As I sit here with our newborn nuzzled into my breast, watching my husband on the tractor mow, and our two older kids pretending that we already live in our partially built brand new house. I gaze to the sunset on the horizon surrounded by soy and cornfields. This is it. In this exact moment, this is it. Everything I’ve ever long for, searched for, begged for. Home. My heart, my soul, my entire being is at home. What more could anyone want?! What more could they need?! In this moment, is how I know with all my heart, THIS is where we are meant to be.

This entire process of finding the perfect place to start our homesteading journey was driven by anxiety. The constant search for that one piece of land. Checking realtor sites daily, hourly even. Driving around the area we were interested in, asking friends and family. Full blown anxiety. But then, let me tell you about this diamond in the rough. 

On one of my days frantically checking sites (because obviously I need to find the perfect place right NOW) I find this listing that was posted 4 hours ago. I call up the listing realtor and set up a showing, the next day. This listing was for a 4-bedroom house on 44 acres, with a barn, ponds and a creek running right through. This was the house, I was certain, it checked every box we had. So, the next day I meet the realtor at the property. As I drive down the road in front of the house, I could barely see the front porch over the height of the weeds. Pulling into the driveway, oh boy, there is garbage EVERYWHERE! Piles of it! I park, get out of the car and I guess my face said a lot more than I thought because the realtor just looks at me and goes “yeeaaaa.”  It’s okay though, nothing at little TLC can’t fix. We proceed to the side door, oh wait, there is no door. NO DOOR! Okay, no biggie, we can get a new door. I walk into the house and just stand there is disbelief, the entire house is demolished. Half the flooring peeling up (the other half is gone) cupboards falling off the wall, large holes in walls and ceilings.  I thought all the garbage was outside, nope, it was also full to the brim inside!  That’s alright, we can remodel the inside, it’s got good bones. 

After seeing the house, we then head over to the barn. Big, old, beautiful, barn. It had 5 stalls, plus a finished pasture. Along with chicken coops, a tack room, and GARBAGE. Oh, but it was beautiful. We walked around the property and saw to two ponds on both sides of the creek. Walked the pasture and vast open fields. The property was but up against fields on three sides and a dirt road across the front. The closest neighbor was a corn field away and it was heaven. So, here’s the catch, theirs were 7 other parties looking at this property. 4 had already seen it and 3 to come after me. In the current market of 2020 Real estate was going FAST! So, I needed to talk to my lender asap. My Lender, by the grace of God, is my mother. Who without her, none of this would be possible. Thankfully She agreed that we should go for this property. She was in town for the next few days, we decided to go check it out again. This was 3 days after my showing, we didn’t have an appointment since we just planned on driving by. 

As we came down the road, we saw a moving truck in the driveway, thinking it was the owner, we pulled over. We got and walked across the street hoping we could get an inside scoop. Little to our knowledge, it was the new owners starting to work on the house. My heart sank. I was crushed, defeated. I gave up. Well, I wanted to give up. My amazing mom could see me become depleted and she said to me “if it’s meant to be, it will be”. Back to the listings I searched and showings to check them out. Months dragged on as I checked out houses and properties that were nowhere near what we were looking for. Until I came across that same listing, I immediately called my mom, and told her the listing was back up. It couldn’t be possible, but it was posted the day before. I drove right out there. Sure, enough there was a for sale sign in the front yard, but this time, there was no house. The house was gone. Burnt to the ground, all that was left, was the foundation. It was also posted for half the price it was before. I sent pictures to my mom and in a bold text said, “it’s meant to be!”.  That’s when the process began to make this our forever homestead. 

Within the first week we were out at the property cleaning up garbage. My husband and 2 children did as much of the heavy lifting as they could, because I was 5 months pregnant with our 3rd. No matter how much I protested to help move things I was outnumbered and was made to sort the various objects brought to me. Between useful, scrap and garbage, most of it was garbage. Though we did scavenge quite a bit of useful things. An old push behind field plow, tools, rubber livestock bowls, shovels, rakes and more.  By the end of the first day, we barely made a dent. The following day was a Saturday, and we were able to find some helping hands. A couple of my husband’s friends came to help clean up the bigger things that couldn’t be lifted with the kids help. That day I had a bit more to do. sort, cook the food on our tiny charcoal grill, and make sure the guys had plenty to “drink”. Even though I wanting to help I was still heavily outnumbered. So, I started lightly working on cleaning out the barn stalls. It was October after all Ave I needed to do something to keep myself warm. 

