Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service

So... Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service is a thing I have heard some good reviews of, but there were not that many to start. It seems like it has been around for a bit but it's not really 'out there'? I don't know.

The wiki page has a link to each states section/school.

For New York State it's Cornell. I love that they have a page just to direct you to all the NYS offices. It makes things much easier.

There is actually a location by my parents house. I think I will try out a class or two even though it's about 45-60 min away. Annnnd.... It also looks like the site has a few pages that there last updated in 2015. There are a few from this year, but... eh.

I'm not quite sure home much my 'local' place can do with events/classes. But I will definitely keep this in mind when I get a home in the middle of no-ware. XD

House Hunt part 2

Ok! So another house from my hunt had a drug bust going on across the street when we arrived.

I can't even begin to tell you how much my mom was NOT HAPPY about this. My agent and I were trying to covertly snoop from the attic window with little to no luck seeing anything relevant but we had fun speculating and it. I am betting it was a hydro pot farm in the basement.

But on to the house.

The house was only needing cosmetic things.

The floors were mostly stripped. Probably someone started sanding them and gave up. It would literally be a breeze to finish sanding them and then seal them. Super high ceilings. The basement was a little damp but good solid walls.

It had endless amounts of character. I loved it.

Just not were it was. If this house had been on the farm land? Pure perfection. But it wasn't.

The drug bust across the street kinda killed the neighborhood for me. It just had a lot of little things like the streets were very narrow and we think the house next door might have been abandoned. People were out and about but... It just didn't have that home feeling.

So we kept looking.

Window trimmings

I know my mom will hate this, but I plan to make my own window covers for the winter & summer months. I will try and make some nice functionally decorative ones also because extra warmth is always good.

It would be like this:
-summer thin veils to let in the breeze but to keep out the harshest sun. (separate bar)
-decorative shades to look night and add warmth as needed.(separate bar)
-winter covers made of heavy-er fabric. (to be hung on summer bar with hooks)

I know this works because I have had my bed under a window during some very cold winters.

My mom hated the loose fabric I would fold over it but she relented when I had her reach past it. So much so that she almost borrowed some fabric for some other rooms. Unfortunately the pre-existing fixtures in the other rooms didn't work for this method. Currently I close my sisters (she moved out) bedroom door to keep the cold just to that room.

I have a small addiction to remnant bins at fabric stores. I have a lot of fabric and a sewing machine that I have use a grand total of one time. I plan on changing the latter as soon as I can.

I also plan to have any and all skylights ripped out. I hate them. They do nothing by leak and let in the cold.

But back to the drawing board.

House Hunt part 1

Ok so.... I might have found a house.

One of the top houses on my list was the dream tiny farm property in a pretty quiet place. It needed two things done to it. the power cable to the house and... something else that wasn't too bad. But it's an 1800's house and it felt like it. There had been a lot of updates to it but none in atleast the last twenty years.

There is a room that I have dubbed the Red Room. It looks like it should be the wall paper in a bordello. I kid thee not.

There is a root cellar with labels going back at least as far as 1965. you have to duck down to walk around in it. there are parts of the root cellar that are made to be just the right storage humidity. There is a curing room for onions and garlic and squash. There is a second kitchen that is actually a prep room for canning with a second massive sink and an old stove to die for.

This is when my agent really understood just how much I had been researching about all of this. It wasn't shocking but I think it made my wild selections easier to understand.

This is not the house I am putting a bid on.

I love it but there are glaring problems that will take a lot of time to fix. The walls appear to be a booby-trap of layers on layers of paint and wallpaper. There is carpet in both bathrooms and in both kitchens.

The foundation is crumbling to a point that looked worry-some.

But the yard is to die for.

I am keeping it in mind. If it was $10k or $15k less then I would jump on it. So for now it's on my list but it's not the one at the top.

And this kills me. It has every thing that I would do to it but... for now it's just on my list.

House Hunting!!

I am trying to write a post that is not just the words 'house hunting' over and over.

I can't. XD

I get to start house hunting! my agent has a day all planed out!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!!

*Happy Squee!!!*

/r/Homesteading

New thing found! /r/Homesteading FAQ is on reddit.

It's not super, super mad crazy in-depth, but it has a lot of basic information. Most importantly it has links to information. The main page for all the posts is a bit... weird.

There are good and bad. IT's reddit so... yeah.

On land and when your plans change

My whole goal is to have a nice tiny farm.

Currently, I think my tiny firm is going to be much, much smaller then I was hoping.

This is not a buyers market and most of the places that would be all the land I could possibly want? Way too far for me to commute to my job. It's a new one and I really love it. So now I am rather happy I was already making a list of things I could live without.

In order to get a house I can afford I have to let go of a dream of lots of land.

It... sounds easier then it was. I have been coming to terms with this for the last six months. I just can not afford it. I also can not live with out high speed internet and guess what? Way out in gods country the is no internet at speeds that don't bring me back to dial-up. I grew up with dial-up. I will not be doing that again.

What does this do? A lot of surprising things.

The first is that I can probably have a two story house. This was on my sacrifice list, but now not only could I have it, but I might also be able to get what is for me a move in ready house. I will be ripping up carpets and such but I could live in it.

The only new thing on my must have list is a garage. This is for my parents boat for the winter.

The hardest thing I found is that I have no idea what kind of a commute I am willing to live with. I was originally thinking of at most two hours. But that would mean possibly getting home at 8pm or later on some nights. Losing four hours of each weekday might be more then I can handle. I am still thinking about it for now.

It might be worth it if I was actually two hours closer to my sister.

So yes, my big mandatory land is now down to on that I can still feel comfortable with. This will change with the houses that I eventually get to look at because each will be different. If this was all happening 5 years ago then I would not worry about how much land I was getting because I would be selling the house after a few years as an investment. Not a flip.

But I don't want to start over again in five years. I'll be 40 by then. Personally I would rather be eating the fruit off my own trees instead of house hunting. But after this, who knows? maybe there would be another move.

But right now I just need to get my first house.