Acreage Living , need some advice .

searay · #1 09-26-2007, 03:50 PM

Fellas, I'm looking at buying a house and 20 acres about 15-20 mins out of town. I have never lived on an acreage but have always wanted too. The acreage is very low maintenance as far as grass cutting as it is cut into trees. I have 3 kids, a daughter and 2 boys. All 3 at some point will be involved in winter sports. We also go to the lake just about every weekend we can in the summer. BUT I have always wanted the privacy and freedom to quad,snowmobile,hunt ect.. all out my back door. The wife is as excited about it as I am.

Is there anyone else out there with a young family living on an acreage that can shed some light on whether you love it, hate it or otherwise and the reasons.

Thanks

spurs · #2 09-26-2007, 04:09 PM

Is there a house on it? a well, power, natural gas. If not forget everything you love for 2 years. good luck. Unless you have alot of money.

By the way I just got my grass down this year on mine. But your right it is great I can **** on the driveway and I don't have the neighbour lady running over to help me.

searay · #3 09-26-2007, 04:16 PM

Actually it has a newer house on it already, so no building (i can't imagine building a house right now). Mikehunt do you have kids, do they like it. I am 99.9 % sure mine will but you never know until you get out there.

MB1 · #4 09-26-2007, 04:32 PM

I know I regret not buying one when Alberta prices were realistic. We'd love one. Go for it.

cornhole · #5 09-26-2007, 04:35 PM

This acreage question is a good one, i am currently 23 years old and grew up on an acreage most of my life....it was great when i was younger (prior to age of 14) becasue i could rip on the dirtbike and not have anyone around shouting profanities because the two stroke was too loud, unfortunately once i got to high school i was more interested in what my friends were doing in town and found that the acreage was just a way of keeping me away from friends and the partying that begins to happen at that time (the dumb minds of an adolescent male)....but once i turned eighteen you start to see all the benefits of being on an acreage and if i had the means i would give my right arm to live on one now....dunno if that will help you out with your decision, but depending on age of your children be prepared to do alot of driving back and forth to the nearest town both for drop offs and late night pick ups!!!!

spurs · #6 09-26-2007, 04:36 PM

It's great! Yes I have kids ones four and ones, one. It is great to listen to the coyotes and owls and well it's just really good. Just respect your neighbors

RancheroMan · #7 09-26-2007, 05:18 PM

I grew up on an acreage, and it was great. From about age 7 to 14, we lived out of town (only about 5 miles, but it was in a small town, so it doesn’t take long to be in the middle of nothing) and loved being outside. Hardly ever sat by a TV, spent a lot of time by myself, but I didn't mind. I think it's important to be able to be comfortable alone. I played outside, built tree forts in the summer, snow forts in the winter, walked a lot of pastures shooting gophers, chores, chores and chores!

At the same time, I was glad that we moved into town when we did. I was more interested in spending time with others then by myself. Got a lot closer with my friends, and it wasn’t till we moved into town that I actually started to look a girls! (I think I was starting to worry some of the family! )

But growing up on an acreage never leaves you. I’m now 25 and my girlfriend and I have bought a chunk of land to build on one day.

Outt and Aboutt · #8 09-26-2007, 05:37 PM

We've lived on an acreage for 10 years. My kids, 10 and 13, absolutely love it. They often tell me how much they like it here and are glad they don't live in the city. We'll see in 2 or 3 more years, but for now, they have never come close to saying they wanted to move. They sometimes gripe about wishing they had more friends around, but they lie in bed in the evening, listening to the frogs and coyotes and silence, and tell me how great it is. Lot's of adventures to find, and if you take them to friends' house now and then, and have them invite friends over, between that and school, they don't seem to be suffering any social deprivation. I also really enjoy the freedom of not being told what kinds of trees I can grow on my lawn, or if I can burn a few branches or practice with the bow in my backyard. Ya still have to be mindful of your neighbours, but they seem to be pretty laid back as well and appreciate the same sorts of things.
D

Rackmastr · #9 09-26-2007, 06:19 PM

I live on an acreage inside a small town....we've got 4 acres and a LOT of grass to cut...so that part gets a bit annoying. Always seems like theres something to do around the yard, but it keeps a guy busy and its fun making the place look nice.

We're on the edge of a town of 2000 and its nice being on the outskirts and having deer, pheasants, grouse, etc, etc running around and very nice having room for the dogs to run and play. I have room to park my trailers, vehicles, etc.

When I have kids, they'll have room to play and run around safely. I wouldnt change it for the world, though some times I wish I had less grass and yard work around.....heh.

Versatile · #10 09-26-2007, 06:35 PM

Rack you just gotta get yourself a few kids to cut the grass

Tredeb · #11 09-26-2007, 06:52 PM

I live on an acreage and can't imagine ever moving back into town. I have a two 4-yr olds and they love it. This is the first year they have come chicken hunting and they love it.

A few things that you need to consider depending on your situation are:

Water - make sure you have a good well. My sister has poor water and they constantly struggle with sand. Not fun

Snow removal - good excuse for a quad and blade.

Garbage pick-up - I haul my own every couple of weeks.

Coyotes - good excuse to buy another gun

pests - skunks etc. - Good excuse to buy yet another gun.

Insurance may be higher depending on proximity to a fire hall.

