The first 30 days.

It seemed a good time to take a look at the lessons & achievements of the first thirty days.

Probably the main reason I write is that blogging seems to be the 21st century's answer to yesteryear's home movies & vacation slides.  An added bonus is that we don't have to tidy the parlor or prepare scrumptious goodies before boring you. :).

I also write because there are so many people with similar dreams. Many are poking around cyber space looking for information, inspiration & encouragement.  Now that I have my toe in the water, I want to assure folks that if it can happen for we ole fools farts, anything is possible.

So, the first month in review: 

Achievements:

• Closed!  One of the OF's works nights, and took out a loan for the property.  They used quicken loans and the process seemed smooth as butter.  We've all read the horror stories, so this seemed worth noting.
• 1800sf of carpeting & accouterments removed.
• Two bedrooms ready for the first coat of mudd.

Still working towards the septic update.  Like much of the country we've received extra feet of snow so little progress made.  We knew it was a crap shoot (pun intended <G>), so we're just shrugging off the delay .

Lessons:

• Got to buy propane during the great propane-shortage-snow storm of '14.  Part of  this was we didn't know how many  gallons we'd likely burn.  Next time we'll pay more attention to that detail. 
• What's going in across the  road?  You don't know?  Neither do I lol.  I thought i did my due diligence.  I snooped around the parcel info of our neighbors, looking for notorious family names and land usages.  The neighbors on 3 sides have 100s plus acres each, so I felt confident I'd have a nice cushion of space.  Much of that fourth side is also part of a large acreage, presumably used for hay or livestock.  For whatever reason the small parcel with the drive way didn't garner a red flag for me, but after closing, notice that there's a permit for a large ag building.  Time will  tell, and it's no big  deal, probably.  Just one of those lil details you might wish  to  work out prior  to  purchasing your own piece of the dream.