A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Buying a house

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't been on much in quite a while. I've been searching for a house.
Last Friday I found a house that is everything I could have hoped for in a house, and it's in my price range.

Anyway the house is sitting on 3.4 acres which I think is wonderful, BUT it has a huge lawn. I mean massive. The current owner likes to golf and he uses the back yard as a driving range.
I made an offer on the house and should know by Monday if I've got it.

I need some ideas on what to do with all that lawn, because I really don't like grass, at all. My biggest problem is that I'll be working on a pretty limited budget right after I buy the house; I can spend hundreds of dollars on plants and landscaping materials, but not thousands.

If you guys want to see pictures of the house check out:
http://www.fsboalachua.com/0051/

OH, you lucky, lucky dog!!
oh man will you ever be happy in that house!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
I hope they take your offer!!!

I love it!!!
I like the garage thing, very nice!
I Love the screened in porch!!!!

And are those Rhod's or Azalea's in front???
Beautiful which ever they are!!!
Gorgeous!!

And the backyard!!!!
OH MY GOSH!!!

If I had that I'd be putting in crops in the middle, fruit trees to one side (plums, apples, blueberries, elderberries, oranges, grapefruits, pears, oh, I think you get the hint!!!)

And a croquet area too *we love playing that*

And a small pool!!!

Oh, so many idea's!!!

Please keep us posted will you??
I'm dyin' to know!!

Weezie

I'm not a big fan of grass, but I do like the
clippings for my compost, but if it weren't for the compost and the kids needing play area, I
wouldn't have much my self!!

the home is lovely!

write2rellie: Well, I would definitely never be able to afford a house that expensive. Wow! At least you will make a nice profit when you decide to sell. Of course I guess you'll probably have to spend all that on the next house. It seems like the only ones who can actually make any money are the banks and the realtors. At least it's better than renting.
This will indeed be my first house.

Weezie, I don't know about a croquet area...I prefer badminton, personally. Of course I won't have anyone else to play with, being out in the country and not having a roommate.

We play badminton too!!
And basket ball, and frisbee's and baseball, and hoola hoops, and sand boxes, and pools, and tree forts, and kickball, and drive bikes and fly kites, and.............
oh my gosh, we are blessed live next door to us, cause
our back yard is soooooooooo full, we use hers just to walk on and take a stroll!!! LOL
But we ARE filling her's up with raised garden beds..Hahaha

I'm sure there'll be some more thru to give you some more ideas!!!

Weezie

I'd say, leave the lawn as it is; it will just cost you for mowing and fertilizing until you are ready to tackle heavy gardening.

Just to make you feel good and realize how lucky you are "price wise"; and as Rellie stated, prices in our state is outrageous.

Consider these ads from yesterday in our area: 3 BR house on 1 acre lot:

1 at $375,000
1 at $429,000
1 at $429,900


Buidable 1.6-acre lot at $300,000

Several 3BR houses (lot size not mentioned):

2 at $335,000
1 at $289,000
1 at $429,000
1 at $305,000
1 at $333,000
1 at $381,000
1 at $348,000
.................

How exciting!

You can plan big and slowly work in stages towards your dream garden.

I love the idea of an orchard and grape arbor.

Everyone needs a big pond with a huge patio around it!!

I could never afford living in CA. Those prices are unbelievable.

hey, congrats on the house!! <img border="0" alt="[clappy]" title="" src="graemlins/clappy.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[clappy]" title="" src="graemlins/clappy.gif" />

i'm with the others, dream big and start small. you will want some grass (badmiton, volley ball, tag football, etc) not to mention, some space just to lounge in. so, figure out where that would be best, then work on the perimeters until you get there!

have fun!!

Wow! That's an awesome house!!!! Needless to say, the price is right....i am drooling with envy at all of that space and what wonderful condition the home is in....couldn't touch something like that house here for anything less than upper $200's...not counting all of that acreage!!! That adds IMO another $200 grand to the above mentioned price.

I will keep fingers, eyes and toes crossed that you get such a gem!!!

My advice to you would be to not rush into doing anything for at least a year...that's right...a year... We have been in our new place a year now and have changed ideas/thoughts about what we want the property to look like many times, and only now things are starting to come into focus for us. Take it slow and steady. That landscaping money runs out quickly. If you have trees get an arborist in to trim, remove any dead ones, etc. I'd focus on what you want to remove to get a clean slate for what you want to do. Anyway...I'm ramblin' again!!!! Good Luck!!!

Barb H

Barb

ok boxmonkey, inquiring minds want to know, how is the purchase coming????

LOL, jiffy!

I wanted to ask the same thing....I can't wait to hear if the house deal went through!

Barb H.

Sorry about the lack of updates.
The negotiation process has gone EXTREMELY slowly, unfortunately, but we seem to have reached an accord.
So I have just submitted my final offer yesterday.
The biggest problem is that these good ol' southern folks like to take things slooooowwwww. So I gave them until the 5th to decide.

I somehow missed this post.....it's a very nice house.....seems very peaceful.....that is a great price.....our prices are more like that here too......I couldn't imagine paying over a hundred thousand for a house.....seriously, our house which isn't in bad shape at all was bought for the price that some people would pay for an SUV, plus we got an extra lot. I feel your pain, I know what all that real estate stuff is like....We looked at probably 75 houses before we got this one, and this one was bought through the owner--right across from my moms....so I knew the owners and we got a break with the price...Plus I had worked in a mortgage office for a while so I knew about some of the hidden fees that mortgage companys like to try to throw in......

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that all goes well and you get it.......what killed me was the waiting for closing.....it took months....

Keep us updated.

Boxmonkey,
I do hope you get the house!!

Good luck,
Newt

Well guys, bad news
I played hardball and lost. The sellers would not budge on anything I asked them to do. They wanted to get full price and not do anything. I called their "bluff."
Well, I couldn't really have afforded to pay full price unless they made the concessions I asked for, so I don't regret it.
*sigh* back to searching...

boxmonkey, that just means that there is a much better one waiting for you. we had deals fall through on about 6 before we got this one, and this one was the cheapest, newest, cleanest, and has the biggest lot!

Boxmonkey,
I agree with Jiffymouse! There's a better one out there.

Newt

Boxmonkey,
Yep, keep your chin up!!
I agree with Jiffy, there'll be something for you!!
And you never know, those people may be sittin'
on their place for a bit, and really want to go
and no other offers and they may come back to you!

Keep the FAITH,

Weezie

BoxMonkey--you will find the right house.....we looked at so many and even had 3 or 4 under contract....they either fell through, or we backed out......after tons of house searching the one we bought now magically appeared.....keep looking, don't get too discouraged.....it's hard not to I know....I don't know how many times I got all excited about a house and then it went under contract......let us know if you find anything else okay?

Whenever I have a plan and it fails something ALWAYS BETTER shows up!!

Same here. When we were looking for our house, we got really lucky. I think we looked at a total of 6 houses. This house was the last one and we knew it was "the one" the second we walked through the door. The price was right and it had a garage plus a really great yard space. Its hard to find that around here sometimes. There are ALOT of developments around here with nice houses and yards that are ho-hum, but the prices are about 150,000....which, compared to California, are not that bad. We got the house for around 82,000
(and we got to keep the pot belly stove in the workshop that is right off the garage). The people that we bought the house from are soooo nice. She did ALOT of gardening and they stop in occasionally to bring food for the cat that stays with the house until their new one is built. Anyways, keep looking and have fun doing it. Who ever said that looking for a housecouldn't be fun?? You will find the perfect one.