Maddog10
Well-known member
Maddog's Farm Restoration & Future Homestead
Background
My wife and I are 27 years old with an almost 3 year old little girl and another baby on the way. We have lived in Western KY our whole lives and love it here. I work as a Mechanical Engineer, her as a nurse, and have always enjoyed "living in the country." We married in 2012, bought a small house on 2.5 acres together, and shortly thereafter began looking for some land that we could go ahead and start paying down long before we needed to actually build on it. The requirements were for it to be enough land or secluded enough to build a ways off the nearest road so that we felt we had the place to ourselves. Ideally we were looking for 10-20 acres that included a blend of woods and tillable ground. It took a few years to find what we wanted and we received several no's from landowners who weren't willing to sell, but I think we've finally found our future homestead.
The Farm
We were fortunate enough to purchase this 18 acre farm a couple months ago at a local estate auction. It includes about 14 tillable acres and 4 wooded acres with a building lot and a few existing structures including an old home. There are also two very small ponds (0.1 acres and 0.25 acres). None of the structures are worth saving with the exception of a 36'x50' pole barn that also has an attached 10'x20' work station built onto the front. The farm has been badly neglected over the past decades and I know I have taken on a decent project with this property, but it really gives me a "diamond in the rough" feel. It checks nearly all the boxes that my wife and I were looking for in a property, and I am proud to call it mine. We don't intend to build a home for probably 6-8 years, so I have plenty of time to get it up to my liking.
Property Overview: Property lines are the treelines just inside what I have outlined. The diagonal road on the southern side of the property is a state highway, and the road just north of the property is a rarely used backroad. The road leading into the property is a county-maintained road, but is essentially just my driveway.
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Driveway leading into the property.
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Existing house, which will be torn down. There are two small sheds in the right of this picture which are loaded with some great firewood that I will be saving before tearing down the sheds as well.
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Backside of the house.
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The pole barn that we will be saving and the barn which will be torn down after harvesting some barnwood for future projects.
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Field south of the house (aka backyard view), looking towards the highway off in the distance.
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Southern end of field above looking back up the hill towards old house.
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Triangle field. Thicket in far right of first picture surrounds the 1/4 acre pond.
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Clearing beside house with third pole barn in the background. Considered saving this one but would need a ton of work and foundation is pretty busted. Letting it go too. The auction took a pretty good toll on the property. Had a big snow a couple days before the auction which led to a very soft ground. There were a lot of farm implements in this clearing that were auctioned off, so the tractor/truck traffic really rutted things up. No biggie.
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And a sunset picture over the farm from the backroad just for good measure.
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Appreciate everyone tagging along with me. Going to be quite the journey, especially in the coming months. Looking forward to it.
Background
My wife and I are 27 years old with an almost 3 year old little girl and another baby on the way. We have lived in Western KY our whole lives and love it here. I work as a Mechanical Engineer, her as a nurse, and have always enjoyed "living in the country." We married in 2012, bought a small house on 2.5 acres together, and shortly thereafter began looking for some land that we could go ahead and start paying down long before we needed to actually build on it. The requirements were for it to be enough land or secluded enough to build a ways off the nearest road so that we felt we had the place to ourselves. Ideally we were looking for 10-20 acres that included a blend of woods and tillable ground. It took a few years to find what we wanted and we received several no's from landowners who weren't willing to sell, but I think we've finally found our future homestead.
The Farm
We were fortunate enough to purchase this 18 acre farm a couple months ago at a local estate auction. It includes about 14 tillable acres and 4 wooded acres with a building lot and a few existing structures including an old home. There are also two very small ponds (0.1 acres and 0.25 acres). None of the structures are worth saving with the exception of a 36'x50' pole barn that also has an attached 10'x20' work station built onto the front. The farm has been badly neglected over the past decades and I know I have taken on a decent project with this property, but it really gives me a "diamond in the rough" feel. It checks nearly all the boxes that my wife and I were looking for in a property, and I am proud to call it mine. We don't intend to build a home for probably 6-8 years, so I have plenty of time to get it up to my liking.
Property Overview: Property lines are the treelines just inside what I have outlined. The diagonal road on the southern side of the property is a state highway, and the road just north of the property is a rarely used backroad. The road leading into the property is a county-maintained road, but is essentially just my driveway.
View media item 81839
Driveway leading into the property.
View media item 81830
Existing house, which will be torn down. There are two small sheds in the right of this picture which are loaded with some great firewood that I will be saving before tearing down the sheds as well.
View media item 81831
Backside of the house.
View media item 81833
The pole barn that we will be saving and the barn which will be torn down after harvesting some barnwood for future projects.
View media item 81832
Field south of the house (aka backyard view), looking towards the highway off in the distance.
View media item 81835
Southern end of field above looking back up the hill towards old house.
View media item 81838
Triangle field. Thicket in far right of first picture surrounds the 1/4 acre pond.
View media item 81836View media item 81837
Clearing beside house with third pole barn in the background. Considered saving this one but would need a ton of work and foundation is pretty busted. Letting it go too. The auction took a pretty good toll on the property. Had a big snow a couple days before the auction which led to a very soft ground. There were a lot of farm implements in this clearing that were auctioned off, so the tractor/truck traffic really rutted things up. No biggie.
View media item 81845
And a sunset picture over the farm from the backroad just for good measure.
View media item 81843
Appreciate everyone tagging along with me. Going to be quite the journey, especially in the coming months. Looking forward to it.
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... I'll clear out the brush and try to get pics for next update. Did bring the tractor and bush hog out to the farm so I can get the undergrowth under control. 