The Farm House

East side of the farm house

This is our farmhouse where we lived for twenty years and raised out four children. Located just south of the small town of Chatsworth, it sits on a hill and is surrounded on four sides by fields. Out here it is quiet and peaceful, yet if you need a city fix, you are just two hours south of the Chicago Loop and an hour north of Champaign/Urbana

Aerial view of the house with the small
brick garage to the left. Garden plots
are in the lower right.

 Built in 1885, the house  is strong and sturdy with 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen, living room, large dining room , office and full, unfinished but very useable basement.

The living room measures 13ft x 14.5ft with 9 ft ceilings.
 It has its original narrow planked hardwood floor
as do the homes office and dining room.

The homes red roof was new in 1995, and recent repairs were done in July 2016. All the downstairs windows were replaced as well. The upstairs consists of 4 bedrooms and a full bath with stacking washer and dryer and linen closet.  A five foot wide staircase leads to the second floor.

The kitchen was remodeled in 2010 with new paint, flooring, appliances (which are included in sale) light fixtures and updated wiring. Currently the dishwasher needs replacing and there is no microwave.  The cabinets are original and in excellent condition.  A custom built breakfast table was constructed around the old chimney and comfortably seats four.

The downstairs bathroom was remodeled in 2009 with tile floor and  large shower. Two sinks were installed to make it easy for little ones to wash hands and brush teeth.

The carpeted master bedroom is a spacious 19 by 13 feet with one closet. The walls and ceiling were professionally replastered and repainted in 2007. The window frames and door are all original hardwood.

The north end of the master bedroom

The south end of the master bedroom

The house does not come furnished other than kitchen appliances. 

this page updated 8/6/16

The Wee Garage

This wee garage was original to the house when first built. It serves primarily for storage now but at one time appears to have been used as a summer kitchen and/or wood workshop. The walls are brick and the roof was redone in 1998. The red steel is striking and pulls the garage together with the other red and white buildings. The north side is planted with well established and prolific Hosta plants and grape vines.

With some TLC future owners could easily give this quaint building new life as a writers hideaway, greenhouse, shop, craft studio etc...as it sits just a few feet from the main house.

The 10 Acre "Yard"

The listing includes the 10.88 acres which surround the farms main house. This rectangle shaped property includes 2 acres of pasture on the north ideal for horses with a permanent hitching post, an automatic heated waterer, a tack shed and a large 3 sided horse stall. This area could easily be used for cattle as well

To the east the acreage is currently fenced for cows. The property's large red barn sits at the far south end of the property (left side in the photo below). The West side contains a small feed shed and chicken house.

      Below is an aerial view of the property taken in 2007.

To the right is the house , the front porch is facing east, On the north side are food plots and two fenced acres which are out of sight. Just to the south of the house is the small garage original to the farm, suitable as a garden shed, greenhouse, summer kitchen or extra storage with some remodeling. In the center of the photo is the combination machine shed and shop. To the west of the machine shed is a tiny feed building and further west behind that , the medium sized grey building , no longer exisits.  Towards the upper left of this photo is the main livestock barn with the milk parlor on the east side.

There is convenient water access throughout the farm via several pumps, making it easy to supply water to gardens and livestock.



The Machine Shed and Shop

The farms machine shed is a Wick building built in 2005 . Floor to bottom of ceiling rafter measurement is 16 foot. Total building size is 81 by 45 feet with the shop portion measuring 45 by 24 feet. The shops concrete floor utilizes hot water heat. The shops walls have 6 inches of insulation and its ceiling has 11 inches. The garage portion of the shop has two bays with large doors and above the shop is a large storage area or loft.

this page updated 8/6/16

The Big Red Barn

The north side of the Big Red Barn

Built in 1998 the main barn measures 85 by 65 feet. Portions of the barn came from the original barn on the property built in the late 1890's. When the property was purchased by us that barn was too unstable to be safely used to house livestock. Instead it was dismantled  and since much of the wood was still in good shape, it was used to build the new barn. The exterior red siding was placed on the barn in 1998. 80% of the siding is in good shape. Repairs are needed on east side.

Aerial view, please accept our apologies for the
fuzziness. The bird we attached the camera too was
nervous and forget to focus the lens.

From the floor to the bottom of the rafters in the barn, measures 14 feet . A large hay loft within, is capable of holding up to 1000 regular sized bales of straw and/or hay. Inside and along the north wall are several box stalls of varying sizes. In the middle of the barn are large, hand built free stalls for a dairy herd allowing each animal a clean, dry, place to rest during the day if it chooses to be indoors instead of outside. An additional 8 by 21 foot area with concrete floor, houses the milk parlor (with 4 milking stanchions), a small office/storage room and a tank room with a 250 gallon stainless steel bulk milk storage tank. The bulk tank is currently non-operational but could be repaired.


updated 8/6/16

The Chicken House

The Poultry which roam on the acres are a variety of misfits consisting of chickens, ducks, and one beautiful male peacock.  All of them are included in the real estate price of $170,000.

 A quaint chicken house sits just 50 feet from the back door of the farm house for easy egg collection year round.

A small chicken yard (complete with white picket fence) is currently attached to the chicken yard.