getting started in North Idaho! we bought bare land...

17 Nov, 2020

In Nov 2018, My husband and I purchased land in North Idaho.

Our history

We moved to California in 2006 from Hawaii and at that time, I absolutely LOVED it...mountains, lakes, ocean, country, city, entertainment, all in one state and within a fair driving distance. I lived most of my adult years in Hawaii and I became and worked as a RN here. My husband is a motorcycle mechanic. Moving to California was a strategic move for our growing family. We had 3 children at that time and we were outgrowing the 3 bedroom 1 bath 800+ s.f. House. We travelled to California on vacation several times to visit his family, but my husband never really wanted to make the move. Then one trip, we ventured outside of family and amusement parks and visited Yosemite National Park. I thought it was amazing and we looked around at what real estate was going for and we were hooked. I couldn’t shake the feeling of needing to move there. I researched online, joined online forums, and on our next trip, we vigorously looked at houses. The housing market was hot hot hot and there were only a handful available at a time with the features we were looking for. We put multiple offers and lost just as many until we were finally accepted. This is the real estate climate in Idaho now in 2020. We sold everything we could and left Hawaii six months after we made the decision to move. It was the best decision we ever made. Our kids grew up in the country, playing in the dirt, raised farm animals, and strong 4-H members for 10 years each.

Being in California gave us opportunities we didn’t have in Hawaii. Our family thrived, but now I am feeling the need to leave. The fires are getting closer, the land is dry, the weather is hot, rain is scarce, and the political climate is straying too far from what I believe in.

Thinking about our future

We travelled 29 states in our RV over the years vacationing with the kids. Little did we know at the time that we were unconsciously evaluating our retirement place. In the past few years, I have been feeling increasingly antsy to find my forever home. Some of my friends moved to Arizona, Colorado, Las Vegas, and Texas. Idaho seemed like a whole new world and no one in my circle of friends was talking about Idaho so I started researching online, joining online forums, stalking Facebook sites relating to Idaho. Once I was convinced that this was somewhere I could move to, we visited. Now, when I am set on a path I am determined. All my research said that Coeur D’Alene (CDA) was where I wanted to be. I pictured a quaint lake community with a small town and seasonal tourists...but...there is nothing like visiting and seeing for yourself. 

Is Idaho where we want to be?

November 2018. The drive took 19 hours over 2 days and driving through Oregon and Washington and finally reaching Idaho was a great feeling. When we arrived in Coeur D’Alene, I already had a long list of properties that I wanted to look at and we looked at them all. I tried to make each fit into my plan, but I couldn’t. What I imagined CDA would be, was not what I saw. It was quite a large city, I would compare it to a prettier Fresno, CA. I’m a country girl and so, this is not for me. I thought Hayden would be a smaller town, but it is like Clovis is to Fresno, it is a slightly smaller city right next to a bigger city. I need more country. I continued to venture north. The next big city is Sandpoint - I originally thought this was too far north. We drove by many properties. There were many that we could not find so we chose to enlist the help of a realtor. We found a young man who has lived in the area his whole life and he helped us get into areas we couldn’t find before and he emailed us new listings that fit what we were looking for. After a week, we were almost ready to give up. With only one day left, the last property we visited on our list turned out to be the ONE. It was a property we had not found in our searches, it was given to us by our realtor. We put an offer and it was accepted on our last day in town. We secured financing and we bought 20 acres of our own private Idaho!   

July 2020 

I had been corresponding with a few vendors for my next goal of cutting roads and dropping a sea container for storage on my property. 

I found several vendors for sea containers online and spoke to and corresponded by email. In the end, I chose Drybox through an ad I found on Craigslist. I made an appointment, paid a small deposit, and set out to their yard in Post Falls. The salesman was so welcoming and walked us through the yard to pick out the exact container we wanted.  There are 3 grades available: brand new, 1-trip, and watertight. Brand new is about $1000 more and watertight means it won’t get wet inside, but it looks beat up. We chose a 1-trip box. He showed us several boxes in that category and we looked at the outside and inside.  Prior to this, I didn't think this was an option. I imagined we paid for and received a random box from that category and got what we got. We picked a real nice container in fabulous shape in blue. He took a photo of the numbers on the box and encouraged me to do the same so that I could ensure I received that box. The next question was when it was loaded on the truck, should the doors face toward the truck or face the back. I viewed a few online videos to see how a box would be delivered and set. It comes on a tilt trailer and slid down to its resting spot. 

We had approximately 1 mile of road/paths cut around the perimeter of our property. Hired an excavator for the day. Cost $1300. I expected for this job to take 2 or 3 days. Just goes to show what the right equipment driven by an experienced operator can do. Amazing work by Precision Landworks. He also made a pad for a 20 foot sea container which is 20 x 8 feet = 160 s.f., under the max 200 s.f. which would need a permit per local building code in our county. End of July was in the 90s, sunny, and a dry heat. The ground here is dusty soil, easy to dig, nothing like the hardpan at our CA property...and barely any rocks at all! 

We trucked over our own small Takeuchi excavator and my husband helped and continued the job by removing more brush and smaller trees. Our equipment is a little workhorse too, but no match for the powerful and much bigger CAT. My husband was able to dig out quite a few tree stumps which is something I didn't imagine possible.

Peak Sand & Gravel delivered 17 plus tons of 3"minus rock for the pad which was recommended by the container company as a base layer. This much material delivered in my area in CA would cost about $900. This cost me $290! I was very pleasantly surprised. The delivery came on time, delivered by a kind man who said he knew exactly where we came from because he had family there. So far, North Idaho has been so nice, service is top notch, and everyone genuinely seems happy. He dropped the gravel and our excavator man spread and packed it down. 

The next morning, our Drybox was scheduled to arrive.  Once again, on time and with a smile; super professional drop exactly where we pictured it. The driver had moved from CA himself years ago and had nothing but great things to say about Idaho. 

We managed to knock out my to-do list in the 1st few days and my plans worked out perfectly. With the several extra days we had to spare, we explored the nearby city of Spokane, WA and I found a lady selling small fruit trees off Facebook marketplace.  I bought 3 apple and 3 cherry trees. I planted them with torn up cardboard mixed with dirt  in 18-24" deep holes. I made a circle of fencing around each one to stave off wildlife and returned daily for the next 3 days to deeply water them. Hopefully they will survive until we can return. Weather shows the heatwave to continue for at least the next week. Nights are in the 50s. 

On our last day, we had an appointment with a local builder, one with excellent reviews, locals. We shared pleasant correspondence prior to the meeting and I had a good feeling going in. We were met warmly and discussed what we wanted, a house of about 2000 s.f. Well, the meeting started out alright, but I started to feel like they were out of our league and when he finally pinned me down on price range, I offered about $300K and he told us that a house that size would be starting at $500K nowadays because the price of materials was skyrocketing. Needless to say, I felt utterly defeated, like our dreams were smashed. We left town shortly after and I started thinking of settling for less. 

I started researching other types of homes. I love Pinterest! Modular homes and barndominiums looked like a possibility. I stalked Pinterest sites, researched local companies online, and bought books. Online prices looked promising. It looked like a build for less than $300K might be a possibility. I found some builders online and contacted several for in-person appointments. With the Covid-19 Pandemic, I find it hard to maneuver many things. In-person appointments are limited and of the several companies I contacted, I was only able to secure one appointment before my trip.  

Check back for more updates!