After 16 years in Chicago, Captain Dapper is looking for a new setting.
The Mister has been talking about buying a country house for about ten years now. In the beginning I would shoot down the idea, citing my childhood experiences in small town America and love of urban life. And then, in the past year or so, something in me shifted. The prospect of having a place where we're more likely to hear chirping birds than car alarms is suddenly appealing. Having an entire house to ourselves, where we could be as loud as we want at any hour of the day (hello midnight dance parties!) is another plus. We already own a condo in the city so we wouldn't be making the move to the country full time so I've started to reason that buying a country house would give us the best of both worlds. I'd still have access to an urban world but we could also run off to the country for a little peace and quiet.
Once I caved on the country house decision, we started looking in earnest. We have a few requirements for our country home: it must be within 3-4 hours of Chicago, the house must sit on at least 1 acre of land and have a sense of privacy and seclusion and, while we're quite willing to make cosmetic changes, we'd prefer something that doesn't need major work. Our budget is small so we're already priced out of most of the vacation communities close to Chicago. Although we would prefer something closer to the city, given our budget constraints we've pushed our distance range out to the 4 hour mark. And that's how we ended up looking at this 1830's farmhouse at 8271 East 1125 S in Fairmount, Indiana.
At 3 hours and 41 minutes away, Fairmount, Indiana is pushing the distance out to the farthest we're willing to go. That we hit traffic on the way out of the city, delaying us a bit, was not a good sign. There's just no easy way to get out of the city heading south. We also crossed over to the Eastern time zone, making the drive feel morel like 5 hours. But for the right house in the right location, we're willing to make some sacrifices.
The house was everything we expected - an old farmhouse sitting on five acres of land with two outbuildings and a silo. It doesn't get much more country than that. We were initially drawn to the house due to its age. If we stayed in the house for just twenty years, we reasoned, it would be 200 years old! Such history! Although the current owner has made great strides in making the house feel comfortable and modern, it is a very old house indeed. The kitchen is outdated, the floors are so uneven that you could get seasick walking through the rooms, and the plaster walls have large holes in them from years of patchwork repairs. While the age of the house initially seemed romantic, it's probably not practical as a part-time home. If we were looking for a full-time house where we'd want to invest the time and energy to update it, this might be the perfect solution. For a weekend and summer home, however, a 200-year-old house may not be ideal. I picture us spending all of our free time keeping the house in working order and fighting off raccoon trying to set up home in the basement.
While this may not be the house for us, it should be the house for someone. The seller wants to be out of the house before winter so she's very motivated to sell. If were in a different position, like if we wanted to be full time gentlemen farmers or had a little more money to invest in an older home, this house would be perfect. In other words, someone go buy this house!
All was not lost by our trip to this region of Indiana. The house is just a hop, skip and a jump from Fairmount, Indiana, final resting place of James Dean. In fact, the proximity to Fairmount is what initially drew us to this farmhouse. Our thinking was that perhaps we could rent out some or all of the house during Fairmount's big tourist weekends. In my overly romantic mind, I had visions of turning this old farm house into a bed and breakfast.
Since we had made the trek, we stopped to pay our respects to Mr. Dean. We also got the opportunity to live out our James Dean/Natalie Wood fantasies at the James Dean Gallery.
Images: Jason Loper
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