Cleaning up the garbage took months’ worth of weekends to get done, but we were also on to our next step. The house. Since the previous house burnt down to nothing, there wasn’t a house on the property for us to live in. From our October till about February, I spent hours online looking up different types of building, different companies, different floor plans. I emailed company after company, but at that time in early 2021 no one was answering back. Until one day I got ahold of a company that does modular homes. (it’s a full house, just built in pieces inside and then put together in the field in the foundation) I thought this was a perfect idea, especially being built, insulated and dry walled in a climate-controlled area. The weather can be a bit unpredictable in the northwestern portion of Pennsylvania. The best part though was that I could create my own personalized floor plan. So made my dream house, 4 bedrooms with 3 in the kids wing on the other side of the house from the master, 2 bathrooms, a large pantry that can fit everything I ever dreamed, a large bay window overlooking the front of the house and barn, and tons of windows to make sure we could always see our beautiful surroundings. 

The process started with then in April when we signed our contract, I then picked out all the colors and finishes, I bought light fixtures and decorations for the kid’s rooms. I wanted everything to be new and prefect. I say I wanted it that way for my kids, after everything they have been through in their short little lives, but I think the truth is, I wanted it for myself. A new, perfect, fresh start at a wonderful new life. To be everything I ever dreamed, ever imagined. I may have taken it a bit overboard to some but to me it was exactly what was needed to release some of the stress and anxiety that was constantly building up. Our set to move in time was end of August. That was 4-5 months! I didn’t have nearly enough time, so I had to get it all then. Now some problems arise, it’s May, and they are digging the foundation out. Until they hit water. The foundation was supposed to be 8ft deep but the ran into water when they had about a foot to go. So not only we’re the at 7ft deep they also had to raise it up a foot so that our basement wasn’t under water. Which takes us to 6ft deep. With that being said, there was originally about 1.5 ft of the basement above ground for windows. 

That makes the total basement about 9 to 10ft high. (You must also take in account for drainage system under the foundation. Different layers of foundation floor like sand, rock, concrete.) but now 3-4ft stick out of the ground! Our house is going to look like it’s on stilts! It’s alright though, nothing some dirt can’t fix, and we have plenty of places to take it from.

Its July now! Our pieces of the house are being transported to the newly finished foundation! It doesn’t feel real as I watch the big MAC trucks hauling the pieces down the road toward my slice of heaven. It’s a high feeling honestly, like nothing could get any better. Although it could get much worse.  After the pieces with dropped off I walked around to each one and peeked into all the windows. I was ecstatic! Every room was perfect, until I investigated my daughter’s room. To ceiling was falling in, along with insulation. There was mold all over the walls and ceiling. And the floorboards were soaked. This was now a nightmare. How could it have gotten water damage! Apparently, someone at the warehouse didn’t wrap it enough. Then when it was sitting outside waiting to get dropped off there was a gigantic rainstorm and all that water seeped into the roof of that part of the house.  It was destroyed. I immediately called the company office on my way home and told them about the situation.  They assured me that everything was going to be taken care of. After I hung up from the call I started crying. I cried for a good 20 minutes. It was like being hit by a brick wall.  In the following many weeks then rip everything out of that room down to its bare studs. They clean everything with chemicals and have inspectors come in and then pull studs and replace them. August came and went, along with September, October, and November. 

It is now December and they have finally gotten the bedroom put back together.  New insulation, drywall, electrical, along with other mold spots found throughout the house. They also got the plumbing, well, electric, and propane done, but the rest was at a standstill. We are currently in the middle of January 2022 and the flooring just started today. Our new projected move in date is the middle of February though I am not going to hold my breath. There is still so much that needs to get done.