Farm

This is not just a house.......it's kind of like a monument to David's family.    This was David's grandparent's house when David was a little boy.   He walked here every day (just across the yard from his own house), ate big breakfasts here, took walks with his grandpa here, and remembers many family gatherings here.    This place has a lot of history.

When David and I got married, his grandmother was living with her daughter and this house was vacant.  It was our first house.   We paid $100 a month to the family to live here.   We fixed it up the best we could.   We were just starting out with our jobs and marriage, so we didn't have much money to put into the place.

We stayed here for our first 4 years of marriage, but when our first son was born, we were uncomfortable with the space heaters (no central air or heat), so we bought our first brick home across town and left this little place behind. Sadly, it was eventually sold out of the family, and lost much of it's value.

Fast forward about 11 years to 2004, two boys later, and realizing that we wanted some land for our boys to play on.     David's dad had generously offered us a few acres, several times over the years, so we decided to take him up on the offer.    It just so happened that the neighbors who were now living in the house, wanted to get rid of it, so we bought it back from them for $10!   We paid $7000.00 to move it about the length of one football field, to our 2 acres, and that's where it sits now.

(Our front yard before fences went up)

The house was in horrible shape!  I knew we would have to refurbish it before moving in, but I had no idea that we would actually be tearing it down to the studs, before building it back up!    In the meantime, we lived across the yard with my in laws for 9 months!    This was not easy (on them or us)!

We worked every day for 9 long months, tearing out old sheetrock from the 50's, old carpet, old wallpaper and canvas, putting in new plumbing, wiring, first-time insulation, central a/c, etc.   We basically tore down the entire interior of the house and built it back up, from the studs.  (I had always told David that I wasn't interested in building.  Little did I know,  we would tear one down AND build one back up!)

 David and Collin

 

 Even PawPaw came to help!

But, when it was finally livable, we moved in and felt like we were finally "home".   This is us!  Our style, our dream of having land and an old farmhouse and we get the privilege of having a house with precious memories already built in.  


Here are a few looks at the inside:

One of our goals was to have horses for the boys and we were able to do that about 3 years ago.   We had to fence in about 6-7 acres, which wasn't easy!  The hardest part was finding a contractor and crew that would actually work!  Once we found the right guy, with the right ethics, he did an amazing job and we were ready for our "free" horses to come home.  

It's a running joke around here - "FREE" horses cost us a fortune in fencing!  However, when you promise your kids something, you have to do your best!   So, when a friend asked us if we could rescue these horses from a lady who could no longer house them, we thought it would be the perfect idea.     They have turned out to be a great pleasure to us.   We basically pet them and feed them, but they bring us joy with their personalities and quirks and that's what pets are for.

 Here's the yard 

after fencing,

looking off the front porch.

 

Ted and Collin

enjoying the pets.

Besides the horses, we have a few other "FARM" animals (I use that very lightly):

 Fuzzy the rabbit

(that has lasted much longer than we expected)

Lillie

(Also a rescue pet)

This is what she does when she's not 

wallowing in mud somewhere

Then there's ANNIE, who is also

a rescue pet (see a trend here?).

She's the lucky one......well maybe not.

She gets to live inside, sleep on beds, and

watch tv, while the others are outside.

If you asked her, though, she would prefer to be outside.

So that's it for pets - for now.   I would love to add more, but we need to clear more land so we can access more grass.   Those horses eat alot!

And, that's the story of our little farm.   When David's cousins and aunts come around, they are amazed that we saved this old place.   It's great that we could preserve a bit of family history, to pass on to the next generation.    It's not been the easiest project we've ever done and it's not even finished yet!  However, it's been a great experience and we have a home we are proud to call our own.