Ok so Jamison and I made a trip to Placerville yesterday to look at properties. All in all, the results were discouraging.
The first house was on mostly unusable acreage, the deck was dangerously dry-rotted (I very nearly fell through), and there were several code violations that Jamison was able to spot right off the bat.
The second house was right next door. Again, mostly unusable acreage. The deck was solid on this one, but the interior was really gross and there was really no place to keep any of the livestock we want.
The next house was the house I was really excited about earlier. We voted no on that one too. It had GREAT property with barns and fenced areas, but whoever owned it before messed up big time. It was pretty apparent that he had done all the renovations himself (or perhaps hired the neighbors kid) and that their only building experience was with legos. Most of the wood used on the deck and supports were interior use only, not to mention the wrong sized cuts of wood. The whole thing would have to be ripped out and redone. And the previous owners had really altered the original floor plan, and apparently had never heard of a "level". Almost none of the walls matched up, there was water damage everywhere from a botched roof renovation, and almost NOTHING was up to code. So obviously we voted no.
The next house we couldn't even find it was so far back in dirt roads. It's a miracle we even found our way out.
The last house looked really promising at first. That is, location wise. The drive was pretty nice at first, and we really liked the pictures of it. We kept driving... and driving... and driving... Right when we start to feel like we MUST be almost there, we start seeing signs...
"15% grade"
"Trucks and Trailers not permitted beyond this point"
"Yield to uphill traffic"
There was no turning around. We had no choice but to keep going. This hill was steep, and at the bottom of it was a TINY one car bridge. I got to the bottom and panicked. There was NO WAY I was going to be able to do this. Beyond the bridge was the uphill 15% grade, and there wasn't even enough room for Jamison and I to trade so he could drive. It was me, or nothing. I creeped inch by inch across the bridge with cars on both sides honking and yelling at me to hurry up. I manage to get across, squeak past the other cars, and start gunning it to the top of the hill. We make it, but just barely. Let me tell you, I have never been so grateful to drive a 150hp vehicle. If I had been in a junker I am sure it wouldn't have made it.
Once we got to the top of the hill Jamison and I looked at each other, and without a word I turned the car around to go home. NO house was worth that. I manage to get to the bottom of the hill, cross the bridge, and zoom back up the other side without too much trouble. We almost got hit head on by a speeding SUV that wasn't paying attention to what side of the road they were on as they were coming up the hill, but at that point it was all just par for the course.
Needless to say, that house was a NO. We couldn't even get to it.
After this experience, we decided to narrow our search. We will probably stick to places like Ophir and Woodland where there is farmland, but NO steep hills haha. I honestly still would like to live in the foothills, but Jamison doesn't want snow, and that last experience really kind of traumatized both of us. I actually had nightmares about it last night haha.
So, that is the latest update. Hopefully we will find some more promising prospects very soon.
