There she is. Just look at her will ya? Ain’t she a beaut?
Well at least she will be when we’re done with her.
This is our home. We don’t know the exact year it was built (which usually means before the 1900’s) but through compiling + sifting through county historical documents Nick believes he’s narrowed it down to between 1865 and 1900. How awesome is that?
Nick and I bought this place over a year ago — you can read more about all the reasons we fell in love with this place in this here blog post. And as you might suspect, with us having moved in on Black Friday we didn’t think to take any “before” photos while the house was empty. Not a stinkin’ one… #cueforheadsmack
Luckily I was able to trace down the photos from the listing from when our house was on the market. They’re definitely lacking in quality, but hey, it’s better than nothing right?
Since I’ve decided to do a better job of sharing with your our home and never-ending list of farmhouse projects (Lord knows that’s pretty much all we do around here — work on this house) I thought it only made sense to share it with you from the beginning.
Here goes nothing!
This is the road view, from a glimpse between the one large gap in the massive pine trees that create an awesome privacy fence — since we are pretty much are right on the road.
This is the front entry way. We call it the “font porch”. It’s a large rectangular room (same dimensions on the opposite side — so behind the person taking the picture). It’s a former front porch that someone decided to enclose, which means that it sits solely on a slab of concrete. And it is freezing in here in the winter time. There is no vent in or ductwork leading to this room at all, and currently we have no plans to change that. Ultimately we envision this room as being a mudroom of sorts — with built in cubbies + hooks for all our outdoor paraphernalia, school book bags, etc. (Definitely not a sitting room like pictured!) But for now, it is our “drop zone” our “we don’t have a basement so this is the best place to store stuff as we continue to organize and sort through things” room. [Why does organizing always make such a mess?] If you come to our house, we’ll probably ask you to come to the back door ;)
This is the hall of the front entry way. There is a beautiful mostly glass door separating it from the front porch. It is very, very dark in here. As it is in the front porch as well. But we have plans to brighten up [goodbye wallpaper]. The staircase was a admittedly a selling feature for the house. This photo does not do it’s “grandness” justice at all.
To the left off the front hall we have the first of three living spaces — this is currently staged as our office and as such we call it “the office”. Long term our plans are to make this a more sophisticated office/study space and maybe even secondary family room for when the kids get older. I should also note, that this is one of three working fireplaces we have in the house. Hallelujah for using wood as a your main heat source in an old house!!
The other living space (which was not pictured in the listing) is located to the right off the front hall, and is a mirror image of the office. We use it as our “family room” and other than the kitchen, it is where we spend most of our time inside the house.
This room was staged as the formal dining room when we bought the house but we knew we’d never use it like that ourselves. We call this the “fireplace” room because it houses our new behemoth of a wood burning stove — our main heat source for our home. This is also the room in our house that is the most “under construction”. With exposed subfloors and a partially torn up wall it’s enough to give this mama a nervous twitch. I generally just try and avoid eye contact…
Aside from the fact that we are truly informal people, this room (which is only partially pictured here) is the main reason that we knew we’d never use the dining room as a dining room. This “breakfast room” as they called it on the listing, is huge. Nick built a mammoth 8 foot long table and it handles it with complete grace. We’ve even talked about whether or not it could handle two of them. I jokingly call it the mess hall ;)I think the kitchen is something that drives Nick and I the most crazy. It’s not the size (so big) or the layout ( galley style is totally period correct) that bothers us so much as it is the fact that somebody did a cheap 70’s reno to a mostly likely pre 1900s home. Ugh. Not to mention the fact that the linoleum tiles were literally peeling up and crumbling beneath your foot steps… We’re working on making it work until the time when we can give this house a kitchen that shines.
The laundry room is just off the kitchen (there at the end you can see the doorway to it) and it needs some serious attention. It’s a good sized space for sure but the layout is all wrong and makes it difficult to work in sometimes. It’s also pretty high up there on our to-do list.
Upstairs are three bedrooms: the master + master bath, and two other good sized bedrooms. Oh, and the size of the master closet makes up for no closet space in the other two bedrooms. #score
Wallpaper be everywhere up in here on this second floor.
First bedroom — this will be used as a guest room some day probably, but right now it is being turned into the nursery!
And this last bedroom is currently Wyatt’s room. You’d never know from these photos, but it’s both Nick and mine’s favorite room in the house. It has the best light + the best views (Wyatt’s all like “be jealous mom and dad”). The room is a great size and will probably be home to Wyatt and his baby brother eventually, leaving the other room vacant for visitors and/or more babies — you know, depending on how many kids God decides to grace us with ;)
I hope you enjoyed that mini “before” tour of our beloved farmhouse! I’m excited to keep sharing with you more updates as we attempt to tick away at our to-do list. :)
If you have any questions about the spaces I’ve shared, feel free to ask away in the comments!