From Madison County to Six Mile

We began our first land search on Sunday, the first of June, with Eunice Pearson, our guardian realtor angel.

After browsing the racket that is the Multiple Listing Service (a.k.a. MLS), we came across four properties within an hour of Asheville that looked promising.

Slanty Plains

The first, 68 acres for $340,000, was about an hour away:

"Laurel community. Build your perfect mountain getaway! This parcel has it all. Borders Pisgah National Forest. Bold streams, big game, wildlife, and long range views. Private yet only 2/10 of a mile from highway 208. Two miles from the Tennessee border and only 15 minutes from Greenville, TN. Ideal for mountain retreat or for investment."

After a nice chat with Eunice, we found the place, but not until after several wrong turns, educated guesses, and phone calls:



This place was very heavily wooded and very steep. In fact we decided it would be pretty hard to build houses anywhere because of its stepth.


68 acres is about a third of a mile by a third of a mile (a 10 minute walk), but we couldn't see the whole thing because the seller agent hadn't posted a plat map / survey on the MLS – so we didn't know where the property started and ended. This will be a recurring theme.

What's the Rope For?

After seeing this property we went to the next - only to find that we couldn't make our way up the mountain because Eunice's minivan only had four wheels. We skipped it and moved on to the next.

Cowy Acres



This place was interesting but seemed small. It had a nice combination of woods and cleared pasture land. It appeared to be long and narrow, bordered by a small creek and a road. Again we didn't get to see much of the property because we didn't know the layout.

Asheville area summary:

GREAT	DUMB
lots of mountains & streams proximity to Asheville few / no zzzoning laws	very expensive - a house on the property is nearly out of the question, and living within 30 minutes of Asheville seems equally impossible Asheville is being developed quickly and we may be surrounded by Dairy Queens in 15 years

Greenville, South Carolina


Next we dove south to Greenville, which supposedly is being rubbed off by Asheville. We could neither confirm nor deny this during our fifteen minute walk-n-sit downtown, but it did look cute.


As health food stores currently comprise our only metric for cities, Greenville went from an F to an A+ when we found its Whole Foods. We happily gave it a merit badge when we found vegan soy-free coconut ice cream in its cold section.

Welcome to Pickens County


Our next guardian was Robert Mixon, whom we met in the small town of Seneca, an hour west of Greenville. He explained passionately that the counties of Pickens and Oconee would be our best bets - Greenville County is being developed very quickly and is already too expensive for us, due to its location between the two Hip Cities, and its proximity to the Asheville airport.

We found some props to check and made our way north to Six Mile.

A Land of South Carolina




The blurb:

"Old Homestead sold As-Is. It is a farm house that can be renovated and used as a vacation/weekender or residence until you build. There are several great building locations on this 80% wooded property. Tranquil and private, there are trails throughout the woods, over 3 streams, gentle rolling hills and abundant wildlife. Hunting and horseback riding haven!"

After several vicious rap battles we decided we liked this place. A sad turtle near a sad stream fought a citrusy magnolia. A lumpy kitchen fought a nice clearing with snake. However, 33 acres is a bit small, and we moved on to the next property.

Sunset before Sunset

"57.52 unrestricted acres located in Sunset. This property has a nice combination of mature trees and green pastures with clear mountains streams. Perfect land to build your dream home. Very private with rolling hills and great long range view of the mountains."

With this plot of land we finally met our match. It took so long to walk into the property that we even had time to stop for toads. A nice two-story house with a shed, a well, a septic tank, and grid electricity sat near a beautiful oak tree. A tiny stream rests on one border, and a larger stream lies at the entrance, very close to the road and at the bottom of the slope. We probably wouldn't live here due to the water location & flow, but the property was still very pleasant and we miss it already.

Fence Expenses

Finally we went to the last property - a lot of acres for some amount of money. Either way it was in a gated community and there were restrictions on what you could build (minimum square footage, etc.). We couldn't even get in the gate and so we called it a day and moved on.

Night Vision

We then headed off to Paris Hilton State Park outside Greenville, and after seeing a PETA truck,


we built our first fire using a cigarette lighter and our most precious future diary pages.



Coming soon on this here blog - our adventures further east in North Carolina, via Chapel Hill Road, Chapel Hill Blvd, Old Chapel Hill St, the Nelson Chapel Hill Highway, and Durham Chapel Hill Blvd towards Chapel Hill.