Farmhouse Renovation Update

We are five months into our farmhouse renovation and journey towards being sustainable homesteaders. It has been a busy few months since our last update. You can check out the first eight weeks of our Farmhouse Renovation here. But a lot more has changed since we last checked in, and I am so excited to fill you all in!

The demolition is complete at this point with only the bathroom remaining until we start the footers for the addition. Demo took us a lot longer than I originally anticipated. Bless my heart, I thought it would only take us three weeks! When you add up the actual hours, it probably equates to that much time, but when you work full time and have another home to run, time is not fully devoted to demo time.

Farmhouse Renovation-Week 9

Week nine was Halloween week. We spent this week canning deer meat, applesauce, and applebutter. While it is not necessarily moving the work forward at the house, it was a week well spent getting ready for the cold months ahead. The kids loved getting to taste test the applesauce in between batches as my quality control helpers. We also enjoyed a little trick or treating, pumpkin carving, and a little snack day.

Week 10

In week ten we really started getting into the upstairs rooms. It felt like such an accomplishment to really dig in upstairs. The weather was so beautiful though that we had to take some time away to head to the park with our friends! Hmmm maybe these weekend excursions are why we can’t seem to get any work done. Regardless, it was well worth it to get to hang out with our friends and have a little picnic at the farm.

Week 11

My momma came to the rescue in week eleven. She came over and helped really motivate me to get some stuff done. In the few hours she was there we got most of the upstairs torn into and demoed. She is a true beast when it comes to working. She can work circles around me. I loved having her there and seeing all of the progress we made in such a short amount of time

Farmhouse Renovation -Week 12

Week twelve started off with Christopher and I finishing up the last bit of the upstairs. It is so crazy at how much the house opens up with the dividing walls and ceiling down. The house really looked small when we first bought it, but now with it all opened it looks so big and roomy! I cannot wait to start putting it back together with all the ideas I have in my head!

We also had another big milestone in week twelve with Liliana going on her very first hunt. While she didn’t get anything, I think it is such a great experience for her to learn about hunting and spend time with her daddy in the woods. She loved it and was ready to wake up early and go back the next day.

Week twelve was a busy one! We also had an opportunity to finally explore the little barn that is on the property. I was so excited to find that the barn was in great condition but better yet I found a treasure! I later took that treasure and made a beautiful piece for my living room.

We rounded out week twelve with some fence mending in preparation of the coming week with our new family additions. The weather was so nice and the kids loved running in the pasture and exploring the creek. We found some of the last remnants of peppermint in the field along with a stray cat that was promptly chased by a happy Scyla.

Week 13

I don’t know that there has been a more exciting week for me than week thirteen. This is the week that our Archie came home! Archie the donkey was the first farm animal that came to live at our farm. You can read all about Archie’s story here!

Besides adding Archie to the family we also spent some time at Mawmaw and Poppies taking down some fencing. It was also the week for Christmas decorating! I love pulling out all the Christmas decorations and putting them up throughout the house. It hit me this year that it will be our last year in our current house. By next Christmas we should be fully settled in the farmhouse. While I am super excited to get into the farmhouse, it made me just a little sad that we would be leaving the home that our boys were born in and have always had their Christmas’s.

Week thirteen was also Thanksgiving! We have historically made Thanksgiving just the five of us since the boys were born, so it was similar to most years. I cooked way too much with Christopher smoking a turkey for the first year. Let me just tell you, it was delicious. If you have never smoked a turkey, you should! We will never go back to a baked turkey.

Week 14

In week fourteen, we brought home some more critters for the farm. Cookies and Cream became our first cows on the farm. We had full intentions of going to a cattle sale the week of Thanksgiving, but with CoVid, everything was closed down. Christopher found a couple of three week old bottle fed Holstein calves for sale down the road, and we went to pick them up. They are so sweet!

Week fourteen also brought along some exciting work on the house. The stone mason began working on reviving the existing fireplace and chimney. When we first bought the house, we were really concerned that the chimney may be beyond repair due to the amount of cement and plaster that was patched on the outside of it. However when he dug in, we found that the plaster and cement was not covering issues, it was covering a patched up external fireplace! What a find! We will be making this area our outdoor family fire pit where we can spend summer evenings enjoying the crackling fire and smores with the kiddos.

Farmhouse Renovation Week 15 and 16

Weeks fifteen and sixteen were not productive ones at all as the whole house began to fight a stomach bug that did not want to let go of us. While we were all not at our 100%, the stone manson was moving right along with making our fireplace as beautiful as it was when the home was first built. We could not be happier with the work that he did to bring this space back to life for us.

Contractors also moved in to begin working on support for the original structure as the home still sits on original stone and wood post. They removed old horse hair chinking and re-supported our beautiful logs in preparation for the support beam being added in the coming weeks. It is really starting to come together!

Week 17

Week seventeen was Christmas!!!! Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love everything about the holiday. We spent the holiday celebrating at home with a full day of snacking and games on Christmas Eve. We have made Christmas Even snack day a family tradition. You can check out our snack day tradition here.

We spent Christmas Day relaxing and opening up presents all day. The kids are at such a great age that they open a present and then play for an hour, so it allowed for the excitement to last all day. It was a wonderful couple of days.

It has been such a busy few weeks and I am so glad you are checking in on the progress. You can also keep track of our progress by following us on Instagram and Facebook. We hope to see you there!

Spread the love