There's a Place for Us...........

So we have been looking for property and honestly I am getting them all confused.  After a while they all seem to run together.  We have looked all around the Valdosta, GA area as well as many towns in Northern FL.  I am again surprised at all of the dirt roads!  Some of them have been unpassable with large ruts and or flooded over.  Some of them are loose sand in which we have risked getting stuck.  Since many of the properties we are looking at are just that, land only, there are often no street addresses and so it makes it hard to find exactly what you are looking for.  Often the roads are also confusing.  Take dirt road 132nd Avenue and turn right at 112^th Street until it dead ends into 52^nd Road?  There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the numbers or names.  There seems to be plenty of vacant, affordable land but things are just different here.  For one thing, there are timber and mineral rights issues.  You may own the land but not the timber on the land ????    

While we are looking for an area with fewer restrictions on the size of the home you can build or type of home you can have there or whether you can have animals.  We also would like to be able to have access to electricity, or cable if we choose.  Also while we want some privacy, we also don’t want to be so far off grid that when we are gone, people will come and pillage our property.  We actually looked at a property where there stood the frame for a pole barn and it had a great cement slab.  We asked the realtor if there was a fire or something that caused them to leave this seemingly great spot and were told that the owner came back to the property after some time and someone had TAKEN THE POLE BARN!  I mean seriously we are looking at building a tiny.  How much easier is it to take that, especially if you built on wheels?  And this was the SELLING REALTOR TELLING US THIS!!   Many of the parcels allow items on trailers to be brought in and lived in for up to 6 months at a time without question.  What if a long trip into town leads to coming home to well, NO HOME?!

We also have found some lots with homes of some sort already on it.  We found an adorable cabin up in the woods in a primitive area that had a lot of potential.  The owner also had left a bunch of new pavers on the lot which still remained (good sign that no one had stolen them).   It was also funny because while trying to find this property (again no address signs, mailboxes or realty signs) we ran into a land appraiser back in the area who was able and willing to talk very candidly with us about the area and that property in particular.  It seemed that when the owner had built the little cabin the neighbors called out the county stating he was doing something without a permit.  It was also in a very little town with few employers and since we are going to be working for some time, so that concerned us.   The area seems very poor and with it being so far up in the woods, it just made me nervous.  Still a beautiful area. 

Yesterday a trip further south into Florida results in a good find.  We found an area that is workable distance to Gainesville that had a nice property.  It was over 2 acres and had an older mobile home on it.  It was in rough shape but seemed structurally sound.  It also had a large metal shed and a small play house type cabin up on stilts.  The yard was well maintained and it had a working well, electric and septic.  It also had a nice chain link fence that surrounded the entire property.  The area was so quiet and the road, while dirt was maintained by the county without a HOA fee.  The land parcels are often in little “neighborhoods” think a dirt road cull de sac that are governed by ??? (Some mystery group who makes up the bylaws of the areas then maintains the road and charges a HOA fee.)  Funny, because when I think of a HOA fee, I think neighborhood pool, etc. but nope, just a drivable road.   The small town where it’s located does have some businesses and the police dept. and school are nearby.  The yard is wooded but not so much that you couldn’t find room to put up a pool ;) and enjoy your yard.  Also there were a lot of oak trees.  Normally you see a lot of pine trees with some hard woods mixed in.  We would own the timber and mineral rights also which would be nice and mail would be delivered to our mailbox up front instead of having to go to a post office or put up a box somewhere on a paved road.  The only concern right now is that if we buy this is really maxes out what we wanted to pay and leaves us with little right now to make improvements.  I mean it includes many of the things we would have done in the future but asking us to pay now instead of as we go.  We are weighing out whether this is the one and praying for guidance.  I am sure if this isn’t the one God has something REALLY cool in store for us J

Somewhere (from West Side Story)

By Colm Wilkinson

There's a place for us
Somewhere a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere

There's a time for us
Some day a time for us
Time together with time spare
Time to learn, time to care
Some day!

Somewhere
We'll find a new way of living
We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere...

There's a place for us
A time and place for us
Hold my hand and we're halfway there
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow
Some day
Somewhere!

Songwriters: SAPORITO, LUCA / MIDDLETON, ANTHONY / GEDDES, STUART

© DOWNTOWN MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC

For non-commercial use only.

Data from: LyricFind