I was super excited to be the designer for the project. Spending time drafting, moving walls and finally creating my much coveted mud room, the plans were ready to send off to the county. Due to the existing architecture of the house, there are only a handful of internal load barring walls. Which means that we are able to have a very open floor plan and we don't have a need for a structural engineer.
Everything was submitted after a few drafts and me learning some much needed architectural standard language and notations in construction documents. At this point we had to push out closing a couple of weeks to allow the county time to review the plans. No problems and everything was ticking along.
Then a week before closing the county asked us where the septic inspection documentation was. We passed on the report, no problem. The planning office informed us that in fact we had to pay the county inspector ($554) to certify it, which takes a few weeks. WHAT?!!! Sam, our general contractor, and I paid a visit to the county planning office to grease the wheels with anything necessary. The lovely part of moving to a rural county is 1) County officials are actually helpful 2) There is literally one person who does this job and she actually had an open schedule 3) There is a willingness to bend the rules a bit if you are nice. I was accused at one point of trying to bribe a county official (with beer) but I'm fairly certain that if this is the worst accusation in my life, I'll be doing alright.
That week found Miles and I digging, a bit aimlessly, in a large field for pieces to the septic system. I will skip the gory details but I can say that I now know way more then I ever wanted to about the intricate workings of on site waste management systems. But we passed the inspection, the report was expedited and we were good! Permits were picked up and paid for, we were officially started!
Oh, wait. Then there was the issue of the fire marshall...
Miles and first looked at the property in October, made an offer in November and had an accepted offer in December. Easy enough, right?
Then came the inspections. A general house inspection, well, septic, chimney, radon test, and of course the random county septic inspection that almost ended the entire project. So about 1k later, we knew that the house was not falling down and we could flush the toilets! After inspections came the appraisal from our bank. That took another 3 weeks and luckily came back favorable for us. Then it was time to deal with the county planning department.
After taking a year and a half of interior design classes at PCC, creating lots of project boards and countless Auto Cad drafts, I was super excited to be the designer for the project. Spending time drafting, moving walls and finally creating my much coveted mud room, the plans were ready to send off to the county. Due to the existing architecture of the house, there are only a handful of internal load barring walls. Which means that we are able to have a very open floor plan and we don't have a need for a structural engineer.
Everything was submitted after a few drafts and me learning some much needed architectural standard language and notations in construction documents. At this point we had to push out closing a couple of weeks to allow the county time to review the plans. No problems and everything was ticking along.
Then a week before closing the county asked us where the septic inspection documentation was. We passed on the report, no problem. The planning office informed us that in fact we had to pay the county inspector ($554) to certify it, which takes a few weeks. WHAT?!!! Sam, our general contractor, and I paid a visit to the county planning office to grease the wheels with anything necessary. The lovely part of moving to a rural county is 1) County officials are actually helpful 2) There is literally one person who does this job and she actually had an open schedule 3) There is a willingness to bend the rules a bit if you are nice. I was accused at one point of trying to bribe a county official (with beer) but I'm fairly certain that if this is the worst accusation in my life, I'll be doing alright.
That week found Miles and I digging, a bit aimlessly, in a large field for pieces to the septic system. I will skip the gory details but I can say that I now know way more then I ever wanted to about the intricate workings of on site waste management systems. But we passed the inspection, the report was expedited and we were good! Permits were picked up and paid for, we were officially started!
Oh, wait. Then there was the issue of the fire marshall...
Thursday, March 10, 2016
We've Done It This Time!
We are now the proud owners of our very own farm. That's right, we are taking the girl out of the city and joining the ranks of those in the know and fleeing to the country. This has been such a long process that I guess I will just start from the beginning.
When Miles and I moved from SE to SW a couple of years ago we left behind a couple of lovely neighbors. They happened to be moving at the same time as us but to Sauvie Island, this idilic agricultural island 30 minutes outside of Portland. They were realizing a dream to start their own CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and live a beautiful life. Miles and I couldn't make that big of a leap so we settled on suburban SW Portland and all that it has to offer.
