Well, we didn’t just buy an old farmhouse. It’s actually been about six months since we’ve moved in, and if you’ve been following along on my instagram and YouTube channel than you’ve already seen it! (To see an “empty house tour” right when we moved in, you can watch that here) I wanted to put together a post to share the story of this house, how it became ours, and some of my absolute favorite features of this home.
The farmhouse we now live in was originally built in 1760, and it has such an interesting, rich history. We actually have copies of all of the deeds dating back to 1760 – some of which were handwritten with a quill pen (!!) and it is just the coolest thing. So, it was built in 1760 and through the years many families have owned it. However, it eventually became abandoned and was extremely run down and in danger of being demolished. The previous owner, who we bought this house from, is a builder who has a serious passion for rescuing historic properties and bringing them back to their former glory. He took on this project and completely brought this old farmhouse back to life!
Our house actually has 2 sections – the original farmhouse and a new addition, so it’s kind of the best of both worlds. The farmhouse portion has been completely restored but it still maintains a lot of it’s original character, including deep windowsills, pine flooring, and fireplaces galore.
A Crazy Story
How we actually came about buying this house is kind of a crazy story. You know how people say when you just know, you know? We had been very casually looking at a few houses here and there, but were not super serious about actually moving. We loved our old house and really had no reason to move out just yet, other than I was really craving more space. As in land. I have always dreamed on living on land and I was ready to be out of the cookie-cutter, postage stamp lot neighborhood setting. We had looked at a few houses but none of them were even remotely an option…until I saw this one online.
I literally told Matt “I found the house we’re going to live in.” I just knew! We went and toured it, it was even more gorgeous and grand and oozing with charm than in the pictures, and I was sold. When we got in the car to drive home, I burst into tears. I’m not a crier, so this really caught Matt off guard, ha! Anddd that’s when he knew that was our house too.
We found out that the seller was in contract a few times before but was very attached to the property and never went to settlement. But he explained to our realtor that he had a really good feeling about us and felt like the house should be ours. We were nervous he might not take our offer, but he accepted and we were over the moon! A couple months later, we signed the papers to make it officially ours.
My Favorite Features
- It has 9 fireplaces. Yes, nine! Eight wood burning, and one gas.
- The gorgeous, tall windows with super deep window sills all throughout the farmhouse.
- Original pine flooring. It is rustic, it is imperfect, it is full of character – basically to die for! This is all throughout the upstairs of the farmhouse portion.
- The whole house has tall ceilings and is very open and airy. We toured a couple old farmhouses before this one, and they were so cramped. In one, Matt could not even stand up fully on the second floor (lol) and at that point I kind of gave up on the dream of living in an old home. Until I found this one!
- It sits on almost 3 acres. We now have plenty of space! In my ideal world, we would pick up this gorgeous house and plop it on a lot with at least 10 acres…but I’m not complaining!
- It has a claw foot tub. That sits across from a fireplace. ‘Nuff said.
- A massive walk in pantry. So many shelves and so. much. storage.
- French doors! There are multiple sets throughout the house, they are so beautiful and let in so much light.
- Speaking of doors, the front door is the original from 1760. It is massive, heavy, has a gorgeous antique lock, and I just love it so much.
- The porch. It has brick flooring, painted white brick, and 3 walls of windows. The windows can actually restract down too to instantly make it a screened in porch. We’ve got some big, cozy white chairs out there now and soon to be giant farmhouse table – I just know we will spend so much time in here throughout the years!
To learn more about our dreams of homesteading on this property, you can read about that here!