Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Farm Tour: Plainfield Horse Farm


I got back on the house-hunting horse again today!  (pun intended...even though I know it's horrible!)

Scheduling house tours around the holidays has been a little bit of a nightmare.  I had two tours planned for after work this afternoon, and neither of them worked out.  At the last minute my real-estate agent was able to make an appointment at another property that was on my list: a small horse farm in Plainfield.

The farm can best be described as "okay"

I know that's not the most useful adjective, but I really can't think of another word for it.  Here is the quick breakdown:

Location:  45 minutes from my folks (which is further than I had hoped), but right off 395, which is pretty convenient

Land: 16 acres, half-cleared and half-wooded (an ideal size), but poorly designed and VERY wet.  Apart from a nice pond for swimming, there were 4 springs and several small brooks running downhill through the property.  Most of the land was pretty soggy, which made me a little concerned.  The horses also took quite a toll on the three pastures closest to the house.  The other big downside is that there is also no buffer between the 6 neighboring houses, all previously owned by the farm owner's family and all very close to the property.

House: A raised ranch with a built-in apartment.  Some good updates (like a new roof), but overall a really bizarre design and lots of out-of-date features.  I didn't really care for anything about it (other than the large farmhouse sink!), but could see that with some TLC it could be "okay."  There was a garage and a "barn" but neither were in very good condition.

I think that with a little more effort on my part, I could like this farm.  It is listed at 249K, and the owners are desperate to move somewhere warm.  For now, I have a couple of other properties that I'm looking forward to seeing before I make any decisions.

I'm starting to get excited about farm searching again.  My dream farm is out there somewhere!

3 comments:

  1. Good for you, in keeping your spirits up! Your dream farm IS out there! And when you find it, it will feel perfect, and everything will fall into place.

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  2. Always interested in hearing your latest stories....one thing about this property that you can never change is that it's wet. Yes, it is a wet time of year right now but spring will be even worse. Animals will tear up that ground and it will never be any good. Ever. The pasture will get eroded and not be of any help to you, only heartache. I know I'm telling you what you already know but it's the one thing that really shouted out to me. Even if you could "like" the place with time and improvements, there are some things you can't change like geography and neighbors.

    Hopefully the other places will be better!

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  3. Thanks, Goat Song! And Susan, the wet spots were isolated and mainly on the perimeter of the property (two of the springs marked the corners of the boundary line). You're very right about being weary of the wet, though! Ultimately, I don't think this is the property for me for a lot of reasons, but it's not nearly as horrible as some of the places I've seen! I have a few tours lined up for next week that I'm more excited about, so we'll see!

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