Obviously, the move didn’t go as planned. But, does anything ever go according to plan in life? My experience says a roaring NO. Since the kitchen didn’t need any work, we were able to unpack the kitchen before officially moving in. This made it much less stressful for us. We were able to eat meals in between unpacking and cleaning. Because we use our kitchen so much, there are always a lot of things to unpack.

This is reality. Cereal containers on top of the fridge. Papers stuck all over with magnets. Reality is what you will always find here. The farmer and his wife gifted me with a Bunn coffee maker when they learned that I love coffee. They said that I needed a GOOD coffee maker since we have family over often. I can’t believe their kindness. I take that back. I can believe it because I have been blessed enough to get to know them. They are the most genuinely kind people I have ever met. It blows me away.

We have downsized in counter space, which will hopefully keep everyone from piling their junk on it. Every other mom in the world is laughing at me for my silly optimism. I can dream, right?

I decided to tuck my cookbooks back in this corner since it’s not very usable. I LOVE cookbooks and have a few more around the house to put back away.

I am SO glad to have a gas stove again!! I have learned that it is my favorite to cook on. I’ve had glass and coil stove tops, and don’t like either. Glass was my least favorite– even though it was the easiest to clean.

We all can’t wait to make bread, but we have to wait for summer to go away. I don’t want to heat the whole house up. I can’t wait for soup season!! Bring on all of the cozy comfort foods!!

This is my favorite part. This table is an 1800s Harvester’s table. It has SIX leaves that can be put in to expand the table. In the above picture, we have three in. When complete, it will cross almost the entire kitchen. I’m so excited to have everyone at one table for the holidays. That hutch is a matching piece. Aren’t they beautiful?

Both of these pieces of furniture belong to the farmer’s wife. They have been passed down in her family for generations. Her mother put the burlap and lace inside the hutch. She is graciously letting us borrow them while we live in this house. They were so sweet and happy to see how much we appreciate the history and stories behind everything.

I found five chairs on marketplace for pretty cheap. I would love to recover them since the fabric is pretty stained. But, I love the shape of them! I don’t know the last time we had all matching chairs around our table.

It is all pretty simple. Simplicity is such a breath of fresh air! I forgot how good it felt to walk in the door and feel HOME. I am so thankful.

Small corners of the house are getting finished. I simplified SO much and donated so much while we were packing. While unpacking, I’m getting rid of more! I’m so tired of stuff. I’m so tired of packing and unpacking absurd amounts of THINGS. Things that get packed early in the process. Things that we DON’T MISS AT ALL while they are in boxes.

I am not a minimalist. That is an extreme that I’m just not at. If you are there, there’s nothing wrong with it. It is just not for me. I like things simple. Simplifying is my jam.

One area that I struggle with cleaning out is books. I love books. Scott and I were finally able to unpack our own books for the first time in 4-5 years. This shelf sits in our office space, and it makes me so happy to see. I’ve got a few books in our bedroom that will fill in the gaps.

I’m really wanting to put a little free library in front of the house. Where we live is a route that is popular to run or bike past.

My body is worn out. But, it brings me so much joy to see these little corners of the house getting finished. It’s feeling so cozy and so much like home.

Surprise!

We moved in! We had a moving truck rented for August 31 and people set up to help. The carpet company took their time and we still didn’t have any carpet down. We moved all of our things out of the old house and into the garages here at the farm. My parents graciously opened their home to us, once again, and we spent a few days with them. September 4th, the carpet was DONE and we finally got to move in.

It was all worth the wait! WORTH. IT.

This beautiful table is ours to use while we live here. It’s an 1800s harvester’s table that can cover the entire kitchen, or shrink down to a square. It’s beautiful, and I’m in awe of it.

This picture was taken Wednesday night. I came HOME from work, and just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. This is home. This is our home. This place is a gift and the whole process has been healing.

I will share an “after” tour of the house once we are settled, but I wanted to fill you in on the excitement!!! There was a good reason for the blog silence! I can’t wait to share more!

Hi, Friends!

We are still in a waiting period for the carpet. We went to the house and cleaned most of the windows over the weekend. Scott also went one evening and cleaned the inside of the cabinets.

The master bedroom floor is re-done. The farmer thinks he will sand it down once more and even out the stain. You can see where the floor has been damaged, which just adds to the character. Once it’s done, the baseboards will go back down.

