The Time We Almost Bought A Swamp House

Have you ever found the perfect house? I mean the PERFECT house.  Only to have it fall through and you realize that maybe it wasn't the perfect HOUSE? Yeah, that happened to us.  When we first found out that our offer had been out-bid (by a cash offer) and that we lost what we thought was going to be our dream house I expected devastation.  Of course, this wasn't the first time we lost our "dream" house (see The Time We Learned What Makes Buying A Fixer Upper Come to a Screeching Hault) so we had some experience to pull from, but amazingly we weren't devastated at all.  And it was for a very simple reason: we didn't want house for the right reasons.

The boys tromping around in the swampy forest behind the house.

I see it now, the error in our judgment on that adorable little house.  It was a cute little ranch out in the middle of no-where with just under 4 acres of swampy forest for my husband and the kids to tromp around in.  It had a cute little pond in the back corner for our Kayak and fishing.  It was quiet and secluded.

The corner of the pond on the back of the property.

The house itself needed very little work.  It had curb appeal issues, no fence (we have a little barky dog that the kids lovingly call "Plup Pup", short for Pluto), the kitchen needed some minor maintenance (the cabinets were cheaply made and partly falling apart), and it had yard drainage issues (which excited the Landscape Designer inside me). There was certainly plenty to keep up busy.

Our youngest child standing in the poorly drained area right behind our back door.

Perhaps you are beginning to see the problem?  After 2 trips out to visit the house, I had taken NO PICTURES of the actual house.  I had roughly 20 pictures of the kids playing in the swampy forest with my husband and I had a handful of pictures of the poorly drained back yard, but the house itself was (according to my pictures) of very little interest.

Our oldest playing in the swampy forest. You can see the back corner the house in this picture,

When our offer for the house was rejected I thought we would be devastated.  I thought we would have to go back to months of searching for another house that could excite us the way this one did.  But we weren't devastated.  In fact, we were only mildly disappointed.  And it is for a simple reason: we wanted the property, not the HOUSE.  This house wasn't even *really* a fixer upper!  We had fallen in love with the "nature" around the house but had sacrificed all the things we wanted in a house!  It turns out, all we needed was to learn the ONE THING not to look for when buying a fixer upper: the property.  Sure, buying a house with nice property is desirable, but when your looking specifically for a fixer upper it's important not to compromise the things your looking for in a house just for the property.

This ended up being a blessing in disguise.  just months later South Carolina faced the worst flooding it had seen in recorded history (The 1000 Year Flood).  This sweet little house, it's property, and the area surrounding it saw severe flooding for weeks.  While we don't know how this specific house faired in the floods, the area around it was devastated for months while homes were gutted.  Shortly after, the county faced a record breaking mosquito season, just as the threat of Zika was rising.  Just one year after that, South Carolina saw yet another record breaking flood caused by the inland runoff from Hurricane Matthew.  The area was again devastated by flooding and hurricane damage.  Not getting this house and it's property was truly a hidden blessing.

What were some of the things you looked for when buying a house?  Have you had similar situations where you've gotten caught up in a single aspect of a house that make you want to sacrifice some of your necessities?  Please share you experiences, questions, and helpful comments below.