“It’s a rock in the rough,” Dennis said while we were looking at it.  Not diamond, rock.  It’s special, folks, and so long as one can look past the piles of belongings, the thick, dark drapes, and if one has watched Martha Stewart for decades and if one has been a subscriber of Country Living Magazine since one was twelve, then that one just may have the imagination and the thrill of the decorator ready to turn this place into a gem!

As I followed our friends and Doug while we tried not to trip over the neon blue shag carpet that has bunched up in places I continually cooed, “Oh look, if we did this…oh look, if we did that, oh look, a sewing room!…”  They were smitten too and the house holds onto her good bones, block and stucco walls, and built for nuclear disaster frame of the nineteen fifties.  She just needs some paint and wood floors and a pretty dress and that girl will be ready to host her first farm party.

The house I told you about the other day was great and ready for a storefront right away but it was also not zoned to live in, not designed for living spaces, and the taxes were four times higher than the above fifties girl who needs a party dress.  We drove down the street that same day and peeked through her darkened windows and torn curtains and walked the third of an acre, looked at the distance from the main road and went to town to ask questions.  And for the first time, they all came back positive!

We can live there.  The outside porch can be rebuilt and made into an apothecary.  There is an art studio and a chicken coop.  Even though I can have a small storefront, the property is zoned residential and so are the taxes.  Everything is aesthetic and can be easily beautified and secured to make this our new farm.

Last night I thumbed through fifteen years of magazine clippings that I have cut out showing rooms and design ideas that I love.  And I was amazed at how many of them were very similar and how many fit this house.

Now, we just need to make an offer!