Depending on whom you ask, the U.S. housing market is more than 3 million houses short of demand. So if you’re limiting your house hunt to traditional housing, you might come up a little empty-handed. Considering nontraditional housing adds some possibilities.

Kate Mills and Henry Pile were looking for a home where they could be financially unburdened, and, in the world of condos and townhouses and ranch-style houses, they weren’t finding what they wanted.

“We were now so desperate that we were looking at houses for $650,000 or $700,000, the exact opposite of what we wanted to do,” Mills said. “And I said, ‘We have to refocus. Let me tempt you with this 4,700-square-foot house in Maine on 3 1/2 acres. It’s beautiful, and we could pay cash for it.'”

The couple bought a Grange Hall in Livermore Falls, Maine, after living in Nashville, Tennessee, for 23 years. Traditionally, Grange Halls have served as meeting places for farmers and other members of rural communities.

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