Wide Open Spaces

Our first order of business after closing on our new land in the heart of Moraga was evicting all of the boats, RVs, tractors and cars that were parked all over it. This process was long and tedious (we had to consult the stack of index cards that the owner had left us with, and attempt to track down every owner with just a first name and sometimes a street name as a clue).

 

But when almost every vehicle was gone, including some that had to be taken to a junkyard, we were left with the wide open spaces that had drawn us to this diamond in the rough from the start.

 

If you can't see the allure here, you are probably not from Northern California! This is hard to come by, especially within walking distance of schools and shopping.

 

We envisioned space for a backstop, infield and outfield, space for a basketball sports court, room for a pool, and maybe room for a vegetable garden!

 

 

But we knew we had more than enough land to accomplish most of those goals, and decided to take advantage of the fact that the property already had three separate parcels. If we re-drew the lot lines, with the town's blessing, we could sell the little house on its own smaller piece of property, and leave room for two additional new houses.

 

After a year of planning and negotiating with the town, we finally created two quarter-acre parcels at the front of the property, and a large, square parcel at the back of the property that is now a little over an acre. This year, we sold the little house to a sweet little family, and had plans approved for the creation of a new house on the other smaller parcel, which we'll build and live in, while we build our "dream house" in the back.

 

If this all sounds complicated, crazy and completely nuts, we agree! If we had known just how big and convoluted this project would be, I'm not sure we would have started it.

 

But then we go visit that piece of land, and picture in our minds once again all the fun to be had there, and we feel like we won the lottery!