The past week has been a rough one. Hitting week four of living in my trailer during the week takes a toll. I miss my kids. I miss walking with my dog each night. I miss easy conversations with my husband at night. It’s a little lonely, and Sunday nights to come back are wrenching. I’m trying to focus on the short term pain for longer term gain.With life, we take the good with the bad, right?

The good was we conditionally sold our house after one showing. That’s right, one. (Not only is my husband an amazing carpenter, he’s also a kick butt tour guide too).

This was great news, and it allowed us to solidify a lot of tentative ground with moving forward in finding a new property. Finding a new property has been a search in a half.

At present, I have seen literally any country acreage listed near us that meets our criteria. I’ve driven a lot. I’ve found my way around. I’ve stood on properties that are so quiet all you can hear is the birds singing in the trees.

Our family wants that so badly. The peace. The present, the togetherness, and the elbow grease.

Wait, what?

Every single house within our budget needs work. And by work, I don’t mean a little buff and polish. Or just a can of paint. I mean, WORK. The houses have quirks: old furnaces, poor insulation, and  patchwork repairs. The old country adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies to EVERY single ONE. 

(Honestly I’m not much a princess, but I do want the roof over my head not to leak.)

We offered on one house. House might be a over enthusiastic characterization of it. The basement leaked, the fireplace looked dodgy and the rooms although large had seen better days. The land was glorious. Trails were cut into the bush, and we could see the glory of it. We could see how it could be. The amount of work made me very very nervous. Mr. Carpenter could see the vision. I trust his more than my own. The owner didn’t like our offer based on the many repairs. We walked.

We got a little emotional at this point. A little despondent. Should we give up the dream and look in town? Would we live in our trailer so long that we would actually need a rental house this winter? Was the right farm out there for us?

All through it, I kept checking on one listing. 

This one house in particular whispers a little to me every time I’m there. I can see my family there. It doesn’t look exactly the same as it does now in my vision. So after we sorted all of the good with the bad away, you can imagine my hopelessness when another family put an offer in on it as we struggled to make this dream a reality.

I held out hope because there was not a sale sign. I held out hope even when all conditions but one were met. I’m not honestly sure why. Watching my kids runs around the property, my dog break into a run in the pasture to greet the friendly horse next door, and the huge garden out back might have something to do with it. Or maybe there’s a little bit of juju left in this house and big red barn that are pulling me in.

You can imagine my surprise and absolute delight when last night it popped up with a little BOM (Back on the Market) flag. Well, hello, little friend. After our fourth (yes, fourth) visit, we promptly placed an offer.

Now we sit in suspense to see if this dream is really meant to be, or if we are going back to the drawing board once again.