About six months ago, we started toying with the idea of what it might look like if we split our lives between the city and the country.We are both fortunate enough to have jobs that allow us a fair bit of autonomy, and the flexibility to work from home.
We talked about the risks we were willing to take -- "yes" to bears and snakes, "no" to earthquakes and inundation zones. We considered how much effort we wanted to put into renovation versus maintenance, and the time commitment we could make on a daily-weekly-monthly basis.
We knew we wanted to be near a community, but far enough away from our neighbors to feel like no one would come wandering up the road by accident. We wanted to have a substantial garden, and all the better if we could keep some livestock or poultry, too. We wanted land that would require enough labor to keep us in shape, but not so much that it would overwhelm us or displace our professional responsibilities.
Perhaps most importantly, we wanted a place where our families -- including two amazing young nephews -- and our friends would want to visit, and make memories in.
So, over the course of a few months, we took a few drives, and turned to the internets. We played with Google Earth -- a lot -- and scoured sites like Zillow and Trulia. We visited... nine? properties, and found ourselves enamored of two that could not have been more different while still meeting all of our requirements.
Finally, after another round of visits to each property, we made an offer on Bear Creek... and then we waited.
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