Welcome!

Some of you might be thinking, "why did this girl decide to start another blog when she clearly couldn't keep up with the one she had before."  I thought the same thing.  BUT-I feel like that blog really had no purpose.  I was just trying to come up with stuff to say each time so I could post new pictures for out of town family to see.  We have had so much interest in the remodeling of our house from others, that I started thinking I could probably do this!  To be quite honest, I could probably write a novel about our farmhouse adventures.

I love the look on most people's faces when I tell them we bought an old farmhouse to remodel.  It's this immediate twinkle of the eye and the look of "oh I've always dreamed of doing that."  The funny thing is-I never dreamt of doing this.  If you would have asked me when I was younger what kind of house I dreamed of, I would probably have said some giant house sitting right on Lake Murray.  My husband never really dreamt of this either.  Sure, his grandmother grew up in an old farmhouse in the country, but I don't think he ever thought he would end up in one.

But-if there is one thing I've learned to be true over the last few years, it's that we don't always get to pick.  Sure, we made the decision to sell our basically brand new house that we had only lived in for a couple years and buy some old, ancient farmhouse that was falling apart at the seams.  But I still feel like even though we made the decisions, we were being pulled toward this house.  Not by our family or our friends; it was something much deeper than that.  The truth is-when we got out of the car and first stepped onto the grass that late summer night, I could see my kids running through the yard.  I could see Ben mowing that grass while I raked the leaves underneath the huge, sagging, Magnolia tree that had been there for at least 100 years.  I could see the porch lined with rocking chairs and a pitcher of sweet tea on a small table between them.  Everything I felt in that yard suddenly overwhelmed me with the feeling of home.  THIS was going to be our home.  We liked our current house, but it never felt like home.  Even the first house we lived in after we were married, where Ben carried me over the threshold the day we got home from our honeymoon-never felt like home. But even before I stepped inside, I knew this was to be our home.

I should mention that my mom was our real estate agent.  She had texted me that day saying, "not sure if you'd be interested, but check out this house.  The owners just dropped the price."  I clicked on the link and my first thought was-wow that's an OLD house.  I sent it to Ben and he called me right away sounding like a small child on Christmas morning.  He knew exactly where the house was, and had apparently driven us right by it as we were out for one of our routine Saturday "house hunting drives."  He knew we couldn't afford it, so we hadn't even stopped to look.  But now, the price had been lowered.  A LOT.  We got in the car that night, and swung by my parents to pick up my dad.  My mom was working that night, so we knew we wouldn't be able to get in the house.  We just wanted to look.  Amazingly enough, the house was right next door to a high school friend's home.  Ben and I had been to a party inside the house right next door!!  So anyway-the neighbor saw 3 strange people walking around outside the house and came over with the key and asked if we wanted in!!  Turns out it was his wife's parent's house!  We got to walk around inside and of course Ben started dreaming and plotting.  He walked through pointing to the walls we would take down and where we would add some.  He showed me how we would create a master closet and bathroom out of the little concrete room that I was staring at blankly.  I'm amazed by people who can SEE their vision before it ever begins.  I am definitely not able! We brought my mom back the next morning and walked through again.  She had tears in her eyes as she ran her hand across the old moldings and heard the creaks in the floor.  She and my dad lived in a very old house when they were first married, and this brought back so many memories for her.  She told me later that this is exactly the kind of house she always pictured me in.  After showing Ben's family and lots of talking, praying, dreaming, and planning, we made the offer.  We went back and forth with another couple who wanted to tear the house down and sell the property because it's on the lake and the piece of land was worth more than the actual house.  By the grace of God, the owners accepted our offer and a few weeks later....it was ours.