I think you will enjoy it, but you will ruin yourself for city living

Trev

heybert · #12 09-26-2007, 08:36 PM

I moved into an acreage in June and my wife and I are loving it. Somebody on here said something about having lots of money and
I have to agree to some degree. Our place was basically a brand new house on a pile of dirt. We had some major landscaping to do around the house. We had a metal clad buiding built for our barn/workshop and we put up approximately a km of fencing. Thank god of hydrolic post-pounders. We still have a lot of work to do, but things are winding down for the winter.............then the winter projects starts inside the house. As for animals, get to shoot gophers outside my bathroom window. Always see coyotes and mule deer on my property. I'm on the hunt for the skunk that's living aound our place. Don't want him crossing paths with our dogs, especially the Jack Russell!! I don't have any kids yet, but the kids around here don't seem to mind being out in the country. always see them on their dirt bikes or quads.

MuleyMonster · #13 09-26-2007, 08:49 PM

Lived on a farm all of my life and had to move to the city for my job. Jumped at the first chance I could get out of the city. Do not doubt that it was the best move for me and my family. I have a 5, 3 & 1 year old and they love that deer, skunks, rabbits, and all kinds of birds come into the yard. Moved far enough away from the city that they do not have to attend a large city school and get to play all kinds of sports growing up.

As for grass cutting you just have to buy your wife a new riding mower and she will do all the grass cutting while getting a good tan. I only have about 2 acres with garbage pick up, street lights and street cleaning but there are only 15 acerages and everyone has about 2 acres. Like our own little town and everyone is really friendly.

One word of warning is as your kids grow make sure that if there are other acerage owners around that you respect their opinions. If you have a kid that like to ride quads/dirt bikes make sure you talk to you neighbours. Even though it is you land you still have to get along with neighbours and if they do not like the noise every night it will only cause hard feelings. With 20 acres this should not be a problems so enjoy and take the plung you will not regret it.

saltwater cowboy · #14 09-26-2007, 09:00 PM

DO IT!!!!!!!!
I built my own house on an acreage 3 years ago, lot of work but nice to be able to park the toys anywhere you want and have a firepit with a big***** fire.
Cutting the grass takes 3 or 4 hours but buy a good ride-on with a canopy and a beer holder and it is now a great way to relax. Hopefully your wife likes not having neighbours real close but a dog helps.
The kid thing gets complicated as they get older but as I say to mine, you won't live here forever, I will.
Insurance will cost more for the house, less for the car.
Snow removal sucks when you are in a hurry but a great passtime when you're not and you have a quad with a blade. Lose electricity and you lose water for the can which seems to happen more in the country.
Gophers and moles and I are at war but even thats fun.
Its all worth it when you can sit on the front porch in the evening and not hear a car.
Hope this helps

TreeGuy · #15 09-26-2007, 09:47 PM

I grew up being able to hunt deer off of my back step. I live in the city now and it is alright, but hunting off of the back step was better! There were 5 of us kids, and yeah, once that ol' puberty set in there were plenty of miles put on the car (although we were only 7 miles out of town). The answer my parents gave us was that if ya want to go to town as much as you do, get a job and buy your OWN damn car!

Great life lesson, as we all ended up getting jobs and our own cars!

As for the grass thing.......my first job for $5/week, or about $0.65/hr.

With snow, there was a bonus if the drifts were over your heads. Anyway, enjoy your acerage, and if you have girls, get 'em horses! Girls love horses. If you have boys.....same reason!

Tree

Soreneck Racing · #16 09-26-2007, 10:00 PM

My wife and I rented an acreage when we got married twenty some years ago. It was north of Stony Plain about 10 miles.

Great place, very private-we had many good times there. Abundant wildlife, coyotes to sing you to sleep at night, birds to watch at the feeder in the morning!

One of our challenges was the poor water we had. Lots of iron in it, wife washed the whites in town at a laundromat. Check out your water supply very carefully. Another problem was the road into our place, always seemed to be icy and on a hill to boot. I was in the ditch three times that winter!

As mentioned, the taxi service for the kids will probably kill you on the fuel but the benefits may very well outweigh the lifestyle options available to them in the city. I guess it is a balance . . . you will have to determine yourself.

Good luck,

Tundra Monkey · #17 09-27-2007, 08:51 AM

I lived in town for 30 years. We moved 20 minutes out of town onto a 10 mile long lake 5 years ago.

Generator-battery-inverter set up
Propane
Main heat is wood
Pump water from the lake once per week (-40 not so fun)

30+ lb trout

moose/wolf/caribou/bbear/sml game

2 kids (1 and 4)......only regret is that we didn't do it sooner.

tm

searay · #18 09-28-2007, 10:00 AM

Thanks fellas. We are going for our second showing tomorrow.

I am really leaning towards putting an offer on it. I appreciate all the opinions and suggestions. As the smaller city we live in now gets busier and busier I really want to get out and have some space and privacy to enjoy the outdoors right off my front step with my kids.. There is a lake at the back of the property and I dream of taking my lab and kids down there and setting up a blind and throwing some decoys out for a duck shoot when they get older !! When I walked the trails of the property , deer tracks everywhere....

Fingers crossed and wallet wipe open... You only live once.

Silverado · #19 09-28-2007, 10:59 AM

I grew up in Cochrane back when it was a lot smaller, and spent lots of time of friend's acerages and farms.

I think the only issue with kids is as has already been posted; when they get to be teenagers and want to hang out with their friends all the time, they may find the isolation a bit frustrating, but that is a very workable problem IMO.

Having lived in Vancouver, back to Calgary, and now FM, all I can say is GET ME OUTTA THE CITY!

Not on your life would I want to raise kids today anywhere BUT in the country, and near a small town, not a city.