Dreams versus realities.

We went back to the hotel that evening after having viewed the four properties, with the promise that our realtors would look up any new listings that had come up in the meantime.

Later that evening they sent us 4 or 5 other listings. Unfortunately, at least three of them had been properties we previously had on our list at home and had decided against for one reason or another.

Two were new listings we had not seen before, and we pondered them over night.

Early the next morning we called our realtors to discuss viewing the two we pondered. We shared some concerns we had and they promised to find out more information, and call about getting us in for some viewings.

In the meantime, we decided to go for a drive and check out a bit of Saskatoon. We needed to stop by the nearest mall at the tech store, and when we walked in I was pleasantly surprised to see great big ads for MOMpreneur! Gotta love a city that promotes entrepreneurial moms!

Then we stopped by a car wash as the truck sure needed one after all the driving we had been doing on snowy/slushy/dirty/salty roads!

While washing the truck, we received a call from our realtors, and through some talking we decided the other two properties were not right for us and that it was too late in the day by this time to expect anyone to get ready for a house viewing that day. We decided instead we would go and view the large property that needed work, again, first thing early the next morning before we left the area. I wanted to get some video of the property, and the area, for the kids to see when we got back home.

Then, we went out for lunch and discussed some things. We talked about the property, what we liked best, the full section of land… and we talked about the work, lots of work, that it entailed.

If anyone thinks we take lightly what we are getting ourselves into, think again.

We’ve been through a fixer upper before. The good part about that, is we know what we’re getting ourselves into if we go this route again.

The bad part about this is we know what we’re getting ourselves into if we go this route again.

Believe me. We know.

For those who are new to our blog, let me share a few before and after’s of our current hobby farm.

Our house before:

And after:

Our cabin before (and this isn’t a true before photo as we had already replaced the windows and some of the roof, the sides, AND taken the extended bathroom OFF the roof. Why anyone would build a bathroom out onto a roof is beyond me, but the previous owner was quite proud of his creativity, so who am I to judge? ha!):

Our cabin/workshop, after:

Front view:

Barn before:

Barn after:

View of the property before, but after we had already removed TWO large bins of steel and THREE large bins of garbage. I’m talking the HUGE industrial bins here, not garbage ‘cans’. Ha ha! There was SO MUCH junk left behind it was almost unbelievable!

View of the property after:

So… as one can see, we really do know what we’re up against.

And we don’t take this lightly, we take it very seriously.

Over lunch we had quite a serious discussion about whether we even want to go through all of this, all over again.

Are we crazy to even consider it?

We discussed everything. The work, the cost, the time.

Was this REALLY what we wanted?

Were we REALLY in agreement about it all? We both had to make sure we were BOTH up for this. We also had to know our KIDS were all up for this. They too know the work, the cost, and the time involved in such a huge project.

We had to be sure everyone was on the same page. If we were going to do this, it wasn’t just for us, it was for everyone, and everyone had to want it.

A project like this isn’t one you take on without forethought. LOTS of forethought. And, with the knowledge that you can’t do it alone. It’s either one for all, and all for one, or there’s no sense even considering it.

These were the decisions we had to make as we pondered the property we were quickly falling in love with.