The Back Story [How did we get here?]

Okay here we go……

It has been many months in the making and our original plan was NOT renovating. So lets start from the beginning.

About a year ago I realized we would want more land at some point so we could have more animals. We currently have our cute chickens but would LOVE to grow our hobby farm. We started with a farm that backs up to our land. How cool would that be to not have to move? We reached out to them seeing if down the road they would consider selling their farm to us. Unfortunately that was not going to work however the owner is a doll and shared the history of the farm and area around here.

After that dream was crushed we started sending letters to farms around this area asking if anyone was looking to sell and shocker… crickets. Then came something I said I would NEVER do again. We found land to build again. We fell in love with the land and I was dying inside because I hate the designing and build process. Our past three houses [yes I love moving] were new builds. I truly wanted something older with character that we could spruce up and make our own. So we started the design and building process. Long story short it did not go well ;) Just like my senior yearbook quote says …” everything happens for a reason.”

When the building process started going south I re looked at existing homes on the market. Let me pause and say we did not NEED to move immediately. However, if you know me you know I am impatient and impulsive….Which is why I think Steve came into my life; someone needed to balance me out right?! When I have something in my head that I want I tend to not give up! This lead us to the current house we are renovating.

I actually saw this house a while ago when it popped on the market. The lands is to die for! But the house couldn’t be anymore opposite from what I wanted. It was 90’s “modern” with a ton of yellow maple. With an older home came utility room issues, the windows were needing to be replaced and there was SO much updating to be done. So I disregarded it before. But when the build starting going south I started looking at it again. Our realtor then sent it to me a few days later and said we should just go look at it to either rule it out or add it to our plan B options.

I went solo with our realtor and the moment I stepped on the land I fell in love. And many of you who have came out to see the house knows what I am talking about! We scheduled another showing for Steve to come see it and lets just say he did NOT fall in love with it right away. All Steve saw was project after project [which he wasn’t wrong]. BUT he did see the value in the land and we ended up throwing an offer in!

THEY ACCEPTED! But that was not the end of it….. We had hesitations in between that and closing with the inspection but now it is ours :)

I will share more of the story down the road, especially for those looking into renovating. But I wanted to share the journey to getting this home before we dive into all the fun renovations! And I can’t say it has been the smoothies road [shocker!]

Make sure you follow me over on IG @meredith_festler for all the day by day renovations, design decisions and more!