This is the view that originally sucked us into this property. Not sucked in a bad way, but more like an undertow that you were not aware of until you realized you were a little further from shore than you were accustomed to.
We have had some relatively successful real estate transactions, starting with the house we bought in 1983. This was the house that was never finished. We started fixing up the property on the day we closed, and stopped when we handed the keys to the new owner in 2008. We did manage to sell just before the real estate bubble burst, and well before IBM decided they didn't want to play anymore, and walked away with a nice, tangible example of the value of sweat equity.
Most recently we sold our little condo in the south end of Burlington (Vermont for you out-of-towners), and began looking for property a little further south to more equally distribute our commutes to work. That statement fairly accurately describes the order of things as our condo sold much more quickly than we expected and we found ourselves soon to be homeless, but also mortgage-less, which does have some appeal.
We looked at several properties in southern Chittenden and Addison counties, but just like the TV show, could not find exactly what we wanted. Either the location wasn't ideal, or the layout was un-workable (there are some bad-ass DIY designers out there that should definitely NOT quit their day jobs!!), or smelled funky. I think our real estate agent started calculating how much energy and gasoline he was spending on us, and he may have been the one to suggest we look into building.
Frankly, it was an easy sell. I have always loved the idea of a brand new house, with walls that were plumb and rooms that were square and level. When I was younger, I always imagined I would be the one swinging the hammer, or the pneumatic nailer. I am now older and wiser, thank you very much. The pros will be doing this job.
So we settled on this property. A little more than two acres with a gentle westerly slope and a jaw-dropping view of the Adirondacks. We'll be building a high efficiency, two story home with about 2,400 square feet of finished space. I'll share a little more about the plans and the process as well as some of the many cool things that go into an energy efficient structure in future posts.
