When we first came to this house, we were shocked by the amount of garbage, building supplies, furniture, and appliances that one person could accumulate, let alone be comfortable leaving outside of their home as "yard art."  By the time we moved in, the previous owner had gone through the property and moved a majority of the junk either to the dump or to the dead neighbor's house.  

The previous owner had removed a lot of his litter, the start of his poorly-planned garage, the construction scraps, and his yard cars.  We were pleasantly surprised by his willingness to clean up his mess, although it might have had something to do with the strongly written addendum to the sales contract that specified severe monetary penalties for failure to do so.  

Thus we felt as if we had won a small battle and would be starting with a property in decent working order with no outdoor mess.  Little did we really understand how much we would be adding to the yard detritus in the coming days.

Within 24 hours of moving in, we realized that there were three full sized appliances that didn't work at all and another two that were too gross for us to consider using.  And, in rural zone tradition, these (along with assorted cabinets that were removed) ended up decorating our yard while awaiting a trip to the appliance recycle.

One of the few things that Ted was honest about was that the dishwasher was non-functional. Actually, he said that half of it was broken, a piece he picked up a few years ago from a home he remodeled.  After a quick inspection, we realized that the dishwasher itself didn't work at all and instead was a breeding ground for mold, bacteria, and small insects.  

Chris put this at the top of his priority list and began to attempt to remove the dishwasher.  This turned out to be relatively simple, although the plumbing that it revealed was more than a little suspect.

Ted had connected the drain line for the dishwasher to a mysterious place on the sewer pipe five feet below the cabinets in the basement.  This, in turn, was allowing sewer gasses to come into the house and giving us a lovely odor.  

Chris, ever the craigslist shopper, found a contractor who was giving away a fully-functioning dishwasher that would be completely sufficient for our current needs.  He hopped in the truck and came back an hour later with a cleaner, prettier, working dishwasher.  

The fact that it has yet to be installed is subject for another day... 

We got possession at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday the 4th.  This, of course, was three weeks after our targeted closing date.  Given that our house was rented as of Saturday morning, we needed to move our things ASAP.  Lynda and Terry had rented a Uhaul and the boys spent the night moving our things to the new farm as the girls spent the evening painting, cleaning, and discovering the new house.  

Several things quickly became apparent: the house had no water, no heat, and virtually no cleaning for the last decade.  

Not to be thwarted, we figured this was simply the first of many discoveries that we would make in our new house.  And, of course, we were right.

Chris and I looked at each other last summer and decided that our lives were boring and predictable.  We had a nice house in a nice suburb with a nice yard and nice neighbors.  We spent a lot of time sitting in our nice living room watching our nice TV and eating nice meals at nice restaurants.  We were totally bored.  We knew that living on a farm was something we loved - we had rented one before buying our first house - but didn't know if we could financially swing it, not to mention that we would be tied to the property every day if we ever brought our horses home.  

The answer to this problem came from my parents.  They were considering downsizing their lives and going the hippie route - putting all their possessions into an RV and travelling the country for a few years.  They wanted a home base that felt peaceful, was easy to maintain, and family oriented.  

We had a short, but strict list of requirements for a house: walking distance to our current town, minimum of five reasonably flat and cleared acres that were free of wetland restrictions, access for a 40 foot RV, a functioning well and septic, and a livable house. Not surprisingly, this left approximately 20 properties, all down one road, that met our requirements.

Houses down this road only rarely became available and we spent the winter keeping watch for any potential sales.  In January, on Craigslist, I found an ad:  Older home on ten acres 94th Street, Snoqualmie.  That was literally the entire thing.  No picture, no link to any other information, no phone number, nothing.  What followed was the most mysterious email exchange.

Hello,
I would like to come take a look at your property.  I know a family who lives down your road (the Neylands) and they said that it is a great community. 
Please let me know when a good time to come see it would be.  Thank you,
Kate 

The place is a mess. come have a look. Pigs are almost gone we only have one left. Chickens are getting thinned out by coyote's. Tree destroyed there house).We sold some timber last summer and branches need to be cleaned-up.  No anyone with a backhoe I could barrow? I think I met the Neylands, we been here 10 years.

Thank you for your response!
Is the land mostly dry or are there any wetland areas?  We would be looking for a longer term property - something to turn into a retirement home and horse property in a few years, so no need to be pretty now.
Is the house livable?  Or is it too destroyed to be functional?  
Was the property once a 16 acre parcel?  The Neylands own Challenges Northwest, where the road cuves sharply to the right.  Marti seemed to think so as she was remembering it.  Apparently her kids used to be babysat by the fellow who built the house.  
Do you have a ballpark on what amount you are looking for for your property?
Thanks,
Kate

The place was a push over ten years ago when we saw it. I worked on it four weeks to make it livable. I have some 'Cowboy Jim' Stories from neighbors etc.
I many low ball offers, really thinking I can get 399 for it. About half is flat, east half is sloped some and has wetland. The six acre parcel to the East, Jim Neil sold to Paul Boulanger in '98 is a dump and lilkly be auctioned by the IRS. The property in vacant/abandoned,Boulanger die last fall). Our property line is 6' from their front door.

At this point we knew we were interested in looking at the house, but didn't quite realize what we were getting into.  Subsequent emails threw a few red flags into the mix (questionable roofing, well connections, a fire, and a title issues) but we were not to be swayed.  Ten acres in this location is unheard of.  Over the next four months we tried to get the seller to agree to a contact, but he was a bit dodgy and the process was slow.  Luckily for us his craigslist ads and subsequent responses were not very inviting and any potential other purchasers were likely scared away...