It was a very productive week!

The survey came in for the property. As soon as we had it, we called the site worker and the septic tank designers to meet with us on the property. So, we drove to Pearcy on Friday. During the meeting we laid out a plan for where the house would be placed, and where the shop building could go. That was very exciting!

You’ll see here, below, a draft layout. The smaller end at the top is the road. The “spring” is an active pond fed by an underground spring. The water in it is crystal clear! It’s about 12-15 feet across. The entire lot is completely full of trees, oaks, pines and others. It’s our plan to leave as many as we can. I look forward to planting lots of shade plants; ferns, hosta lillies, azaleas, hydrangea, and of course my favorite, red bud trees and dogwoods! It is also hilly so the terrain is quite varied and wonderfully random!

We are also planning on placing a small cabin on our lot to use for an AirBnB rental. We asked the site worker to help us plan on a space for that as well, and he came up with a wonderful plan to allow for privacy for us and for our guests. Now, we have a much better idea for how this is all going to lay out. The cabin is up a hill.

While we were there we laid out some orange tape to outline the house and shop building where we discussed placing them. Boy, they are so BIG! As we walked around the perimeter of the lots, I looked over at where the house is going and was astonished at how much space we will actually have! I looked over an said, “OMG Larry! The house is way over there!”

As we go forward, it has become clear that we will need temporary housing for our first season in Pearcy, AR. After the house is ordered, it will be three to four months before we get it. So, we decided that we could live on our property using our camper and the shop building that we plan to build in May. With these facilities, it shouldn’t be very hard. But as we evaluated our little camper, we realized that to live in it could be a little inconvenient. So, last week, Larry found a camper for sale near where we live.

We went to look at the camper and immediately loved it! In the picture you see a sofa. This folds down to allow for the murphy bed to drop down. It’s a queen size so it fits a regular mattress. So, we bought it on the spot. But this meant we would have to sell our other camper. As soon as I got home, I put it up for sale and within three hours, we had an offer on it! Phew! That was wonderful news.

Now we wait. We’re waiting for the closing on our home in Brookston on April 19th so we have the money to close on the land and get going with the land clearing. We hope that will take place at the end of April.

Now we’re back to finishing up several jobs that need to be done before we prepare to leave the area. We are painting a kitchen, which includes building a cabinet and a pantry door. Then, we’re on to painting another big kitchen job. We plan on finishing up the projects and use May to focus on packing and preparing for the actual move.