Chapter 17 “The LORD Provideth”

This is the latest installment of a continuing story, to jump to the beginning…

Hello everyone! It’s been a little while since our last update, so sit back and get comfy because there’s much to discuss!

First of all, the center ceiling beam has been trimmed with crown molding and the finished look is exactly what we were going for! Almost all of the wiring has been completed with switches and outlets, and soon we will be starting on the plumbing…

But wait…

It’s time for a bit of a departure.

It’s time for some very big news!!!

Let me back up a bit…

In late January we received notice that the rent on our condo was once again going up. This time the increase was a bit more than comfortable, so I went to my job and humbly asked for a raise. I was disheartened though, thinking I wouldn’t see any of it with the rent increase.

Combined with that, we recently calculated the total amount spent on Airbnb’s for weekends up at the farm. Suffice to say, it was more than either of us were expecting. My wife smartly suggested that for the price of rent now we could easily be paying a mortgage and investing rather than throwing money out of the window on rent. Another huge bonus was if we acquired something closer to the farm we would save all the money we had spent on travel and lodging, be closer to the family and take our time building on the farm rather than rushing to get up there.

So we began looking, or rather, she began looking. She’s always been fascinated by the search and thrilled with discovery. Every day when I would come home she would show me properties that she had discovered. We combed through them and began to narrow down what we were looking for.

After finally settling on a few choices, we made some day trips up to view the listings in person and further refine our search. We looked at quite a few, however most seemed to fall short in one aspect or another. Eventually, one property caught our eye. A nicely renovated mobile home on 1.5 acres that was currently being operated as an Airbnb. It was in a great area adjacent to a horse farm and close to both Gainesville and Ocala. It checked all the boxes of what we were looking for but unfortunately it was already under contract.

So we went back to looking, trying to find something that rivaled the positive aspects and personality of the property we had missed out on. After a few days of coming up dry, my wife tried some new search terms to find listings we hadn’t seen yet. Right then one popped out at her that had been hidden on all previous searches.

A listing for a nice looking 2/2 mobile home, separate 4 car concrete garage, and 5.94 acres of beautifully wooded land. When I came home from my day job she was excited to show it to me and I was rather impressed to say the least. Then she showed me where it was on the map…

I was astonished as the site was just off Williston Road, almost exactly halfway between Gainesville and the family farm. This would put us minutes away from my Mom, our build site and minutes away from town.

I immediately told her to contact our realtor which she had already done so as to make us be the first in line to go under contract, a lesson learned from the original search. Within a few days she had done a virtual walkthrough and we decided to submit a contract. The more we looked into it, we were amazed as the listing had been on the market for almost 9 months and the asking price had been lowered several times over that period. Additionally, as frequently as she had been looking at properties near Gainesville and the surrounding communities, for some reason this one had never appeared before in her search results. It seemed as if the Good Lord had set it aside just for us. We both prayed for guidance moving forward.

The next thirty days were a whirlwind, doing an in person walkthrough, having the home inspected, shopping the mortgage and insurance and making sure everything lined up correctly. There were a few hiccups. The inspector discovered that the home had polybutylene pipes that needed to be replaced in order to gain insurance. This was done successfully but the timing was tight getting the inspection recertified. Insurance was also difficult based on the age of the home, which had been manufactured in 1992. After many refusals and quotes that were downright outrageous, we finally got an offer that worked at the last minute.

Despite the stress of the last few weeks, everything miraculously fell neatly into place. So we drove up on March 28th and signed the closing paperwork, making us proud first time home buyers!!!

After taking possession and with little other than changing the locks planned for the weekend, I loaded up the trailer with an assortment of tools to take to our new place.

The new four bay garage is going to be a huge game changer for us! Having inherited my father’s tools meant I had two of a lot of things. Now I’m able to declutter the workshop on the farm, and I’ll be able to tailor each space towards its best use. The farm workshop will become a designated woodworking shop and the garage will become the welding and mechanic shop.

I almost forgot to mention that one side of the garage space has been fully finished out into a guest suite, complete with kitchenette and full bath!

So now we begin the process of moving. With 60 days left on our lease we will be fully transplanted by the end of May!

At last we will finally be close to my family and close enough to help my Mother with anything and everything she needs. That is the primary reason we started this endeavor over two years ago.

It will be nice to put more time in on correctly finishing the build of our steel building conversion, but now we have the freedom to work on other aspects of the farm as well! We can begin cleaning up the land from all the scrub tree overgrowth. We can begin getting the garden area into shape so that we can finally get some plants into the ground and start our homesteading journey. We can plant the fruit orchard, and most of all we can finally get some animals and start farming for real!

We are extremely grateful to the team of people the Lord sent to us that helped make our dreams of moving come true and for the knowledge and strength we gained during this process.

As we pause to reflect on all the new blessings that have been bestowed upon us, we are touched by emotion and filled with gratitude to the Creator. It is through his grace and favor that this reality has become manifest.