Before We Bought the Place

I am so in love with this place we now call home...this land is everything I could dream of & more...but it came with its good & bad.  Here are the photos of our first viewing.  We decided no, this was a crazy amount of work, we have a baby due in a few months.  But we couldn't get it out of our minds.  

Walking up the long drive.

The entrance to the 100 year old (neglected) house.

1 of 5 dogs who live in & around the place.

The shop.

Kitchen, plumbing doesn't work, no place for a stove.  Things are gooey & rotting.

The silver room.

Still life?

Me, pregnant & wondering why I actually am considering moving into this place.

Pantry, leaking roof, mouse & insect infestation.

Bathroom, taps don't work, we found out later that the hot water tank was constantly dripping into a moldy dirt basement that used to be a grow op.

Past the dog gate & up the stairs.

To the big bedroom with a bouncy floor... the flies were fairly unbelievable.

With garland & lots of cat hair.

And a pretty gross black light....the place was painted with paint that glowed in black light.

The kids were freaked when we said we were moving here, they thought the big Thoth on the right & the big metal bird would be there waiting... but the artist renter took them with her.  The camo ceiling spray paint job isn't so visible in this photo.

We couldn't even really see what the house looked like.

We couldn't even go round to this side of the house because of the dogs.

Old sauna (realtors spring photos).

Old barn.

Ahhh, beach.
The photos don't show the biggest mess either, the land was covered with junk, everything you could think of was here, it was like a community dump.  We spent this year cleaning most of it up though there will be years of it ahead.  Just this week we had someone thankfully come get the 50 or so big batteries.
But I love it more everyday & I'm so happy to raise my boys here & have this lifestyle.  It is a load of work but paradise to us.