Sweet Home - Day 2
We woke up the next morning and opened our curtains to see the sun rising over the mountain.
After a lovely breakfast at the hotel, we set out to meet our realtors at 9:30. (We mostly work with Connie, but her husband Jerry comes along to help with the house showings.) Of course they were running late, which I'm finding is common with the south. :-/ We are early people, so we waited quite a while for them to be late.
We met at a boat store, which was the only thing around, and left our car there. We were mesmerized by the gorgeous mountains all around the road from the hotel to the boat store. The trees are just starting to turn down there and it's just so breathtaking. We are VERY MUCH mountain and lake people. We aren't really beach people. Again, the roads were straight, there were very few cars, and the speed limit is high. Super easy to get around and stress free. (Michael used to get tension headaches commuting from DC every day - and driving in traffic bothers him less than anyone I know!)
We got into Jerry's truck because we heard several of the properties we want to see require a truck to get there. Hmmm, my flip flops may not have been a good choice.
As he pulls onto the road, we see our first glimpse of THE LAKE. Oh. my. It is so beautiful. A large blue lake with mountains surrounding it is breath taking. I am reeling at the fact that they live near this lake and travel these amazing bridges and causeways all the time and it's old hat to them. Crazy!
We actually went to a house first. We are mostly looking for property to build our dream house on, but we are open to a house that we can renovate. This house is near the lake, on 17 wooded acres, and already done. It has the ultimate boat garage for Michael, and the house is really close to what we want. And it's crazy cheap. The wooded acres are gorgeous, the yard is wonderful, and he has fun targets set up so he can practice shooting for hunting. Wow, shooting on your own property - what a foreign concept to this city girl. There is a fire pit, a closed in porch with heat and a/c, a homeschool room, an office for Michael, the works. The front porch is giant, has a swing, and rocking chairs. The garage attached to the house is 3 car and giant - tall enough for Michael's F150. This is really wonderful. Renovations would be minimal and how nice that it's already there and built! The only issue - it doesn't have a lake view that Michael wants. The realtors say we can cut down a bunch of trees in the front of the house (which is on a tall hill), and we could get a view. We will keep that in mind!
Next we went to raw property on 9 acres. It's a good thing we had the truck! First you drive through a fancy neighborhood with million dollar mansions, which is called "Phase 1." Then you approach a dead end with open land behind that, which is called "Phase 2." Apparently the owners wanted to sell each acre one at a time for people to build their million dollar homes on so they can have million dollar views of the lake. (Say million dollar one more time!) They really are beautiful - each one is different and look like they all came right out of a magazine. (It doesn't feel like a neighborhood since they're so spread apart, but it feels super nice.) Most of these are second homes for rich people, so it was very quiet. After the market/economy crashed in 2008, the selling of acres one at a time stopped. So, they decided to sell off the back part as a large 9 acre chunk, just to get rid of it. The whole time I kept having a hard time figuring out where the land started and how far it went back. It looked like it had an AMAZING view, but only a bit of woods in the back corner, which would kind of be our back yard. I really wanted a house that was IN the woods, and I wanted to drive through a driveway in the woods to get there. Hmmm, I'm not sure about this. Michael is in love with the view, meanwhile, so we keep it high on our list.
Then we went and looked at a zillion other properties all around including the ones overlooking the state park and the one with the cabin on it. Basically, all of the properties weren't our ideal properties. They were on the small side, even if we bought both. Not enough woods, too steep, so the buildable area is close to the road (even though the road is quiet and out of the way). They were all nice and way better than what we have now, but not....our dream.
We also looked at some property that was the perfect wooded lot that didn't overlook the lake, it overlooked mountains. This was stunning and my SUPER favorite. The problem is it's in the middle of a junky town and the road getting there had a lot of junky houses. Hmmm. I don't mind being in the middle of nowhere, but there really isn't more than a gas station and a Piggly Wiggly here. I'm not feeling the town, even though I love the property. Not to mention Michael would have to drive 40 minutes to get to the lake.
We ended the day with a few more properties to look at the next day, but we basically had the 9 acre property as our number one choice (the town is DARLING and has "stuff" I'm used to), and the wooded area in the yucky town was a close second. Oh yeah, and the house we saw first was a close third.
We drove over a mountain to another town and found every store I've ever seen in my life all in one place and ate dinner at Red Robin. I loved that all that shopping and all those restaurants were right across the street from amazing mountains and cows. <3
After that, I took Michael to one of those stores that sells Auburn and Alabama stuff. These are everywhere and as Alabama fans, we need more stuff. We couldn't resist trying on this visor with built in hair!
He did find a nice hat with no hair that he loves. :-)
Back to the hotel with a lot to talk about!
