We went driving around today looking at the properties that had interested us from the listings- to see if they were viable possibilities. The house with the barn has potential, but they would need to come down even farther on the price for us to bite. The property and house are very nice, though the house is a little lacking in curb appeal, but I could probably fix that. The barn is quaint and the stocked pond is really nice.

The house in the orange grove was effectively ruled out. It could have been really neat, but it has been empty for a while with for sale signs up and people have trashed it. The house had almost all of the windows broken, and lots of other major damage including graffiti on the outside and inside (we could see in through the broken windows as we drove past the house). The warehouse space in the back had been vandalized as well, but those buildings wouldn't be as hard to deal with. The house would probably have to be torn down as it has been open to the environment for quite a while and has probably been overtaken by mold. The orange groves were very overgrown with weeds and needed a lot of care as well. Even if that property was given to us, it would take a significant amount of money to make it viable again. It was such a shame because the property had a lot of potential.

We looked at a few others, some were foreclosures or pre-foreclosures that I had located on the internet, but nothing really grabbed us. There was one brand new house that was in a beautiful setting, but it would have taken a lot to get it to work for the dogs. It had a narrow backyard with a canal, and lots of room on the sides, but no doors opened to the sides, so to have a fenced yard for the dogs with a door that opened out to it would take some serious modifications. It could be done, I am sure, but I'm not sure it would be worth it. The price was a little on the high side as well. So we moved on and looked some more, driving up and down the roads all through the area of the island that we like.

Then we found it. I'm not sure how much of a prospect it will be because we know so little about it, but I am going to find out. We passed this neat spanish style house on a lot full of huge mature oaks and saw a sign out front. I made Andy turn around so we could take a look. The sign out front said "Shown by appointment only" and had a plastic box on it for informational flyers, but they were all gone. There was no phone number or name or anything on the sign itself. It is apparently for sale by owner, because I have scoured the internet and the multiple listing service and it is not there anywhere.

I looked it up on the property appraiser's website, and found that it was built in 1925. This is a big plus for me, because I love houses with history. From the looks of it, it has been fully restored recently, because it seemed to be in excellent shape. The house is only a little bigger than our current house, but it is on over an acre of land, so the possibilities are there for a workshop for Andy and anything else we might want to do. It is also far enough away from any neighbors not to have to worry about noise problems. It is across the street and down a little from some horse riding rings and also a gorgeous natural park that is on the edge of the Indian River with an area for launching small boats or canoes. Judging from the market value listed by the property appraiser's office, it might not be out of our price range, but we will just have to see. I am going to ride past there sometime this week and see if the flyers have been replenished or if there is any other way to get in touch with the seller. I could always write a letter to the owner and send it to the address where he has homestead, but I might not need to resort to that.

We shall see.