We bought a farm!

FINALLY! We are BEYOND excited to share our BIG NEWS with YOU!!!

The excitement is so NEW (we literally JUST signed closing papers), I almost don’t even know where to begin. Words. Which words….

As you may know, I grew up on a little apple farm not far from here, and I’ve always hoped to live on a similar small farm with my own family. Well, sometimes an adventure presents itself when you’re least expecting it.

Labor Day Weekend 2017: I told my husband I was 1000% happy where we are, and I didn’t even want to look at moving right now (we almost purchased some property last Christmas to build a new home, and ultimately felt it wasn’t the right time or situation).  And then, he got the bug to look at real estate online (Sunday of Labor Day weekend). He found a very interesting property…literally a stone’s throw away from the property we almost purchased last Christmas…but this one had the DREAMIEST driveway that I’ve admired for years. We drove right out to see it and….LOVE. AT. FIRST. SIGHT.

I mean, I don’t know if you understand. I am a DRIVEWAY GIRL. For some reason, I’ve always been obsessed with country lanes and driveways, something like…oh, I don’t know…THIS ONE??????????? A little further up the driveway is this little nugget: (below)

Oh hi there, Mr. Gazebo, I LOVE YOU. And the trees are obscuring it in this shot, but THERE IS A WEATHERVANE ON TOP. I’m not yelling at you. I’m telling you in a very excited voice that there is a DARLING weathervane on top of this little cutie. And electrical already in place. Sure, he needs a little love, but OH THE POSSIBILITIES.

What’s that?? Oh, you want to see the HOUSE???? Ok…here she is!

Angels are singing. Do you hear it? Maybe it’s just me…we are already so in love with our new home. 🙂 We have big plans for this place. The main house was built in 1890 by an Oregon Trail Pioneer, and then additions were added in the 1960’s and early 2000’s. We’ll be renovating the entire inside before moving in (work will start next week and we hope it will be completed by April 2018!), a little work to the outside, a fresh paint color, new landscaping…ohhhhhh so. many. things.

Ryan and I sat on this front porch one sunny day in October, and he said, “I think this could be our forever home.” Tears.

The house has huge potential, but the PROPERTY. The property is what grabbed my heart and felt like home from day one. Wanna see some pics?

There are a couple cute little outbuildings with HUGE potential…I can’t even. I’m so excited.

Once we were hooked, we were wondering what our kids would think. Would they want to leave a neighborhood? We took them over and showed them and…THEY LOVED IT. Meant to be.

We were then excited to walk our parents around the property and share our vision with them…we were relieved to hear they didn’t think we were nuts…no matter how old you are, it’s always comforting to have your parent’s approval, right? 🙂 Here we are on that very special day: (below)

My dad (to my right in the hot rod t-shirt) has always been up for an adventure. I mean, he and my mom left their comfortable life in southern California (where they were close to ALL of their family) when we were little kids, and bought an apple farm in Oregon. Aaaaaaand they knew NOTHING about farming or apples at the time. Dream-followers, adventure-seekers, putting their trust in God. And that’s how we want to be.

Our word for this process from the beginning has been ADVENTURE. And today, on the day we signed the papers, my phone alerted me to a “memory” from August, just before this whole thing started. A pic I was compelled to take while on vacation: (below)

What a fun little “God-wink.”

As of today, the beautiful leaves are all off of the trees, it’s cloudy and cold, but we’re still in love with the place. Totally and completely.

Sooooo, you might be wondering. WHO is gonna do all of this renovation? So glad you asked. We are over the moon to have an amazing team in place for the renovation. My sweet friend, Jayme, and her talented husband, Nolan, at Fridley Custom Homes, have agreed to take on this project. I’ll be doing the interior design, but I’m no builder. We knew we had to have the BEST, and we feel so blessed to have the Fridleys on the project. They know us, they know our vision, and their expertise has already been so helpful.

JUST WAIT til you see the INSIDE. Keep your eye out for a post next week with tons of interior pics in the current “before” state. But until then, we’d love to know, are you coming along on this journey with us? We can’t wait to share the whole process…the “before”, the demo, the new surface selection, the ups, and downs, the “after”… just ALL OF IT! You in? Let the #renovationontheprairie BEGIN!!!!!