Farmhouse Update - It's A Doozy!

Based on the emails I'm getting lately, y'all are a little curious about The Farmhouse.

(if you're new here, click here to see the major renovations on our 60 year old family farmhouse)

This little adventure in house fixing up was one that we hadn't originally intended to go on.  The house was old and outdated and, after a particularly awful renter, basically unlivable.  The amount of trash and yuck sitting in the house on the day we first walked through it after the renter left had us feeling like we were better off burning the sucker to the ground.  Not to mention, Andrew's work schedule leaves little time for home projects.

We closed the door that day feeling pretty discouraged and not sure what to do.

Then we got a call from Josie's old soccer coach asking if we were willing to let them check it out to see if they could possibly renovate it for their family farm.

They came and boy did they ever renovate.

The family spent the entire Summer and Fall at The Farmhouse.  Cleaning, painting, tearing down walls.  Their vision was big and they were making it happen.  Right before our eyes, the heap of a house became Pinterest worthy.

But as these things go, it was way, way harder then any of us originally thought.

The project went over budget, over time tables, over what anyone wanted to be putting into it.  An expected move in date of September 1st kept getting pushed back.  All new plumbing, entirely new electric work, and general renovations were finally done-ish at the end of October leaving HVAC.

Heating and air ended up being a much bigger project, taking Andrew's off days, a lot of trips to Home Depot, and, at the end of the day, we still had to call out and pay a professional company to wrap it up.

Which brings us up to the start of December.

One chilly morning, just as I was sitting Josie down to start school, Andrew called with "something funny to tell me."

Which he promptly followed up with, "well, you might not think it's funny," which is never, ever good.  Turns out, the family that was going to move in had some major changes and would be moving out of state.

I'll be honest, I was pretty devastated.  I had gotten really excited about all they were going to be bringing to our 40 acres.  Not to mention a family out here in the middle of nowhere.  I'm never good with change and this was a major change in plans.

I still don't know all the details of the other family's move, but I do know that we now have a totally adorable, fully livable, farmhouse and no family to love it.

Andrew and I went back to the drawing board with what to do.

Andrew started dreaming of pool tables and poker games while I envisioned a Southern version of Meg's Craft House.  But let's be honest, Andrew can't play poker and I'm about as crafty as a stick.  The house was too nice now to just let it sit there empty.

There was one idea that we both agreed would be amazing and after a few phone calls, some family discussions, and a whole lot of youtube videos, we settled on starting a joint hobby farm of sorts with our best friends.

That's right, David and Amber along with their two girls will be moving to The Farmhouse next month!

If I say I'm a little excited, I'm lying.  I'm way, way excited.

Having all of our best friends 50 yards from my backdoor is pretty much a dream come true for all of us.

Other then two tiny gardens, none of us have farmed before so that is going to be an insane project.  There is a lot of research and talking and planning going on and I promise you won't want to miss the stories that are sure to come out of this.

The first thing on the agenda is obviously to get them moved in.  After that, the guys are going to construct a chicken coop and till the garden so that we are ready for those two things come Spring.  Andrew has already promised Josie pigs and I'm still dreaming of a mini dairy cow.  I suppose we should see if we can even build a coop before I get too far ahead of myself.

As for The Farmhouse, Amber's decorating style is going to be so perfect up there.  

I've been granted exclusive permission to stalk it every step of the way with my camera in hand, so you can all still follow the progress.  Since they are moving in so soon, here are some shot of each room as it sits now:

You won't believe it! (Farmhouse Update)

How about a little Farm House update?

It's been a month since we last checked in on it (on the blog that is.  I'm up there snooping around daily!) and a lot has happened since then!

Not a day goes by that I don't laugh at the fact that Andrew and I thought we would be able to renovate The Farmhouse.  We think pretty highly of our non crafty selves.

But Mark and Christy?

They are pretty much an old house's dream and the humble farmhouse is getting all sorts of Pinteresty.  The amount of detailed work and actual craftsmanship that is taking place seriously blows my mind.

*Pinteresty is a very legit word.

The old, disgusting, stinky, scary, somewhat dangerous house is headed for a brand new lease on life.  I could give you a run down of what is happening, but the pictures do a much better job of telling the story so lets just stick with those.

Here's the front room when they first started.  

Crowded, cramped, and dark.  And dirty.  Really, really dirty.

And here it is today:

GAH!  I just cannot get over how open the new floor plan is.  And how bright.  Christy is awesome at envisioning things and I think it is coming together perfectly.  The countertops and sink will go in soon and I'm so excited to see it all in.  

I don't have a good before shot of the laundry room, but they just finished laying the new floor and it also changed the whole look and feel of the space.

The living room is looking good too.

The bead board ceiling has been exposed and the beam fixed.  The yellow toned walls have been replaced with a nice grey.  The mammoth piano is still sitting in there, weighing a billion tons.  And for the first time ever, this area has lights!

Next up is the office area that will be her adorable boy's school room.

Again, I don't have a good before shot but this room was the worst burgundy color ever.  And the paint job was not good so you could see brush strokes everywhere.

So much better!

And the last stop on this update tour: The Bathroom.

Let's all take a moment and thank the heavens that the state of this bathroom has significantly been improved.  Pretty sure no human could feel clean bathing in the previous said "bathroom."

Can y'all believe the difference?!?!

I'm learning so much just watching this whole process about color choices and the placement of things. The bones of the house haven't changed a lick, but by lightening things up and updating some things, it feels like a totally new house.  I told you, Marc and Christy are like a dream.

Now, I'm just a snooper, creeping around my new neighbor's house and yard.

Christy is the real deal and she's documenting all the real work on her blog, Blessed Little Thistle.  While I show pictures that make it look like it just happened overnight, she's showing the blood, sweat and tears that are going into it.

