The House!!

Chad has wanted to blog about our new home for quite some time but cannot seem to fit it into his busy schedule! So, I guess I will be the one to timeline our journey from 1979 Ranch Style to 2008 Craftsman! As most of you know, when we purchased our new farm there was an existing house on the property. We remodeled a few rooms in preparation to move in. Unfortunately however, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, we never got the chance. The March tornado destroyed the home almost completely and we were forced to clean up and start over.


Here is a picture of the house we purchased on February 29,2008.

Here is the same house on March 15, 2008. Words can never describe the heartbreak and pure shock we felt when we arrived at the scene. Even though we only owned it 2 weeks and never spent a night there, we do have some good memories in this house. We spent many hours together there painting and cleaning and ripping out floors and tearing off wallpaper and moving cabinets. Below is one my most treasured photos of our times in house as I will always remember them.

Yeah, losing the house and all the visions we had for it and for us living there was difficult! More difficult though was realizing the magnitude of devastation the tornado placed on our farm. I dare say the farm will ever look as it did. Only two of the Live Oak trees we loved so dearly remain.

On a positive note, there are some things about the old house I am thankful that I do not have to contend with any longer. One would be the 1970's bright blue bathroom! I'm talking about sink, shower, toilet, countertop, the works! Of course, the bathroom would have been easier to replace than the house, that's not the way it had to be! So, after much anticipation, debris removal, and clean up, we finally begin work on our new house!

Here is a pic of Chad in our new basement! As you may notice, we have a safe room! :)

Here's Chad sitting in our new living room thinking it all over! Don't you just love the view!

This picture is taken from the front right corner of the house. The cantilever area will one day be the breakfast nook! I can't even remember the house looking like this! Wow, it has come a long way!

As you may be aware, the house is built on a passive solar design. This type of design allows for lots of windows and wide overhangs as you can see we used. We love the old craftsman style homes. Chad drew out the basic floor plan on graph paper and then gave it to one of our milk customers to do our official house plans. Everything ended up perfect even down to the siding. We just cannot wait to call this place home!

We love the shed dormer and detailed siding. Plus you may be able to see the deck that is being built along the back side of the house. The back porch,which includes an outdoor fireplace, will extend around to the deck so that we will have plenty of outdoor living space! This is perfect since the outdoors is our favorite place to be!