DIY Preparing for New Home

It is both an exciting and tiring time here at the Carter Homestead. We have signed on our new house. We are getting a very nice double wide that we were able to customize for us. It is scheduled to be set up this coming Wednesday.

 We are doing a lot of the work ourselves which is not only saving us a good bit of money, it is also providing a lot of teaching opportunities. I believe it should be every person's desire to teach someone else any and all skills they possess. I do not think this should be just between fathers and sons and mothers and daughters. Everyone should be willing to learn and teach.

I have come to the sad realization that have changed from the DIY culture to the DIFM (Do It For Me). I can understand doing a cost benefit analysis and determining that a person's time would be better spent making an income than doing a project. In these circumstances I can understand a person paying someone else to do a project, but I have seen adults pay other people to assemble a lamp. A LAMP! This is not the first time I have lamented people's unwillingness to learn.(Please see Really You Must Be Kidding. )

Pictured above is my youngest son Chance operating a stump grinder one of the things that was needed to prep the cite for our new home. I am proud that he is always willing to jump into anything I am working on. He has skills at 17 that many people twice his age have never tried. He makes me proud.

There will be many more experiences over the next couple of weeks as we move into our new home. I promise before and after photos when it is all said and done. Like the Rural Economist on Facebook for more photos.

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Homestead Update

Things have been crazy around here lately. Work has been extremely busy and around the homestead as well. For those of you who have been reading these posts for a while know we have been trying to buy a new homestead to no avail. With our large family and the age of our home we needed another place. We currently live in a 2 bedroom house that was poorly constructed.

After hours of talking between my wife and myself ,we decided to purchase a double wide mobile home and put it on our land. We will be closing this week. So along with the normal things that are going on we have to prepare for the installation.

In the next couple of weeks I will be renting a stump grinder and a small backhoe. I have three stumps to grind, a power pole and meter box to put in, cable lines to run under the new house, as well as run water and sewer. All of this on top of the normal duties of the homestead.

The garden is going well. Harvesting zucchini and squash every other day. Collecting eggs daily. The peppers are just now starting to mature.

I think I have mentioned this before, but my wife has agreed to let me get rid of most of the lawn and go into full food and herb production mode. This means over the next couple of years this place is really going to look different. I am looking forward to the transformation.

As this transformation occurs I will be writing about our adventures as well as our misadventures. There will be tons of pictures that will be posted on The Rural Economist Facebook page. Come join in the conversation. Sorry so short this week, but I promise there is more to come.

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An Ode to Dreams, Paperwork, and a Fannie Mae Foreclosure

If there were modern day minstrels traveling the landscape singing songs of the average man's struggles for a better life, I am sure this would be in his line up. If I had time I would make it rhyme just for dramatic effect.

Here is the back story. My wife and I live on a half acre in a house that could be called a fixer upper, but honestly we would have to tear it down and rebuild just to make it big enough for our family.

There are lots of bad memories here for my wife. We need a place of our own and I need more room.
I owned my own business prior to the April 27th 2011 tornadoes. Funny thing about insurance, you don't realize you don't have enough until it is too late. Most of the bills were paid off, but not all. Bills and no income mean credit problems.

I am thankful for what we have, but we really need a little more. I had always drempt of 10 to 20 acres.  But my loving wife pointed out that we could not truly work that much land. Any more land than 5 acres would either be wooded or pasture. Nothing wrong with that, but that would not be full utilization. I love you honey.

We have tried all of the normal ways to obtain a better place with no success. We have been turned down for every loan. We were about to give up when we found a house that might be owner finance. My wife fell in love with the place. It had enough land but the land was grown up in privet and honey suckle. We walked around it, prayed about it, and talked to the realtor.

The people who owned the house had plenty of money and did not want to owner finance. During this time a family member who knew what was going on offered us a sizable loan (you know who you are and thank you from the bottom of my heart).

Well, no go on this house. A little bummed. We thought this was our last option. That night I did a search on the Internet for properties and one showed up that with the family loan we could pay cash for, hoorhaaa. We talked to the agent and walked the house. We are ready to buy. Guess what? This house is owned by Fannie Mae a governmental corporation.

I did a little research and decided to make an offer. We made an appointment with the agent to make an offer. Our nerves were out of control. We did find out that someone had already made an offer. We honestly thought we were out of luck. We decided we would make an offer anyway.

The night before we made the offer I drempt I was fighting a dragon made of paperwork. I had no idea how right that dream was. We had to fill out 20 pages of paperwork just to make an offer. As soon as we submitted Fannie Mae sent back that multiple offers had been received. We had to make our best offer, which we did. We made this offer on Thursday. Fannie May said they would close the property for offers at 11:39 am on Friday.

The offers are now closed and we have to wait to see if we are the ones who get the place. All of us want this to be our new homestead. If you are a praying person we would appreciate your prayers. If you are not a praying person we would appreciate you positive energy. In this way you can help us to...

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