Land Purchased

We did it!  After years of searching, we finally bought a piece of land.  Over time our needs have changed, but a few key requirements remained the same: it had to be private, quiet, and on a lake.

The other thing that changed was our reasons for wanting land.  At first it was purely recreation - to have a weekend getaway.  But now we see it as an experiment in self-sustainability.  For now we will continue to work in the city while spending weekends and summers here, working on the land.  But in time we hope to learn exactly what we truly need, and how much we can live without.

We always intended to buy raw land, and spend the first few years camping while clearing trees, digging a well, making a driveway.  It didn't take us long to realize that lakefront land was expensive, and without a structure we would not qualify for a mortgage.  So we changed our tack and started looking for cabins or cottages that could be mortgaged, and therefore were more affordable even if the pricetag was higher.

We found this gem while surfing the net over Christmas. On the one hand:  Bank repo.  Leaky roof.  Mystery room boarded up at the back.  Arsenic in the well.  On the other hand:  Acres of mature forest.  Large, deep, sparsely populated lake.  Driveway.  Well.  Septic. Power.  In the end the benefits outweighed the drawbacks and we closed the deal.

For us, the value is in the land.  As for what to do with this decrepit house, that will require some exploration.