Go read it and Pin the mess out of it.  And if you're more motivated then me, go renovate something for yourself!

Secrets Out (Farmhouse Update)

So I a couple of months ago, after Mr. Terry moved out of The Farmhouse, I shared with you how we were dreaming of all we could do with the house.

We toyed with a few ideas; a man cave house, a bonafide school house, a party type house.  A few ideas got us excited, but most were pipe dreams that faded just as quick as they came.  Truth was, the house wanted to be a working farm again.

Yea, the house wanted it.  It told me.  

Not in a creepy "I'm Hearing Voices" kind of way, but more in a "A Friend Called Asking If We'd Thought of Turning It Into A Farm" kind of way.  

The idea made sense.  Maw Maw and Paw Paw built this house to be a farm.  As an adult who works hard to make my house a home, I can appreciate all the hard work Maw Maw must have done to make this house a home.  And I felt like we owed it to her to bring that dream back.

Trouble was, it's not our dream.

We aren't farmers, nor are we manual labor type people.  We tend to lean towards lazy and turning this house into a home was going to require the exact opposite of lazy.

Lucky for us, through Josie's failed attempt at a soccer career, we met Marc and Christy.

Meet our new neighbors:

Seriously.  Aren't they adorable!?!  Bonus: built in playmates for Josie and Gabe!

While Andrew is helping when he can, these amazing people are the ones putting in long, hard, sweaty hours to turn this place around.  Not only are their plans for the house worthy of a spread in Better Homes & Gardens, they are bringing with them goats, bees, chickens, and the most adorable puppy ever.  And that's just the start.  There's talk of a mini dairy cow.  And her garden?  I'm gonna just throw the towel in on mine and start stealing from her's while they are sleeping.

Ignore that last line Christy.

So let's get to the good stuff, pictures of the progress.

First things first.  There's a toilet in the front yard.  Nothing screams home renovation like a toilet in the front yard.  

Or maybe it screams country?  I know it screams Hampton.

Moving right along:

I left you last with the cleaned up barn.  Now the party has moved inside and it's getting good!  The sinking floor has been fixed, walls have come down, cabinets torn out and moved around, trim has been painted, windows cleaned, shrubs cut back, and a bathroom has been demolished.  Praise the good Lord above.

That wall behind the semi disgusting, highly flammable (I watched that sucker burn in less then a minute) sofa, has been removed.  And it let in an insane amount of natural light.

These window sills hadn't been cleaned in, ummm, let's go with 9 years.  

A lot of yuck gets on a window sill in 9 years.  Christy worked some voodoo on them and slapped some white paint on.  Now they look good as new.  This project sparked a mass window and trim cleaning at my own house.  Did y'all know that junk needs to get wiped down every few years?  Me neither.

The other big project of the month has been the cramped, condemnable bathroom.

The door wasn't big enough to get the tub in and out, plus it was just too small for normal humans.  So the contractor widened it.  They also removed the big cabinet that was taking up a lot of space.  Just taking that out added 3 square feet to the bathroom.  Crazy how cabinet placement can mess with the flow of a room.

The flooring has all been removed.  And so has the nasty tub and I can't even think of an adjective appropriate for the toilet.  Terry, what did you do to that toilet?!?!  Nevermind.  I don't want the answer to that.  It's gone and we can move forward with little to no therapy.

Behind the scenes and not as fun to photograph, has been the insulation removal.  Andrew and a small entourage have been working up there at night.  It's hot and they only have a few feet of head room to move in.  The insulation was super gross.  And not very effective.  One more night and that beast of a project should be done.

Christy keeps saying it's a long time before they are able to move in, but I'm holding out hope that we are getting closer.  I cannot wait to have them next door!  It is like a dream come true to have a friend living right next door!  I'm going to try not to wear out my welcome, but I've got dreams of spontaneous joint dinners and bonfires and morning chats over coffee.

And weed pulling.  I have a feeling there will be weed pulling.

If you're into home renovation and want to read about it first hand, check out Christy's blog, Blessed Little Thistle.  Not only is she pretty funny, she's showing the nitty gritty of what this little dream is actually taking.

Farmhouse Update

Project Clean Up The Farmhouse is well under way around here.

It's been a ton of work, but if you walked around right now you would never believe how bad it was a couple of weeks ago.  We have a few friends that have done so much work up there it's pretty much unreal.  Not sure what we could have got done without their help.

I mean, Josie is a Master Branch Picker Upper and all, but this project requires some more skilled hands.

A big truck rumbled up the driveway and dropped off a dumpster.  

The kids were super excited.  Me?  Not so much since I was a bit more privy to what it meant.  As in, we were about to have to touch the disgusting stuff left in the barn.

After spending a long, long day cleaning up around the barn, we knew there was no way we were going to get it all done by hand in a week.  So Andrew went and picked up some machinery to speed things along.

He spent 10 hours riding this thing and could barely shuffle across the floor when he got off.

But, y'all.  It was worth it.  For real.

They did all that in four days!

I say they because I just could. not. do it.  I did put on a face mask and pretend to be a helper one afternoon, but it was all for show.  I'm a wuss and not ashamed of it.  I'll get my hands dirty when we move on to indoor renovations.

We found a few treasures among the poo smelling piles.

By far my favorite is this massive tray from Pier 1.  

I've wanted something for the top of our ottoman for ages but everything that was big enough was way too expensive.  I caught Andrew 2 seconds before he tossed this beauty into the fire!  It's perfect in the living room.

So now the yard is looking a trillion times better and we are moving the party inside.

The house needs all new electrical, some plumbing replaced, a floor raised, and well, it needs a lot.  We have our quotes in and the contractors will be starting to do their thing soon.  Still not to the part I'll love, the part where it starts to get pretty, but it's on it's way!