SOLD

Thank you so much for following our adventure!  It is now time to pass on the keys.

We have embarked upon a new one: cutting trees, milling beams, and building a timber-frame home.  Feel free to come visit my blog where I will document all of our milling, farming, and home building adventures!

Building From Scratch: Post and Beam

Much has taken place for our family since my last post! 

As planned, we helped my parents fix up their old house, we have moved into it, and we have taken the first steps towards building our forever home, from scratch.  We have purchased a portable WoodMiser Sawmill, and are in the process of designing our Post and Beam home.

Although we have not broken ground yet, feel free to follow my family as we make our way...

Time to move on...

I always knew that it would be incredibly hard to say goodbye to this old house. We have taken it from a state of shambles, a house closer to being torn down than lived in, and turned it in to a beautiful place of warmth and love for us and our four kids. I love this house. I will always love this house. In a way, I don't feel like I owned it. It was around far before I was born, or my parents were born, or their parents. It has seen more time go by than I ever will. We are not the first to love it, nor to shed a tear when they left. We have given it our time, energy and love and now it is time for it to shine for someone else.

As for us, we are taking a step backward, a big step backward, to work on another house in need. This time, we are going back to my roots. Going back home. We will be moving into the house I grew up in. And it needs our help. The house is a old two room house from the late 1800's that had a house built around it. It's a small farmhouse, out in the country, and I can't wait to see it restored to the state it deserves.

Tonight we signed the papers. Tomorrow we start packing the boxes. And very soon we begin a whole new adventure...

No More Door to Nowhere!

It's been forever since I posted, it seems that we are too busy having babies to do a whole lot of anything else lately! Our newest (and last!) baby girl was born February 26th!

Since I last posted, we have managed to finish the back deck, so the dining room no longer has a door leading to nowhere! The kids absolutely love being able to play on the big deck, and I love being able to baby gate off the stairs and let Ivey romp around in the sunshine! Jeff and his dad cut the balusters and, of course, the boys helped. It still needs to be painted, but we are enjoying it immensely!

One Man's Junk...

Finally, the sign is in the yard. And now... we wait...

Putting the sign up reminded me of something that Asa said the other day. We were working on the house and Jeff had something he wanted to get rid of... so... like usual he put it out in front by the road and got out our big plywood sign that reads "FREE". We live on a fairly busy street... nothing, and I mean NOTHING has lasted more than 2 hours out there. Shower stalls, couches, even fence posts with hunks of concrete on the bottom. It's amazing. Anyway, Asa came running in the house in a total panic, screaming, "MOM!! Daddy's selling the house for FREE!!!!!"

It's never boring with a couple six years olds in the house.

Windows and Balusters

The windows are painted, the trim is done... all we have left to paint is the two back gables! Jeff and Randy (and Asa) did a fabulous job cutting out the new balusters. They made a huge difference on the upstairs porch!

In Color

After a long process of pressure washing, scraping and wire brushing the entire house (which was 98% Jeff's doing since I found out I am pregnant again at the beginning of the process), it's paint time! Jeff and Randy went ahead and purchased the scaffolding, which made the job a billion times easier, plus it provided hours of entertainment for the boys.

Jeff, Randy and Asa worked on the balusters for the upstairs porch. The old ones were the pits and had to go. Asa did a great job of sanding! We're hoping to get them painted tomorrow.

I'm glad we had already come to the conclusion that we needed to move closer to family because now that we have a surprise baby #4 on the way (and for those trying to add up the months... our youngest is almost 11 months old right now, so these two will be 17 months apart!) I will need family nearby more than ever. Also, the need for bedrooms has exceeded the speed at which we could finish the attic, so we have even more need to find a wonderful family who will love our home as much as we do.