Where does time escape to?!
I feel like I should still be coming home from school to make blanket forts in the living room with my little sisters or ‘playing house’ upstairs. It feels like just yesterday that my seven-year-old self was painting & making furniture for her little Barbie house. Instead here I am, twenty-years-old, typing a blog post about my fiance (still not quite used to that word) buying our first house. Like a real-deal house. Unlike our blanket forts & Barbie houses, it has a street address, doorbell, refrigerator and everything!
It’s also 100 years old. (You can be filled in with the rest of the story here.) Elijah will be living in the house for now & I’ll be moving in once we get married! (288 days…but who’s really counting??) Over our engagement, not only are we working & planning a wedding, but we’ve decided to take on the project of fixing up the outside of the house together! The more projects the merrier, right? Luckily, the inside was fully renovated before he bought the house, so he can move in as-is. However, we definitely have a few things we want to change & add inside, but we’ll focus on the inside of the house after we get married! Can’t get too crazy…
Owning and fixing up a house together has been a dream of ours for so long, and it occasionally hits us that we’re actually living the moments we dreamed of once.
While we don’t necessarily feel old enough to be taking on this next exciting adventure, we’ve learned that it’s rare in life to ever feel completely “ready.” I personally think the fun in life is found each time we take on a new risk, and it couldn’t be more exciting. We really feel like ‘Kids With a House.’
Welcome to the before tour! Join us along on our little labor of love!
The Front//
Like I said earlier, the front of the house is where we are focusing all of our attention right now. It sure needs some love. It already has a good metal roof, but other than that, it’s pretty much all changing. Later this week, I’ll share a roundup of the pictures that are inspiring the front renovations. We’ve got lots in store…
Unlike any of the other houses Elijah looked at, this one has a killer corner lot with the biggest yard & trees! One of our first projects is adding a tree swing to the front yard. The rope just came in a few days ago…eeek!
The Side Yard//
Ever since we visited Charleston, SC, I’ve had a special place in my heart for side yards and garden entrances. I want the side yard to be a focal point of the house from the road & a fun entrance to the backyard. It’s also the view from the living room and kitchen sink window, so I want it to be extra cozy feeling. I have lots of ideas brewing about this space…I couldn’t help but share an inspiration pic below!
The Foyer//
There’s something about an entryway to a house. The foyer is the first point to welcome a guest into your home & the first place you walk in every day. Our front door will also have glass, so I want this to be a cozy space visible from the road!
The Front Bedroom//
The first of two bedrooms.
The Living Room//
Another reason we loved this house was for it’s character. Each room has an old fireplace, which I’m already dying to expose the brick underneath!
The Kitchen//
As soon as you walk towards the back of the house from the living room, you enter the kitchen. It’s totally move in ready with the new cabinets and flooring, but we already have lots of ideas… The only problem is that we don’t have a pantry….gonna have to get creative there…
(The flower by the sink was a housewarming gift from a neighbor. 🙂 )
The Back Bedroom//
The Bathroom//
The Laundry Room//
Thankfully this 100 year old house actually has a tiny laundry room! We’ll take it over no laundry room any day!
The Office//
This is an addition they added to the back of the house & it just so happens to be the perfect office for Elijah & studio space for Daisy Sue Design! It receives so much natural light, so it will be the perfect place to draw & take pictures.
The Backyard//
The backyard on this house is dreamier than we envisioned out first house to have. Our plan is to start working in the backyard once the front is done & we’re married, but we’re already dying to start working on it!
That’s an old well house & shed. Both are coming down. Right now the back of the house has a ghost town vibe going on with all of the little run-down buildings. They gotta go…
One of our favorite parts is the old farm gate! One day we dream of owning a farm, so the farm gate will remind us of that dream every day. The gate is also super helpful for Elijah to be able to park the Fernway Home Projects trailer there one day!
Annnnnddd that’s the BEFORE house tour!
I’ll end the post with a picture I found that’s inspired me from day one. Ah. I already can’t wait for the day that we get to take pictures of the house looking like this…full of life & fun moments.
Funny thing is, that’s kinda how I see the house right now, too. This house has already created lots of memories within the first two weeks. I feel like I snap a hundred pictures every time we work on it, but it’s my way of trying to remember the moments that went into this place before it becomes our home. Both our families have already spent hours with us getting sweaty hauling off limbs from the yard, crawling under the house, & pulling hundreds of carpet staples out of the hardwood.
I can only dream of those moments to come. We’ve been soaking in every second.
Can’t wait to document more “Kids with a House” updates. Thanks for joining the tour!
Daisy Sue
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