Over the last couple of years we have watched them struggle now and again with various farm life issues, but through it all they have been incredibly happy with their choice to leave the city behind. Two kids later and they are going strong in their pursuit of the beautiful life. While they now only offer us cheap red wine when we visit, it is always inspiring to take a drive out to their croft.
Fast forward to about a year ago, when I started looking at acreage on Zillow. Now I am always on Zillow just checking to see what is out there for fun, so Miles was not to concerned. But when I started to find amazing land for sale and wanted to take a drive, he began to worry a little bit. Over a 6 month period we looked at various pieces of land but nothing that really felt amazing or worth uprooting our entire lives to make it happen.
We also quickly realized how expensive it is to turn that amazing 7,000 sqft barn into a lovely home! Then late last fall we decided to start looking at land with existing homes that we could remodel. We chose a home to see that really just wasn't anything special, but happened to have a total dump for sale across the road. While we were already there we figured why not check it out?!
Well needless to say we were impressed. The view is what sold us. 180 degree views of vineyards, the coast range and forests all at the end of a barley passable (more on that later) half a mile long drive way! Oh, and of course the house...a "Northwest Contemporary" built in 1981 and not touched since. The day we looked at it the roof was leaking, there were a concerning about of dead flies everywhere and of course had the funky smell of old house, cat pee and something wet. We were sold.
But the seller was asking a lot and we just weren't totally sure. So we went on our 10th anniversary trip to Mexico and talked a lot about it. When we returned we set our agent on it with the goal of getting at least 175k off. After some negotiating we were able to get 150k off asking and we said yes! That was on my birthday December 2nd, so happy birthday to me!
Needless to say that we the start of months of learning all about county planning, meeting the fire marshal and of course many inspections. But we were rolling!
http://www.zillow.com/homes/20100-ne-kings-grade-newberg,-or_rb/
When Miles and I moved from SE to SW a couple of years ago we left behind a couple of lovely neighbors. They happened to be moving at the same time as us but to Sauvie Island, this idilic agricultural island 30 minutes outside of Portland. They were realizing a dream to start their own CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and live a beautiful life. Miles and I couldn't make that big of a leap so we settled on suburban SW Portland and all that it has to offer.
Over the last couple of years we have watched them struggle now and again with various farm life issues, but through it all they have been incredibly happy with their choice to leave the city behind. Two kids later and they are going strong in their pursuit of the beautiful life. While they now only offer us cheap red wine when we visit, it is always inspiring to take a drive out to their croft.
Fast forward to about a year ago, when I started looking at acreage on Zillow. Now I am always on Zillow just checking to see what is out there for fun, so Miles was not to concerned. But when I started to find amazing land for sale and wanted to take a drive, he began to worry a little bit. Over a 6 month period we looked at various pieces of land but nothing that really felt amazing or worth uprooting our entire lives to make it happen.
We also quickly realized how expensive it is to turn that amazing 7,000 sqft barn into a lovely home! Then late last fall we decided to start looking at land with existing homes that we could remodel. We chose a home to see that really just wasn't anything special, but happened to have a total dump for sale across the road. While we were already there we figured why not check it out?!
Well needless to say we were impressed. The view is what sold us. 180 degree views of vineyards, the coast range and forests all at the end of a barley passable (more on that later) half a mile long drive way! Oh, and of course the house...a "Northwest Contemporary" built in 1981 and not touched since. The day we looked at it the roof was leaking, there were a concerning about of dead flies everywhere and of course had the funky smell of old house, cat pee and something wet. We were sold.
But the seller was asking a lot and we just weren't totally sure. So we went on our 10th anniversary trip to Mexico and talked a lot about it. When we returned we set our agent on it with the goal of getting at least 175k off. After some negotiating we were able to get 150k off asking and we said yes! That was on my birthday December 2nd, so happy birthday to me!
Needless to say that we the start of months of learning all about county planning, meeting the fire marshal and of course many inspections. But we were rolling!
http://www.zillow.com/homes/20100-ne-kings-grade-newberg,-or_rb/
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