Sooo...as promised....the whole story! We bought a farmhouse!!!! I am beyond excited. I have dreamed of living in the country my whole life, and it is finally on the way to coming true! Actually I should elaborate...my dream has always been to live on a multi-generational farm in the country (like T grew up with), and this place is actually big enough that there is room for Noni, Papa, and Mama to build a place! I know there are a lot of things that would have to happen for that to work out, but for the first time it is actually a possibility! The property is 1.3 acres and surrounded by wheat fields which is perfect because we have tons of open space around us, but don't have to take care of acres and acres of property.
We have been trying to buy a place in the country since we moved here 7 1/2 years ago. They are very few and far between and get snatched up whenever they come up for sale. We actually put an offer in on a different place last year and someone outbid us. We were disappointed, but now we are glad that didn't work out because this place is even better!
I honestly was about ready to give up on the whole idea. T actually showed me this place a couple months before and I dismissed it. He was showing me a new place every few weeks and I would get my hopes up and it would get sold, or would have a bad or share well, or some other problem that would prevent us from buying it. Plus with all the other crazy busy things we have going on in our lives I told him to stop showing me places...I didn't want to even think about it until Peaches was at least 2 years old. But he wore me down and convinced me to at least look at this place. And I fell in love with it. I love love love old farmhouses and this one totally fits the bill. It is old...they don't even know when it was built. They labeled it as built around 1900.
The coolest part about it is that someone had started remodeling it and then moved away so all the hard stuff is pretty much done! They told us they took 3 huge dumpsters full of garbage off the place. All the demo is done. There is a brand new, never used septic system, they've already framed in walls, done plumbing, and electrical work. We will have to move quite a few of the walls, but we are going to try to make things work for us as much as we can. We are going to have to add on to the side of the house since it is much smaller than our current house. There's room outside to add another 16 feet on to the side of the house which will become a master bedroom, guest room, and add another two rooms upstairs. Right now there are only two small bedrooms upstairs.
Ok, enough talking...pictures!
I had to get a picture of T and the girls walking into the house for the first time (once we owned it).
The inside stairs are one of my favorite things in the house. This picture doesn't show how neat they are.
We got the keys on Friday afternoon but it was starting to get dark so we waited till the next day to go out. By the time we got everybody up and going and the baby fed it was nearly lunchtime so we grabbed Subway and headed out to the house. We had our first (picnic) meal in our new house!
So excited!
I like how the kitchen, dining, and living rooms are all open and
connected. We are going to open it up even more by getting rid of the
wall on the right of this picture. That will give us a nice large living space and hopefully we can put our school room in there too.
When I first saw the kitchen I thought it was WAY too small to work and we'd have to do something to it, but as I got to thinking about it...it really doesn't have any less space than I actually USE in my kitchen. I have tons of counter space currently and all it does is collect STUFF! I am constantly battling the papers and the toys and all the little things that land on the counters.
Here's that downstairs wall that will be coming out. Our school area will be where that bathtub is.
I had to take this picture to document that we can see the upstairs from the downstairs right now! Haha :)
There is a working fireplace! It just needs a little bit of love. :)
Here's the downstairs looking out from the kitchen.
The upstairs is pretty much just a mess of walls. We don't care for the way it's laid out at all. Thankfully none of the interior ones are weight bearing so we are going to knock them all out and that will give us lots of options for how we want to lay it out. We're hoping to get four bedrooms up there for the girls. They won't be huge, but they should work just fine.
The girls had a blast spending a couple hours out there. One of the main reasons I want to live in the country is to give them room to breathe. And that's exactly what they did. They played in the dirt and explored and jumped off hay bales and found old bottle caps and just had a wonderful time. It made me so happy!
Every now and then they would come inside (where T and I were measuring and planning) and tell us about something else they found. Peanut wanted me to see her good coat of country dirt. :)
They were also thrilled to find that we are neighbors to a horse! And she is very friendly! They were digging under the dead winter leftovers to find her some green grass.
T was also thrilled with this discovery because he is adamantly opposed to owning what he calls a "hay-burner". He said this is the best of both worlds. The girls can pet and feed a horse, but he doesn't have to take care of it. Haha :)
We went out again on Sunday, and Daddy brought the girls some tools because the day before they had been trying to make a chair out of this stump. They hacked and cut away at this thing for a good hour. :)
It's hard to see here, but I absolutely love that there is a "tractor crossing" sign just down the road from our driveway. :)
We've got a lot of work ahead of us, but we are so looking forward to it!
Our little piece of paradise!
