A Plague in the Basement (7/20/2007)

Yesterday was a day for the records.

Over our weekend at home (meaning that we didn't spend it driving all over the countryside looking at farms) we scoured every MLS listing for farms in the areas where we are interested in living. Much to our dismay we realized that we had seen, dismissed, or were thinking about all the farms there were to see at this time.

If we weren't going to expand our search to different parts of the state or minimize our needs to include properties previously excluded, the ones we had seen were the ones we would need to chose from. This meant our task for the weekend did not include a new list of farms to drive-by on Monday and view on Tuesday. It meant determining which of the farms we'd already seen that we wanted to see again. With the intent, of course, that we would make an offer on one.

We carefully narrowed the list down to the top three farms, none of which we were truly certain of, but that's what a second visit is about . . . right? Our realtor set up the viewings and on Tuesday we started out for these very important visits with our digital camera in hand so we wouldn't forget important details about these farms.

The first farm was one we'd only driven by before, but all the research we'd done made it look good. The farmhouse was small, but I have begun to wrap my mind around accepting this as normal for a farm. When we visited it we found it to be a cute Dutch Colonial that was very cozy and comfortable inside. The land, however, had too many trees and consisted of rocky soil and rolling hills. It was no longer a contender.

The second farm was the lovely, but needy 40 acre farm we'd visited before. After looking it over thoroughly this time we realized that it wasn't really as bad as we'd first thought. And this time we got inside the second house on the property, a cottage that proved to be very warm and charming. There was work to do, but it didn't look like too much and it was a great property.

The third one was also a great choice. The owner had come back and finished up some unfinished projects and overall the house was looking better than it had before. We had even begun to think that it might be our first choice until we went down into the basement for the last part of our inspection. The first indication that all might not be well was when a tiny two-inch frog happily hopped past us across the basement floor.

Now it had been raining all day, but the frog was inside the house, not outside. My first thought was how one of the seven plagues of Egypt that God sent when Moses was trying to set His people free were frogs. This is a very unfarming, city-fied thought, I admit, but it does give one pause. Well, it gave me pause.

All of us began to wonder where the water was that this little guy had sprung from. While my husband and our realtor busied themselves searching the dark spider-web encrusted corners of the basement (and there were too many), I scanned the basement walls from the safety of the second or third stair up from the froggy floor (give me a break here, there was more than one frog hopping about).

I was surprised to discover that I could see outside around the blocks of the foundation. The grout between many of these blocks was missing. And the wood flooring above us was not completely attached and sealed to the block foundation. There were bands of light showing along the top of the block foundation as well.

Hummmmm . . . . .

A closer look revealed new support beams installed on raised concrete blocks to hold the main beams of the house up. The basement floor was a study of muddy remains pointing to flooding. Flooding that apparently had resulted in the house having to undergo extensive foundation and support beam repairs that were not done well. This sent us all upstairs and with a definitive swipe of the pen, this place was checked off the list of possibles for our future farming happiness.

This left us with the 40 acre farm to which we'd become attached the moment we first saw it (over the past week I have decorated that farmhouse in my dreams too many times to count). An Egyptian plague in a basement had pointed us in the right direction and we like to think of this as devine intervention.

Our offer had to be made for less than the asking price and as of this moment we are praying it is accepted, or at least there will be some negotiation and discussion about what kind of offer will be acceptable.

In the end we know there is every likelihood that we won't be able to meet the asking price for this farm. But we had to try. If by some incredible miracle, some 'nevertheless' moment (see Facing Your Giants - Max Lucado and 2 Samuel 5:6-9) it becomes ours we will certainly be happy. If not, then we tuck the visions this place inspired away, as many other home and farm buyers across the world have done when their first choice became no choice, and wait for the right place to come up for sale. If you think about us over the next couple of days say a prayer - either way it goes we're going to need it.