Our Farm-Warming Party

This past weekend Casey and I had all of our closest friends and family over to our new (to us) farmhouse for a house-warming party. We grilled hotdogs and attempted to make some homemade strawberry ice cream. The weather was pretty perfect and we loved being able to bring both our families together for the first time. We’ve been in the Big Blue Farm for about 5 weeks now, and it already feels like home. We were searching (what felt like forever, but was really only about 4ish months) for a farmhouse fixer upper with a good amount of land, and although this place was already “fixed up” back in 2001, it was definitely due for some updates that would allow us to make it our own. The 4 acres of land was a little less than we were looking for and Casey was sad it didn’t include a stream or pond, but once we saw all the character and gorgeous history of this house, that was built in 1867(!!), we fell in love. Casey also plans to make his own pond eventually… so problem solved…eventually. 😉

So far we’ve painted over the purple stairs and made them white, as well as painting the floor gray in the upstairs foyer, because that was also purple (like straight Barney the Dinosaur purple y’all). We also ripped up the carpets in the upstairs guest bedroom and Casey spent a full 48 hours sanding down the old heart of pine floors from the 1800’s. We plan to stain the floors a dark Jacobean brown, but we still have to get a corner sander and find wood that will match to cover the spot where there used to be a fireplace. The previous owner who actually saved the house from being demolished in 2000 and moved it about 3/4 of a mile down the road to where it sits now, decided to rip out all the fireplaces (breaks my heart every time I think about it) because it would’ve been super expensive and difficult to stabilize the chimneys to move them. So when he ripped them out, instead of covering the fireplaceless floor with more hardwoods, he laid down plywood and covered all the floor with carpets. Casey and I are not big fans of carpet because of our two super fluffy dogs, Tito and Mojo (aka Mojito), and I personally just love the look of old hardwoods. So everywhere there is carpet we plan to rip it up and refinish the hardwoods. We also did a lot of landscaping work to clean up and create new flower gardens, but y’all I am not even close to done with my flower-filled vision for this place. I can’t wait to have ALL the flowers in the land!! We’re also planning to plant a big vegetable and herb garden next year and I’m so pumped! My little office in the back also needs a lot of work, but I’m doing fine with a makeshift office in the living room for now.

I could go on and on with all the renovations we’re planning to do, but we’re also trying to take it one project at a time and not get overwhelmed. Just think — lots of subway tile backsplash and showers, marble kitchen counters, new tile floors in the bathrooms and laundry room, a free standing soaker tub to replace the huge jetted thing, new paint colors, hardwood floors throughout, a farm table in the kitchen, plants and flowers everywhere, and even some sliding barn doors! Whew! Are you exhausted yet!?

Don’t worry, I’ll definitely try to keep you updated every time we finish a room or big project. Here is where we are now though, we’ve done a lot of work already and are proud of our happy home.

 

Enjoy!

 

^I got this amazing welcome mat from Chalk Full of Love!  Thanks to my Mom for these gorgeous new rocking chairs from Cracker Barrel, which were our house warming gift.

 

^ Industrial hall tree from Wayfair!

Just imagine the Barney purple on these gorgeous stairs… it was bad.

^ Shelf from Urban Outfitters!

 

Barn Door TV Stand from Wayfair 

^Desk from Wayfair

^ This was Casey’s Grandma’s sewing machine that I chalk painted! It’s my colorrrr!

^ Thanks to Casey’s mom for this cute pillow!                                                     —Yup this upstairs foyer area also had Barney floors^.

Meet fat cat Moo who is about 17 years old! And of course, yall know Tito.

Ohhh Mojo 😀

^ These are the raw hardwoods, aren’t they gorgeous!! Still have to stain them, but I’m already obsessed!

I’m so ready to get to work on my little office/studio!! It just needs a good cleaning, new flooring and new bathroom tile!