Maybe this should be called the misadventures of Karl & Sally. Why? We are buying acreage in Okanogan County, WA with a partially built house and cabin that we will have to finish. Us. Building a house! What were we thinking? I have some experience in building things, but its been a long while since I've done it. And I was much younger, too. Thank goodness for friends. We'll take all the advice (and help) we can get.
So how did this all happen? We've been looking for property for a year or so, but not seriously on the hunt. Earlier this year we looked at a piece near Wenatchee but it turned out to be less than desireable. Plus the price of property is really getting outrageous in that area.
Then we thought about the Moses Lake area. Close to fishing and friends, and the price of land is not out of sight. Subsequent web searches didn't turn up anything that demanded an immediate viewing. The week before Memorial Day I decided to search my favorite real estate link to see in any property was for sale in the Omak and Okanogan area. We were going to be camping in Winthrop for the holiday and just in case I found something, we could set up a viewing while we were over there. Lo and behold...a listing caught my eye. I printed it out and showed it to Karl for his opinion. He liked what he saw on paper and said "let's look at it". I contacted the realtor to schedule a showing for the coming Friday.
We met the realtor, Tami, and headed up the hill to the the property. We had never been in that particular area before so it was all new to us. So far, things were looking promising.
We pulled up to the property only to be surprised that the current owners were there. It was a blessing in disguise. We were able to find out a lot more about the property and walk the property lines. We also discovered that it was tick season. Yuk! At one point, Karl must have walked through the tick nursery. He had a cluster of 6 or so ticks on his pants leg. Double yuk. It still gives me the willies. I hate ticks.
We really liked the house and the property. But with our inexperience in building, we wanted a second opinion and made an appointment to come back on Sunday with friends. Tim and Patti gave up part of their camping weekend to drive back with us to see the place and offer up advice. Tim also liked what he saw and felt the house and cabin were well built. It reinforced my thoughts from our earlier visit. Jelly also got to play with the owner's big black dog while we were looking at the house. It was fun for her, too. I think she liked the place.
We told the realtor we'd get back to her after we talked things over. By the end of the week, we'd made an offer and had it accepted. We were on our way to owning the place! Yeehaw!
We close on the property next week and hopefully we can spend our first night there next Friday. We've got measurements to take, permits to transfer and Hardieplank siding to purchase. Then the next order of business is to get the bathroom in the cabin hooked up and useable.
From there...well follow along and I will update the blog with pictures and progress reports as we try to build a house and cabin.
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