After a lovely breakfast at the hotel, we set out to meet our realtors at 9:30. (We mostly work with Connie, but her husband Jerry comes along to help with the house showings.) Of course they were running late, which I'm finding is common with the south. :-/ We are early people, so we waited quite a while for them to be late.
We met at a boat store, which was the only thing around, and left our car there. We were mesmerized by the gorgeous mountains all around the road from the hotel to the boat store. The trees are just starting to turn down there and it's just so breathtaking. We are VERY MUCH mountain and lake people. We aren't really beach people. Again, the roads were straight, there were very few cars, and the speed limit is high. Super easy to get around and stress free. (Michael used to get tension headaches commuting from DC every day - and driving in traffic bothers him less than anyone I know!)
We got into Jerry's truck because we heard several of the properties we want to see require a truck to get there. Hmmm, my flip flops may not have been a good choice.
As he pulls onto the road, we see our first glimpse of THE LAKE. Oh. my. It is so beautiful. A large blue lake with mountains surrounding it is breath taking. I am reeling at the fact that they live near this lake and travel these amazing bridges and causeways all the time and it's old hat to them. Crazy!
We actually went to a house first. We are mostly looking for property to build our dream house on, but we are open to a house that we can renovate. This house is near the lake, on 17 wooded acres, and already done. It has the ultimate boat garage for Michael, and the house is really close to what we want. And it's crazy cheap. The wooded acres are gorgeous, the yard is wonderful, and he has fun targets set up so he can practice shooting for hunting. Wow, shooting on your own property - what a foreign concept to this city girl. There is a fire pit, a closed in porch with heat and a/c, a homeschool room, an office for Michael, the works. The front porch is giant, has a swing, and rocking chairs. The garage attached to the house is 3 car and giant - tall enough for Michael's F150. This is really wonderful. Renovations would be minimal and how nice that it's already there and built! The only issue - it doesn't have a lake view that Michael wants. The realtors say we can cut down a bunch of trees in the front of the house (which is on a tall hill), and we could get a view. We will keep that in mind!
Next we went to raw property on 9 acres. It's a good thing we had the truck! First you drive through a fancy neighborhood with million dollar mansions, which is called "Phase 1." Then you approach a dead end with open land behind that, which is called "Phase 2." Apparently the owners wanted to sell each acre one at a time for people to build their million dollar homes on so they can have million dollar views of the lake. (Say million dollar one more time!) They really are beautiful - each one is different and look like they all came right out of a magazine. (It doesn't feel like a neighborhood since they're so spread apart, but it feels super nice.) Most of these are second homes for rich people, so it was very quiet. After the market/economy crashed in 2008, the selling of acres one at a time stopped. So, they decided to sell off the back part as a large 9 acre chunk, just to get rid of it. The whole time I kept having a hard time figuring out where the land started and how far it went back. It looked like it had an AMAZING view, but only a bit of woods in the back corner, which would kind of be our back yard. I really wanted a house that was IN the woods, and I wanted to drive through a driveway in the woods to get there. Hmmm, I'm not sure about this. Michael is in love with the view, meanwhile, so we keep it high on our list.
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| I'm loving these views |
Then we went and looked at a zillion other properties all around including the ones overlooking the state park and the one with the cabin on it. Basically, all of the properties weren't our ideal properties. They were on the small side, even if we bought both. Not enough woods, too steep, so the buildable area is close to the road (even though the road is quiet and out of the way). They were all nice and way better than what we have now, but not....our dream.
We also looked at some property that was the perfect wooded lot that didn't overlook the lake, it overlooked mountains. This was stunning and my SUPER favorite. The problem is it's in the middle of a junky town and the road getting there had a lot of junky houses. Hmmm. I don't mind being in the middle of nowhere, but there really isn't more than a gas station and a Piggly Wiggly here. I'm not feeling the town, even though I love the property. Not to mention Michael would have to drive 40 minutes to get to the lake.
 |
| My favorite - these woods make me so happy |
We ended the day with a few more properties to look at the next day, but we basically had the 9 acre property as our number one choice (the town is DARLING and has "stuff" I'm used to), and the wooded area in the yucky town was a close second. Oh yeah, and the house we saw first was a close third.
We drove over a mountain to another town and found every store I've ever seen in my life all in one place and ate dinner at Red Robin. I loved that all that shopping and all those restaurants were right across the street from amazing mountains and cows. <3
After that, I took Michael to one of those stores that sells Auburn and Alabama stuff. These are everywhere and as Alabama fans, we need more stuff. We couldn't resist trying on this visor with built in hair!
 |
| Gorilla hair! |
He did find a nice hat with no hair that he loves. :-)
Back to the hotel with a lot to talk about!
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