Future Planning
Long story short, it looks like fairly soon (in the next few months or so) I'll officially own about 66 acres in North Carolina. It's in a sleepy little farm town in the Raleigh/Durham/Hillsborough/Chapel Hill area.
It's the farm where my mom grew up, and where we spread her ashes after she passed away in 2003. It's also where I have wanted to live since I was about 6 (I'm 32 now, just for reference). If all goes well, I won't have to tear down the buildings myself; the family is talking about the LLC paying to tear down the run-down, useless, unstable, old tobacco barns and sharecropper houses.
Anyway, does anyone have any recommendations for companies that build houses and barns? And good quality fencing (it's been a cattle farm for many years, there's tons of barbed wire fencing I'll have to pull down). I'm starting my research, my move is still a couple years away at least. I just want to have a good plan in place (and the money to pay for it) before I pack up everything and head south.
And just to make this fun, I want to hear other peoples' ideas on what your dream farm would be like.
I'll start: As far as the house goes, I don't want it to be huge, but I want an Antebellum style house with a wraparound porch, a great room that has the grand staircase and at least two fire places. For the barn, I want function over form. At least 12 stalls, preferably either a straight barn or T-shaped. An outdoor ring and an indoor that's close to the barn. And plenty of pastures so I can rotate and not let everything get grazed down to nothing. Did I mention that the hope is I'll be able to buy my aunt's and brother's share of the same plat and own all 105 acres on that side of the road? Here's hoping I can figure out a feasible way to do this...
It's the farm where my mom grew up, and where we spread her ashes after she passed away in 2003. It's also where I have wanted to live since I was about 6 (I'm 32 now, just for reference). If all goes well, I won't have to tear down the buildings myself; the family is talking about the LLC paying to tear down the run-down, useless, unstable, old tobacco barns and sharecropper houses.
Anyway, does anyone have any recommendations for companies that build houses and barns? And good quality fencing (it's been a cattle farm for many years, there's tons of barbed wire fencing I'll have to pull down). I'm starting my research, my move is still a couple years away at least. I just want to have a good plan in place (and the money to pay for it) before I pack up everything and head south.
And just to make this fun, I want to hear other peoples' ideas on what your dream farm would be like.
I'll start: As far as the house goes, I don't want it to be huge, but I want an Antebellum style house with a wraparound porch, a great room that has the grand staircase and at least two fire places. For the barn, I want function over form. At least 12 stalls, preferably either a straight barn or T-shaped. An outdoor ring and an indoor that's close to the barn. And plenty of pastures so I can rotate and not let everything get grazed down to nothing. Did I mention that the hope is I'll be able to buy my aunt's and brother's share of the same plat and own all 105 acres on that side of the road? Here's hoping I can figure out a feasible way to do this...