These rose of Sharon bushes are going to get moved around. The farmer’s wife is going to plant these along the line of the property before the ditch and road. That way, we can have a visual barrier for the girls to know where they need to stop.

The carpet should come in from the factory this week and get put down. I am praying that this is my last “update” before saying that we’ve moved in! But, we are at the mercy of a carpet factory at this point.

This week, I plan to go over during the day and move some things in. We will be able to get settled a little faster that way. I need to get some shelf liners. My sister gave me some pretty contact paper, but it’s not sticking down in the kitchen cabinets. I’m looking at this non-adhesive liner. It’s the best price I’ve found so far on it.

This isn’t an exciting update. haha! Being at the home stretch, we are mostly waiting on the carpet to come in. We both also worked most of the day Saturday, so we didn’t get to go work at the house. On top of that, our kids ended up sick on Saturday. That being said, we’ve been away from the farm much more than we wanted to be. We didn’t get to do any work at all, but the farmer has been busy.

He got the master bedroom sanded down. It’s actually been re-stained as well, but I didn’t get a picture of that. We got to visit with him and hear some updates on Friday before anyone got sick. The girls were very excited to learn that he has a lot of knowledge about rocks. He’s going to bring some fossils and geodes to show them, which I love.

Back to the house– He has a lot of OLD doors around, and said he could bring some by to put into the house. He knows how much I appreciate the history of it all. I love old doors. He has also talked about building a half-door to put at the top of the stairs to the cellar. We can safely keep the kids and dog out of there without taking away from the charm of the home. So cool!

Since we were homebound this weekend, we got a lot of packing done. Time slipped away from me on Sunday and I missed going to church! Scott usually goes to AM service when the kids are sick. I go to PM so I can make it to choir practice. I suppose it’s probably a good thing since the sickness spread to the one child that was well yesterday. Boo. We did get several areas completely packed yesterday. Scott was also able to repair our dryer that went out on Friday. #WhenItRainsItPours

I will leave you with a beautiful sunset picture. We have the best views at the farm!

Happy Monday, friends!! I’ve been quiet on here again. We are cleaning, packing, and working a ton. It feels a little overwhelming right now, but I know that in one month it will be much slower. Here is where we are currently at:

Almost all of the trim has been painted and put back up around the windows and doorways. The baseboards won’t be put back down until the carpet is laid. The contrast isn’t quite as dramatic in person as is showing in the pictures. I honestly think I’d like pure white trim a lot more, but this is something that was on hand. We are all about cutting costs. Realistically– curtains are going to cover quite a bit of the trim anyway.

The oven is all cleaned up and put back together. The new vent hood is hung. We are going to be foregoing a microwave here, and I’m actually really excited about it.

On Saturday, we painted the ceiling in the kitchen. I’m not sure if you can really tell in the previous picture, but the ceiling was pretty discolored. It was really noticeable over where the stove is. The farmer said it had probably been 40+ years since it had been painted.

We also put Kilz on the office and living room floors. The previous tenants had a TON of cats. They would apparently drag dead animals in. So nasty. Anyway, this coat of Kilz will keep any smells from rising through the new carpet.

New plywood has been put down in the school room since that flooring was much older. This will help the carpet lay better. Speaking of carpet, here is a grainy picture of what it will look like.

It’s a really pretty grey color with bits of tan mixed in. It’s such a pretty neutral and will hide any dirt really well. Plus, it’s so soft! The color is called Ash Grove. It will be going in the office, living room, school room, up the stairs and in the bedrooms upstairs.

This is the flooring that will go in the laundry room and upstairs bathroom. It’s all so pretty and neutral.

Even the yard and gardens have been getting cleaned up. The trees and bushes have been pruned, and are already showing lots of signs of regrowth. Isn’t that how life is?

Are you ready for the most exciting part? Once the carpet comes in and gets installed, we should be good to move in! At most, it would be two weeks before the carpet comes in. They are going to try and get it in much faster since we have our first party at the house in early September.

I can hardly believe it. Last night, Scott and I sat on the steps at the farm while the girls played. The breeze was blowing and birds were chirping. Monarch butterflies kept flying by. The kids were pretending they were in a fairy garden/ on a pirate ship / making soup and it was just bliss.

This week’s update isn’t quite as exciting as the others. But, that also makes it exciting. We are down to small projects to finish things up, so I don’t have a lot of pictures to show changes.

