20 acres of timber

[Crossroads]

The misses and I made a big step last night in the direction of the next chapter...... We made an offer on 20 acres of timbered land in the Idaho panhandle. If all the contingency are met and the offer is accepted, we'll start planning to build our own house which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Who knows maybe I can even win one of those Wood Mizer contest??

[Magicman]

8)

[GAB]

I wish you the best.
Gerald

[KirkD]

Good job Kevin that is pretty country up there.

[Sixacresand]

Twenty acres of trees will keep and you all and a mill busy for a while.  I hope it works out for your wife and you.  

[mike_belben]

Congrats and best of luck.  Having your own forest is immensely fulfilling.  Its where i go to hide from my kids!

[Treehack]

That is awesome!  How did you go about locating the property?  I would love to do what you are as soon as the last of the kids heads off.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Good luck - Old Idaho USMC counterpart used to cite trivia "What is only US State bordered by 6 other states and a foreign country."

[Bruno of NH]

After Sheila and I made it through building our house on nights and weekends.
Living in the basement for 6 months.
That's when you know you and the wife will make it  :D

[Magicman]

I love traveling in Idaho, just don't do enough of it.   :-\

[reelman65]

way to go! best of luck.

[Crossroads]

That is awesome!  How did you go about locating the property?  I would love to do what you are as soon as the last of the kids heads off.

It's been brewing for a couple years, but last summer we took a vacation and did sort of a tour of Idaho and found the area we liked. We've been watching Zillow and had found a place we were interested in, but it sold before we could get back to look at it. So, when we found this place, we decided to make the offer with the first contingency being an in person inspection by 7/4..

[Crossroads]

Thank you for all of the well wishes, we're pretty excited about the possibility of this working out. 

Bruno, I can only imagine how trying that was. Our plan right now is that my job for the first year will be building the house. If I tried to do it while working it would never get finished, seems someone has a touch of A.D.D. Lol

[thecfarm]

That all sounds good. Might have to get a bigger tractor. ;)  Good luck.

[mike_belben]

Its okay to tell the wife some cute little timelines for now that she needs to hear in order to make the leap out of her comfort zone, but dont be surprised if the schedule goes out the window when you touch down. 

 If you are both happy with your journey together, the time it takes to get a house up wont matter much.  Make it an adventure and remember to be flexible.

[Crossroads]

Lol, plan on selling the current tractor with the farm and upgrading to a skid steer and a dump trailer to be used while building the house. Plans are still pretty fluid though......

[Crossroads]

Thank you Mike, that seems like some good advice. 

[Southside]

I told my wife the house would be done by August, I just never said what year.

[Crossroads]

I told my wife the house would be done by August, I just never said what year.

Lol, my wife knows me well enough that'd ask what year. She always brings up the cedar strip built boat that I started 8 years ago, but to be fair, I haven't had a shop to work on it since we bought the farm 5 years ago. 

[SawyerTed]

Congratulations on the new property!  I know it's exciting.

My wife and I survived building our house.  I was the general contractor at age 26, we had just moved, I started a new job and we had a baby on the way.  

We dug the basement the day after our first daughter was born.  I learned not to get snared into the details that really didn't matter to me.  My wife dealt with those.  Things like light fixtures, wall paper, paint colors, carpet colors, countertops etc. I trusted her to handle.  I just installed them or had them installed.  She would pick 4 or 5 samples she liked then we would pick from those.  As long as she stayed in budget and kept us on schedule, it all worked out.  Much like being a contractor for anyone else. 

[BradMarks]

All right!  Near where? Hayden, Sandpoint, Bonner's Ferry?  Let's hope it works out for you. If they are willing to wait for you to make an inspection that's pretty awesome, considering land with trees gets gobbled up in a hurry.  I just took possession last week (I have the recorded deed ) of 10 acres of timberland near Chiloquin. It was listed on line. Only view I had was Google Earth!  Sent in non-refundable document fee sight unseen, went over a few days later, and definitely got lucky (IMO). 100' tall fir and pine. No home opportunity but hunting and camping for generations to come.  So get on over there!, snow is melting off.  And good luck. 

[DDW_OR]

Idaho gets a LOT more snow than Oregon. I grew up in Montana by Glacier Park
plan on having a covered deck.
Basement? if so then daylight basement 8)

post some floor plans.
Laundry shoot, and a dumb waiter to haul stuff between floors, instead of carrying it up/down the stairs.

I suggest putting up a pole barn first. at least 30x50 with 16 foot walls. can park an RV inside while you work on the house.

[mike_belben]

Campers/RVs have an awful short lifespan if they arent under a canopy unfortunately.  No matter how expensive they are, the roof sealant still eventually cracks and leaks. 

