Still searching for Mr. Right

…”Mr.” being a random gender assignment for our perfect piece of land.

Yesterday we viewed a property that was pretty close to perfect. Just over 1.5 acres, it was cleared and flat and seemed large. The next door neighbours had a larger place with chickens and a horse (!) (I’m horse crazy). The house is cute, small, finished nicely, very cozy…there is a barn – a REAL barn! Four stalls all ready for horses with in/out doors. There was a smaller barn for their goats with a nice chicken coop beside it. Cross fencing all in place. The topper was the raised bed vegetable garden which had obviously been lovingly tendered with really nice looking soil (even in winter!). It was as “turn key” as an acreage can get.

There was one problem: it was located on a busy road; one small property in from a major cross street. Even late morning on a Tuesday we could hear the cars going by as we wandered around the property. I saw a few trucks, too. Who knows what this road will be like on weekends, during “rush hour” (whatever that looks like in a small community) and in summer when the tourists descend.

I tried to tell myself “you can’t have everything you want; there is no perfect property”. And I’d almost convinced myself we should go for it. But as I sit in my house listening to the cars go by I recall just how much I hate the noise. It may be one thing on my list, but it’s one of my TOP TWO criteria for our purchase: no busy streets, and decent southern exposure. I can live without an adorable 4-stall barn, given that it will likely be years before I have my own horse (if ever) but I can’t stand waking up in the morning and straining to hear the birds over the sound of traffic.

I once lived on a small highway and in the summer we couldn’t open the windows because it was so noisy you couldn’t hear yourself talk. I swore never again. The house we’re currently renting appeared to be on a small street (the yellow line should have given it away) but turned out our neighbourhood is mostly made up of no-through roads and ours is the major artery in and out of here. So every morning starting at around 6:30 am I hear them driving by…on rainy days it’s even louder. I really dislike it.

My realtor reminded me that I should feel excited about a purchase, that I should have that “This is The One!” feeling. I don’t have it with this place, even though I’m trying really hard to. So that in itself tells me something.

It’s the time of year when new listings will soon begin to appear. Within the next few weeks the market will come to life again and there will be more listings to choose from. And so I’ve decided to wait and see what comes up rather than settle for something that I’m apprehensive about.

I know I’ve said this before, but I really had no idea that house-hunting could be so difficult.