Something fun- we have apples at the farm! Scott made this discovery one evening while I was at work. The tree hasn’t been cared for in years, so I will be looking at how to make it healthier so we get more apples! It is really tall and there are quite a bit of dead branches. I’m sure there is a time of year thats best for pruning.

On Saturday, my mom watched the kiddos so we could go to the farm and help the farmer with some of the projects. We painted trim for 3 or so hours.

Unfortunately, the floors in this room aren’t able to be restored. I’m really fine with that. While it obviously would have been beautiful, I’m excited for the carpet that will muffle the noise. Vacuuming carpet is 100 times easier than sweeping the hardwoods– especially with a dog that sheds like mad.

The farmer got a quote on carpeting the school room, the living room/office, AND the two upstairs bedrooms! He will get carpet samples within the budget and we get to pick which one we want. That feels like SO much pressure. I’ve never picked carpet. I’ve picked out rugs before, but carpet is permanent.

We went to Rural King yesterday for a few things. They had the sweetest farmhouse decor, which I never expected. Some of it brought me to tears (big shock). I keep getting so overwhelmed with gratitude. It feels like a dream. (Side note: I picked these pretzels up at Rural King and they are SO good.) The kids also keep asking for a bunny and had fun talking about the possibility of getting chickens.

We are SO close and I feel giddy with anticipation. I’ve been packing and cleaning during the day. There are some things at the house we live in that I need to get cleaned up and painted.

The projects left at the farm that I can remember:
– paint the big upstairs bedroom
– carpet in main rooms
– sand and stain the upstairs hallway
– flooring in half bath
– finish painting trim and hang up
– clean

Hi, friends!!! I know I keep saying this, but we are SO CLOSE! The floors are being worked on! Hooray!

Goodbye nasty carpet on the stairs! Ok, the carpet was actually in amazing shape for its age. I just can’t help but think about the dust that accumulated. It looks so much better already!

The upstairs bathroom is put back together! The floor needs to be finished, but then this room is done! He put in a heat lamp so the room will be nice and warm when baths are done. So kind.

The master bathroom is also all painted. Last minute touches are all that’s left in this room. Putting the drawers back in, trim back in, etc.

This is super cool! The carpet in the school room got pulled up. Underneath was 1950s style floor. He said it was tar-backed linoleum. He was so sweet and asked me to come look at it so I could see. He knows my love of old houses and learning the way things were done, and I appreciated this so much. He pulled it all up, and is going to attempt restoring the ORIGINAL floors to the farmhouse. It will depend on if problem spots were found.

Just imagine these cleaned up and re-stained. So pretty! If carpet has to happen, then I will welcome the muffling of sounds. I feel like it’s a win-win situation.

Here’s the most fun part– A fun discovery was made in the master bedroom.

The farmer did not know that these were hiding underneath the carpet. He said this was done before his time, so he had no clue. This is what I love about these old homes. There are so many hidden gems waiting to be discovered.

We still have to paint the rest of the trim so it matches throughout. The kids’ rooms upstairs also haven’t been touched yet, but those will go quickly.

Scott and I will finally be off together this weekend, so we will be able to go and get work done. Everything is coming together quickly. The farmer said he doesn’t take a day off of working– he was even there through the heat advisory. I truly am so thankful that these kind people were placed in our lives. God has so clearly been in every step of this crazy process, and we can’t wait to see what He does with this.

Any guesses on what week will be the final update? I’m hoping week 18, but we will see. 🙂

I really love creating vision boards. We won’t have the budget to completely re-do our family room. But, I love getting an idea of what to save up for. Here is my vision board for the family room!

\\ Leather Couch // Grey Couch // Blanket // Rug // Media Center //
\\ Throw Pillows // Pouf Ottoman // planter //

I always felt like I didn’t really know what my personal style was. A great way to find your style is to create a Pinterest board for whatever room you are thinking of. Go through and pin the pictures that you really love. Once you get that done, you can go through and see what the common themes are. I always thought I wanted a lot of color.

It turns out, I find the neutral color schemes to be really soothing. When you add in great natural wood tones, brick, and plants, it just feels like such a cozy space to me. I love the LOOK of the leather couch. I think I’d rather the comfort of fabric though.

What is your style? Do you love tons of color or neutrals?