Lots of forward motion!

Yesterday, Scott and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. Yay! Before we went to the beautiful Stone Manor bed and breakfast (we had the Gardenia Suite), we visited the Frederick County Courthouse. (Elizabeth Valance, our realtor said that "some people start out a marriage at the Court House, or end it there. It's great you want to explore just for the fun of it! Congratulations and Happy Sleuthing!" SO cute!) We were very surprised at how much information and overall picture of the process we had gained by day's end!

At the Court House, we found a copy of the deed for the Phoenix property, and discovered that the strange shape of the north side of the property (with those weird arms that embrace the fire station lot) is because, in the '70s, they chopped out the lot on which the fire station now sits out of a much more united whole strip.

We also discovered that the current subdivision process was not complete, and thus there was no large, legible plat of the property at the courthouse. Elizabeth had given us the name of the engineer who had created the proposed subdivision plot and his office was right around the corner from the courthouse. We thus then visited the office of the engineer Gary Castle, and found that everyone was at lunch. So, leaving our phone number, we went to lunch at the Main Cup in Middletown. Yummmm! :D

Mr. Castle called Scott partway through our lunch to say that he couldn't just give us a plat without the owner's permission. We said "call her." He did, then she called her listing agent, and that man, ReMax Agent Billy Shreve, called us. We chatted, and he gave permission for us to see the plat, and kept eating lunch. :) He gave us a recommendation to use Mid-Atlantic Farm Credit bank, where they are looking for only 15% down and serve those who want acreage. He also gave us the name of Larry Smith, on the Frederick zoning board, who could answer our questions about the use of a VC zoned property.

Just as we were finishing lunch and chatting about ordering lattes, Castle called back and we went down to Frederick to get the plat. We had been told that he was a busy man, but he was great! He took forty-five minutes to explain the very complex plat, answered questions about some things that we could or could not do, and told us about the stage that things were at with the subdivision process. We'd have to put in a road to finish the process, and get several government agencies to sign off on it. I'm glad that subdivision is not our real desire! :)

Castle gave us numbers for the man (I forget his name) who can answer our questions about the septic system that's planned. While driving to Stone Manor, we called Larry Smith at zoning, and he was very friendly and helpful. He advised us to talk to the neighbors on all sides. He said there were two stages ahead: an "Exceptions Approval" phase, and then a "Planning Board Site Plan" phase. IF/when we offer on this land, it will be contingent on passing over these speed bumps. Larry said that our proposal would totally hinge on the neighbor's support or lack thereof.

The last phase of headway that we made in our busy, yet peaceful, day was that we met two neighbors. They told us that the house burned after it's owner had departed for a nursing home and the house was empty at that time--about four years ago. (I was grateful: I had worried that the fire had caused a death at the time, but it hadn't.) We learned that the neighborhood will be supportive of almost anyone who doesn't want to subdivide those back lots, causing those back acres to have new houses. That's us! :D So, we're feeling good about that information. Scott's looking forward to glad-handing the neighbors, and letting them know what we're basically going to be up to.

Today, Dec. 2, we awoke at the bed & breakfast, and headed home about 9:30. On the way, we rang up Elizabeth and talked over "next steps." Scott spent the bulk of the day preparing to talk to Sandy Spring about our down payment money and some of our business banking situations. It's in need of disentangling, but we have lots of time. We're a bit shaky on financing, mostly 'cause of timing. We will need wisdom and timing as we approach banks and begin to understand our limitations. It may all yet be a pipe dream, but we're happily puffing on it tonight! :D