Buying our first home was exciting. We had just gotten married and, while we couldn’t afford much, I loved our first home. It was a cute bungalow with a lot of charm. However, we had a baby while living in that tiny, barely 1000 square foot home, and baby stuff was large. We quickly outgrew our home. Our second home was only supposed to be something we lived in for five years. We knew we wanted to move back to where we both grew up so our kids could go to the same schools we went to. However, that five year plan imploded, much like the housing market in 2008. So we stayed in our home, for twenty one years. Now that our youngest is embarking on her senior year of high school, her dad and I are embarking on a journey of our own…finding our dream land.

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The Search for the Perfect Piece of Land

After spending the last twenty one years in an area where there is a lot of traffic and homes popping up left and right, we knew that we wanted a much quieter pace of life, where neighbors weren’t on top of one another. My husband wanted land and was only really looking for acreage to build on. I, on the other hand, was determined to find a “used” home, confident that it would be less expensive and that we could find what we wanted for our dream home. Spoiler alert, I couldn’t. So, I joined forces with my husband to search for the perfect plot of land. Emphasis on perfect. For me, that included a lot with barely any trees, city water, and city sewer. Basically a unicorn property.

Before anyone comes at me, I don’t hate trees. I just do not want them surrounding my property and being super close to my house. Some cities (like the township I live in) have rules about removing trees. I was afraid that if we looked at a heavily wooded lot, I would not be able to remove enough trees and I would not enjoy sitting outside on my patio with trees hanging over where I am sitting. Plus the bugs. I hate bugs. Not to mention, we looked at getting one tree removed in our yard and the quote was $3000. I can’t imagine how much it would cost to remove stuff from some of the heavily wooded lots my husband liked!

Pro Tip: if you are looking at vacant land, get yourself a good pair of muck boots for when you walk the property. Trust me, just do it and leave them in the car so you always have them. 

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Dream Land Equals Many Stipulations

Thank goodness my husband loves me because not only did I not want a lot of trees on the property, I also wanted to make sure that my “stuff” was close by. I wanted the benefit of country life with the quieter pace of life, but also have the comforts of a busy city. The grocery store needed to be close by. I also didn’t want to have to drive far to get my groceries. Not only that, but I also needed to be in close proximity to a Sam’s Club and a Costco. A Planet Fitness near by was also a must. Whenever we drove up to a vacant lot to look at, I used my maps app to see how close my stuff was to me. Some nice lots were eliminated, mainly because the grocery store was too far away.

The day came and we found THE LOT! It was just over eleven acres, larger that we had initially planned to buy, but we didn’t care because it was beautiful. It had the perfect landscape for a walk-out basement, it was on a quiet road that hardly had any cars, and the neighbor behind the lot had goats and chickens. I really could picture our house on that hill. Before we knew it, we put an offer in, with a contingency that we got a few weeks to check that we could put a well and septic on the land. Within a few days we quickly found out that a county drain ran directly through the center of the property and we would not be able to build on it. Our dream home that I could picture so well, disappeared.

Finding that Dream Land for Our Dream Home

I was feeling rather discouraged after that property fell through. My husband, once again, told me that I may need to consider looking at some of the heavily wooded lots. I ignored him and told him I accepted his challenge of finding what I considered to be that unicorn property. Three days later, as I was looking on Zillow for the fifth time that morning, a property popped up. It was 7.89 acres, city water, city sewer, off a paved road, Sam’s Club and Costco were close by, and Planet Fitness was close by. I immediately sent it to my husband, we drove by it and instantly fell in love with it!

We put in an offer that night and within a few days we found out that the property was ours! I have driven by it every single week since we purchased it. I love to sit and just stare at it. While that other property seemed perfect, and a very tiny part of me is sad that we weren’t able to have it, but this land is so much better! Plus, city water and city sewer! I think, if he is being honest, my husband is pretty impressed that I found our dream land. I said I would find us the perfect property and I did!

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