250 Acres

During the 2002 trip, our goal was to visit a very small town in southern Vermont. We were looking into the possibility of buying a large piece of land – 250 acres. The house was an old farmhouse originally built in the 1700’s. Attached to it was a newer kitchen and larger portion of the house built in the 1800’s and finally there was a vast open area attached to the back of the house built in the 1900’s The water and sewage systems were excellent.

It also had about 10 outbuildings: smokehouse, corn crib, sugar shack, garages, small rental house currently rented by a professor from William’s College just a few miles away, chicken coop, huge barn, blacksmith’s shop, and others I just can’t remember. It was magnificent. It was very rural. It was Vermont.

The house had a parlor, two full kitchens and a butler’s pantry, 4 bedrooms and several baths. I loved the large space underneath the stairs, which was used as an area for sick people. Whoever was ill was confined to this area as to not spread the disease. Food was passed through a port in the wall.

I was looking around the parlor when I spotted an old wire attached to the corner walls near the wood stove used for heating in the old days. I pointed to it and the owner said that was where his mother’s diapers were dried in the wintertime. His mother died years ago at the age of 90! They never had removed the wire?!?

The land had been in the same family since the 1700’s when the King of England signed the deed to them. It had never been sold since. The owner of this property is the last person in his family line. Michael’s uncle is his partner. There is no one to leave it to.

He made us a terrific offer. It was tempting. I thought it would be perfect to set up a non-profit summer music camp. It had a beautiful huge pasture that would be an excellent venue to present music. I also thought it could be an area for artists, writers and poets to live away from life, renew their passions and create.

Using his records, we determined the yearly upkeep costs. We estimated how much it would cost to bring it up to speed. We realized that we could afford the original cost but not the ongoing costs of operation. Heating oil is not cheap!

I think what determined our decision to not buy it is that it was in Vermont. It was across the country from our friends and family. It was very remote. Winters are very cold and summers are very hot.

The property sold this year to a corporation from the Netherlands and has been totally brought back to its original condition. They paid almost three times the price quoted to us.

We were considering this property in July of 2002. My disease began sometime late 2002 or early 2003. What would have happened had we purchased the property? I would not be ill right now. Broke, but not ill!