A year ago today we saw the farm for the first time.

We’d been searching for our dream rural property for nearly a year and a half. After a very frustrating fall with nothing new coming on market, it had been more than a month since we’d actually visited a property.

Then on Jan. 2 sitting in the living room in our little house in the city, Matt hopped on MLS.

A new farm had been listed.

It was in our preferred area. It wasn’t the type of house we usually looked at, but it had a barn and was a good acreage. It was also over our price range. Matt called our agent, and he made an appointment for us to see it the next day.

Our viewing at the farm was different than the viewings when we first started. The rose coloured glasses had come off.

Which was unfortunate, because we really could have used them the first time we stepped into the house.

The good news is the garbage bags turned out to not actually be full of garbage. The bad news was that we ended up buying everything you see when we bought the farm.

No one had lived in the house for a few months, but it was far from empty. Previous owners had left stuff and lots of it. Beyond all of the detritus it was obvious that the house met one of my major criteria. It had potential. Buckets of it.

We toured the barn and fell in love with the historic post and beam construction. We peaked into the driveshed. And that was about all we saw of the 129 acres… because I was so freezing cold.

It was an absolutely frigid day, and standing outside chatting with our agent all I wanted to do was get in the car and turn on the heat. Our agent’s final words as we turned on the ignition were, “I think you could get it for about $100,000 less [than they’re asking].”

And that became the topic of the afternoon. A hundred thousand less than list put it into our price range, but still at the top.

During our frustrating fall we’d had conversations about how we were likely going to have to compromise on something: location, property (meaning acreage, outbuildings, ponds and forests) or price. If we chose to buy this property–which had everything we wanted and was close to where we grew up and where our families still lived–it was clear that our compromise point was going to be the budget.

Matt was ready to go for it. The farm ticked all our boxes… except for price. That night was a sleepless one for me.

The morning of Jan. 4, we called our agent and to his surprise told him to put together an offer. At his office later that day we found out that the buyers had already received other offers. Bad news, we were about to enter our third bidding war. Good news, the buyers were waiting for our offer.

We signed the offer and crossed our fingers. Our agent said he expected we’d hear something back that evening. That night we sat up until midnight, but the phone was silent.

When we finally headed to bed, I slept with no trouble. We’d made our decision and it felt right. We’d done all we could, and it was up to other people now.

First thing the next morning, the phone finally rang. It was our agent. Our offer had been accepted.

Finally farm owners.

As I hung up the phone and told Matt the good news, I burst into tears–happy tears. After a year and a half of searching, we had found our perfect place and it felt exactly right.

Now a year later having owned the farm for ten months, it feels even more right.