Look What Happened

SPRING ARRIVED!

Yellow daffodils, blue sky, green grass.

Violets!

Whimsical avian architecture

AT LAST!

D :)

No Winners Found

Our trip to the Mount Pleasant area scouting properties over Easter ended without finding a winner.  I feel like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  This property is too far from a town, this property doesn't have a decent house, this is okay, but the house is so close to the road.  The list of negatives outweighs the positives.  When the positives outweigh the negatives, then we may have a winner.

We ended up driving by 10 properties.  Even though we found no winners, we learned about the surrounding areas and how we felt about them.  It helped narrow down the potential regions in our lovely Michigan mitten.

50 acres outside of Clio

This Clio property had a great older barn, 50 acres and was close to Frankenmuth.  I didn't think I would like the area east of I-75 but I was won over by it. We will continue to look for property in the area.  Unfortunately this property was overpriced and the house was close to the road.

145 acres close to Vassar

 What we would do with 145 acres to pay taxes on, I don't know (why we bothered to drive by it, I don't know)?  There was a house that needed to be torn down, plus this cool old abandoned house and shed which would be fun to recycle some of the materials from.  The price combined with the tear down put it way out of our price range.

40 acres outside of Clare

 I fell in love with this cool 1950ish retro style ranch on 40 acres.  It appeared to have remained in a time warp and looked original, including furniture and built ins.  The interior designer in me was going gaga.  I wanted to restore it and had a hard time keeping my mind from dwelling on the delicious possibilities.  

Front yard of Clare retro house.

 It had this wonderful stream running through the front yard and a pond.  I was so in love.  The cost to renovate, starting with a new roof and windows, was daunting.  It would have been a great property to retire too, but maybe not ideally suited to a farm.  There were no outbuildings or fencing and it had a lot of wooded areas.   I called a local realtor when we got home to find it already had one offer and another waiting in the wings.  Not meant for us.

40 acres outside of Vestaburg

 This property seemed promising with a newer home and plenty of outbuildings.  It is on a paved road, not far from Vestaburg, where the paved Heartland Meijer rail trail passes through.  Always a plus in our book for biking and walking.  The paved road, however, was busy, and definitely not something we are keen on.

120 acres outside of Ashley

 This old farm didn't speak to me at all.  It was overpriced, needed a ton of work, and was far from any town of any size. There is a river, just at the bottom of the ravine in front of the house.  Sorry, not my cup of tea.

41 acres outside of Fenwick

This property had a great house, with rolling acreage and a small stream.  It is about 20 minutes from Greenville, another town we discovered we liked.  It would be perfect if it wasn't practically sitting on top of the road.  We are perplexed why homeowners build so close to the road.  There is road noise, danger to kids and pets, dust and lack of privacy.  I understand when it is an older farm house, but newer construction?  Someone explain the logic to me, cause I don't get it.

I obviously didn't show every property we drove by.  Some aren't even worth mentioning.  So the search continues.  When the time and place are right it will happen.  I have faith.

D :)