We bought a house that was built in five days… We had looked at so many small acreages and had a few deals fall through. We quite frankly were at our breaking point. We had seen the listing for the home we currently live in but we (meaning my husband) were not interested. It was too big, more money than we wanted to spend, and a little further away than we wanted to be. This listing landed back on our radar as our last deal fell through. We had no idea at the time this house was an Extreme Home Makeover build until the day we went to look at it.
I remember walking into the home and immediately falling in love with the winding staircase. I also fell in love with the greenhouse. I had no idea how to garden or grow in a greenhouse I just loved the idea of it.
Ryan, my husband wasn’t fully bought in. He is the more logical one out of us. I am the dreamer and often the unrealistic thinker. At this point we were house drunk and were just done. Ryan also knew that we left a house in Colorado that I loved. He wanted me to be happy in Iowa. He reluctantly agreed and we placed an offer that day, it was accepted the next day.
I am starting to understand that saying hindsight is 20/20. What I have realized is that I was so worried about not having the big house, nice car, great clothes that I was missing out on what life really has to offer.
Having the big house just means you have more to take care of and clean. It also means the 30+ windows that need replacing cost essentially the price of a small home in a neighboring community. Or the roof that needs replaced is equivalent in cost to two acres of land to purchase.
Perspective is everything. I often get asked if we knew then what we know now would we buy this home. If I am being honest here.. it depends on the day. There are times especially this season which has been a challenging one with all of this rain and our garden flooding three times, our well flooding for the first time and stopped working along with not being able to open windows in the house because they have absolutely no screens which has forced us to buy a few windows at a time to install. The house has its quirks. The thing about this home is it’s all show and not very practical. Not really much storage space. This has caused us to really look at what we really need. I keep telling my husband we need to have an Extreme Garage Sale.. it’s wearing on him so maybe in the distant future a post will land on your socials about Mad Acre Farms selling everything to go simple..
What I love about this property is what it has taught me and continues to teach me the much needed life lessons. Even on the hardest of days I get to be here living our dream of building a sustainable farm.
I think I forget that sometimes, especially when things don’t necessarily go our way. It is actually quite ironic that I am saying this but it has also taught me that I do not need the big fancy things to be happy. If I could change the size of this home I would in a heartbeat. I would make it less than 1500 square feet which would be a reduction of over half the size. I would utilize the additional outside space for pollinator gardens or additional garden plots. I would also take all the money we would be saving in electrical cost and pump that right into the farm.
So do I have regrets? Sure I do! My biggest regret is not having this thought process sooner in life. I don’t need fancy things to be happy. Matter of fact it’s the fancy things that cause the complications in my life. We are here to stay, even though somedays I tell my husband let’s sell it all, cash in our 401ks, find a piece of land out in the middle of nowhere and put up a tiny house and live our dream.
Moral of the story…Fancy isn’t better, it’s just the shiny flashy wrapper containing very likely the same things the simple wrapper had in it. You may have just paid more for it.-✌🏼Jamie
Moral Of The Story 