Where it all started.

In the spring of 2007 my wife and I started casually looking around a beautiful valley in Wyoming for a nice piece of land we could purchase for investment with the possibility that we might move there eventually. We looked at many pieces but most were either too big, too expensive, not in a location that we loved or they were just flat farm ground. I love flat farm ground - it's beautiful - but I'm not a farmer so this just wasn't of interest to me. I didn't want to own a large piece of land that was all weeds because I live out of state and can't keep it watered. And if we were ever to move there, I didn't really want to have my home in the middle of a large field of weeds. Maybe my views would change living there and I'd water it and enjoy moving pipe all the time, but I kind of doubt it. What we were trying to find was a couple acres that had some mature tree growth on the lot that bordered the forest or had some privacy.

One weekend in July we were up visiting my parents. I met with a realtor friend we know up there and saw a few different properties but I just wasn't stoked about any of them. I had pretty much retired the idea of finding something we liked this year and we really weren't in any hurry anyway. Buying real estate is expensive so I didn't want to rush it.

Just before bed that night my wife picked up the local paper and saw this little home in the forest advertised for sale. I didn't want to buy land with a home, but she convinced me to at least look at it. The next day we drove out to take a look. The home was nothing special but we both saw some potential in it. The land however was beautiful. Since I was a kid I've always wanted a home nestled in the trees with scenery out every window. This place has it. After a couple of months of negotiations we bought the property. The home needs some work, but having built several homes ourselves, we figured we could handle it. So this is how our "Wyoming House" came about. On this blog we'll document the remodel and progress of turning this old delapidated home into a comfortable weekend getaway. Below is a picture of our drive into the place. The home sits on 5 acres covered in quaking aspen and pine trees. the little structure shown is the well house.