A Few Farm Updates

image via pinterest

I've been away for a few days trying to de-stress.  Anxiety over this farm has given me a stomach ache I can't seem to shake.  Thankfully I have excel spreadsheets, to-do lists, and a wonderful fiance to help.  And chocolate cake.

I've been worrying about spending money, with the potential of losing this property looming over my head.  In fact, I spent all day Monday worried the deal would fall through because of an error in the contract.  The town had the property listed differently on maps - once with it as the full 6-acre parcel, and once with it subdivided into two, smaller parcels.  Even though we double checked the address before I signed, turns out I needed to sign for two parcels, and actually three addresses (the apartment is listed separately).  The current owners winter in Florida, so it more than a full day of worrying to straighten out the paperwork, but as of this afternoon it's settled.

Today I met the loan officers for an environmental assessment of the property.  This isn't something I had to do last time, because the other property was registered as a farm.  But basically we just walked around and I explained where I planned to grow what, and signed off that there were no hidden hazardous materials on the property that I know of.  It seemed to go well.

Hopefully tomorrow the appraisal will be scheduled, as well as the home inspection.  I hate that it feels like a risk this time around - knowing that if there is a problem we can't negotiate to fix I will have spent another thousand dollars on nothing.  I guess that's just how it works.

This whole process requires a huge leap of faith.  Yesterday I hired a graphic designer to pull together a logo (something I initially planned to do myself, but just can't seem to find the inspiration to pull together) and decided to abandon ship on designing our own website and instead host through Small Farm Central (which has amazing customer service and guarantees a level of searchability we'll need).  Next week I'll register the business through the state as a sole-proprietorship.  Initially I planned to register as an LLC, but for this first year the cost doesn't seem to outweigh the risk.  Though I'm still a little on the fence about it.

I'm still also deciding whether or not to defer the first mortgage payment for a year so that I feel less pressured to pull everything together.  But, then again, I work well under pressure and really need to maximize my income no matter what.  Repairs on the house are going to be costly and the farm needs to generate the income to pay for them.  I spent the whole afternoon fiddling with the budgets (thank goodness for excel!) and any way I add it up, it's a lot of money!

Did I mention that I'm REALLY good at worrying?

Oh, and trash day at our new house will be Monday.  And Ledyard recycles plastics 1-7.  It's settling the little details that really make me happy.