We Bought a Farm: Reno to Begin; Trying to Chill

I am sooooooo excited to begin the renovations on our house at long last. The house flood happened back in August and we have taken our time deciding what we wanted to do when putting the house back together.

Prior to the water damage, JB and I had talked and decided not to proceed with any home improvement. We bought a farm we loved which included a house that was adequate but not something we were in love with. And yet, we both decided that we didn't want to spend the money that would be required to get this house more user-friendly.

Then, the water damage. Now, everything has to be torn out. So what do you do? Do you put it back together in a way you didn't like in the first place? Or do you add a little money to it and get it the way you want it?

We decided on the latter. We found an amazing renovation team (check them out at Reliable Building Services), and we start this coming Monday!

I am trying to keep the finished product in mind. This includes changing our two bedroom and one bath upstairs with a modest balcony/pass-thru into a two bedroom and two bath. We will also close in the vaulted ceiling and change modest pass-thru to another living area! (I envision this as a technology-free library with all my Turkish furniture and rugs in it!!!)

Downstairs we are going to be tearing out all the walls and settling in with a brand new kitchen. We will be enclosing part of the porch to make a mud room, and our school room will become our dining room. Our current dining room will include a study area. We are actually getting rid of the traditional school room and going with two different study areas.

It will be ... AMAZING. Truly. Just awesome.

(In the meantime, check out all the walls in our house. I let the kids draw all over them since they are getting torn out. Ha! Why not?! You can also see in the first picture all the stuff I have stacked up against the wall. It's all come from upstairs, and I tried to find a new temporary home for it.)

But in the meantime, we have to find a way to live here while the renovations are taking place.

If you don't live on a farm, you could consider living somewhere else I guess. But we have a farm to care for and have to be here everyday. This coming Monday we have to have the entire upstairs emptied. And next Monday the entire downstairs (minus the kitchen.)

I honestly have no idea how exactly we will make this work. There are so many things to consider. We plan to "live" in our one master bedroom and bathroom and use the camper (which we have parked outside our master bedroom door to the outside) for play for the kids. They will wait until the very last minute to tear out the kitchen. But holy smokes, this is going to be a challenge!

I'm taking deep breaths, and JB and I are brainstorming ways to live and live WELL during this three months. I don't want to survive three months of renovations. I want to thrive in the midst of it. We just got a new set of WWOOFers in (only the second couple I have ever hosted.). They will help us run the farm while we attempt to navigate the house.

I will stay in touch with all of you. I will take pictures. And I will be excited to live in my brand new house! This is an incredible opportunity and the fact that we have the ability to do this is not lost on me. This is my forever home, and after living in ten homes in twenty years, I'm going to get this one to work like I'd like it to work. I am most excited by the kitchen. Anyone who has visited our farm has grown frustrated with the kitchen along with us. It just doesn't work for a dozen people eating there every night. This new one should ROCK THAT!



Let this process ... be an adventure!