[Crossroads]

Wow, I don't think I could do this with a baby on the way, that definitely an accomplishment! 
The property is south of post falls, we were looking in the st Marie's area, but it just didn't seem like the employment opportunities were there for my wife and commuting to anywhere from there was a no go. 

A pole building is part of the plan for a place to put the RV and have room to stretch. 

We don't have any house plans yet, I drew out a rough sketch a few weeks ago, but it only had 1 bathroom and I was told to go back to the drawing board lol   

I've lived in Alaska for a few years, so the snow isn't scaring me, yet. I've pointed the snow out to the wife and she says she's ready to trade snow for all the rain. 

[DDW_OR]

for trail cameras i can recommend the Cuddeback Scouting Cameras - CuddeLink

up to 15 cameras transmits photos back to the HOME camera
CuddeLink automatically daisy-chains cameras to extend range to over 4 miles, making CuddeLink deployable on properties of hundreds or thousands of acres.

In June 2018 they will release the CuddeLink Home Plus that has USB connection for your computer.

[Runningalucas]

Welcome to the neighborhood.  My wife, and I live in Spokane, but have 20 acres up north of Sandpoint.  It's a clean area overall.  Kootenai county is who you'll be dealing with I believe if near Post Falls. 

The snow Spokane to C'da isn't as bad as it is up in Sandpoint.  Bonner's Ferry is a relative banana belt even though further north. 

I hope all goes well for you, and yours!

[Crossroads]

Thank you! I just looked at the map and it looks like it might be in benewah county. Talked to the agent  this evening and it sounds like our offer is being accepted. I guess I'll be heading to Idaho next week to take a closer look see.

[BradMarks]

 8) 8)

[Crossroads]

Okay, so it just got real. We have an accepted offer. Now to make the trip over this week and start checking off the contingencies. I have a week to verify the spring and the ability to get electrical and 21 days to get the perc test done. Yay, moving forward 

[Runningalucas]

Spring on the property?  Shallow well time!  The property we have is bordered on both sides by creeks; the one is year round, and the other is seasonal.  We're up in the mountains, but the water table is usually no more than around 10' down; I want to put in several shallow wells, to take  advantage of the water that abounds.   Our main well is drilled, but most of the neighbors have shallow wells, and they work.

[Crossroads]

Yeah, there is supposed to be a spring that the neighbors were using, but the owner lives in TN and hasn't been there in a while. My thoughts/day dreams are to be able to pump water to a cistern above the home site, that way there's never a heavy demand on the spring. 

[thecfarm]

All sounds good.
Electricity can be pricey in this area. I said can be. Depends on a lot of factors.

[Crossroads]

I'm waiting for a call back from avista utilities to get an idea what it will cost. Looking at satellite pictures, I see solar panels at the closest neighbors. So, it may end up being a generator show. 

[Crossroads]

Made a quick trip over last week to lay eyes on the place. The timber isn't as big as it looks in the pictures, so that a downer, but there is some usable trees on the place. The spring is there and flowing right out of the hillside. Checked the well reports in the area and they range from 30' to 300'. The electricity it closer than we thought and is only about 300' from the homesite. The perc test for the septic will be done this week and if that passes we' Be setting a closing date. 

[mike_belben]

If the timber was prime theyd roll its value into the sticker price at double the delivered to mill appraisal anyway.  

Sounds like its all working out for you, glad to hear.    

[ksmitchell]

Congrats, on the hopeful purchase. I have land just north of Spokane in Springdale. However I grew up in the Spokane/northern Idaho area and love it there.

[Skipper11A]

Electric is 300' away? Praise the Lord, I've been following your journey and was so concerned that you'd end up with an off-grid house (while paying an on-grid price).  I am concerned about your neighbors with the solar panels, did you talk to any of them?  If your neighbors have lots of solar panels...they may know something terrible that you don't.  You need to talk to the Electric Utility Company and your neighbors to find out how much it will cost to get electricy to your homestead. 

[thecfarm]

Power company should be able to do a quote for you for free.
I ran 500 feet up my driveway. If I would of just called them in Dec.,instead of Feb, I could of had the power installed for free. The rules got changed the first of the year.

[terrifictimbersllc]

You are one lucky guy.  8)

[Crossroads]

The guy from the power company said it's roughly $10 a foot, but if I want an exact quote I have to pay $250 for the engineering.

I tried to talk to the neighbors, the one with the solar panels (2) wasn't home. I left a note, but haven't gotten a call. The other had a gate with lots of less than welcoming signs.

Thanks Dennis, if the perc test are good this week things should start moving pretty fast.

[thecfarm]

$250  :     I hope they take that off the bill if you decide to do it.  :

[Crossroads]

I wish, but I didn't get that impression.