The Land

I am going to attempt to go back in time a little bit, and start sharing the process of building our house. I haven't been the mastermind of most aspects of this project so far, but at least I can take credit for the floor plan and some colors!

I'm going to talk a little bit about how our search began. In 2019, Cole and I decided that our relationship was a good one, and we wanted to start making moves that would help us to begin to start a life together, instead of traveling over the App Gap several times a day most days. We were both on the lookout for anything we loved. We were open to a house or just land, but there were certain things we knew we wanted on our land. 

We knew that we wanted to be able to garden, and we wanted a variety of vegetation, including fruit trees and sugar maples. We were hoping to find a good amount of acreage to have some flexibility with our land, and to get some space from neighbors. It would be a huge bonus if we had southern exposure. One of the most important things was location. We have current jobs that stretch about 55 minutes from one to the other, and a central location was ideal, although Cole was willing to travel further if we found the right place. I wasn't too keen on a commute longer than a half hour. 

The houses that we really liked that would come up on the market would often be sold within days, which was tricky because we weren't working with a realtor, and Cole still owned his house in Charlotte. Eventually, we stumbled upon a few plots of land that were in a new development called The Knolls (we know, what a terrible name). We had no interest in being in a development. We strongly dislike how beautiful areas are getting plowed down for new developments, and we did not like the idea of being involved with this project. HOWEVER, the land was simply stunning. We first saw the land in October, and the leaves were starting to fall, and we could see mountains in 360 degrees. There were both old and knew sugar maples, and old apple trees bordering the west side. The land had wooded areas and rolling fields on prime agriculture land. To put it simply, I was sold. It took a bit of convincing with Cole, but eventually, he agreed that it was the best thing we had come across.

There were definitely some quirky things about this spot. It boarders a very popular disc golf course (yes, they even play through the winter). The house location had a LOT of ledge. And finally, this land was part of one family's long history of farming. They were terribly sad to sell the land, especially to a developer, but they are trying to make the best of it. I might elaborate more about this as we learn more about the family and their history with surrounding land. 

Despite some complications and delays about the covenants and some of the contents of our original contract, on May 13th, the land was ours!