For the Love of Old Houses, and ALL Things DIY
Yay! It’s our first article! I thought I would start out by telling you a bit about us and why we decided to create the blog in the first place. Ed and I bought our 1920s home right around 3 years ago. Prior to this we were renters who were tired of throwing away hundreds of dollars a month on a place that wasn’t ours. It wasn’t technically a practical time in our lives to buy a fixer upper as I was a full-time student and working part-time but we decided if the right house came along it would be worth it. Plus, I’ve always had a serious love of houses and couldn’t wait to have our own!
Location, Location, Location!
We decided that we would move back to our small hometown so we could be closer to our families. Now if any of y’all are from small towns you know that word of mouth is the fastest way to get information. In our case we were looking for an old fixer upper with potential and a small price tag. And it didn’t take long to get a lead. After telling a few people we were looking, a friend of ours bumped into their neighbor who let her know he was thinking about selling his home. She sent us a few pictures (the ones below) of the place and of course, the shed is what got Ed to go with me to check it out 😛
After laying eyes on the shed he was sold, but looking back on pictures of the house it’s tough to remember what I saw in the place! It needed some serious love! Lol! But I can tell ya two things; I’ve always wanted a little old house to fix up and I love a good deal 🙂 and this place definitely met both qualifications. Old houses have always interested me because of the character that you cannot recreate without the age that comes with it. Things just aren’t built like they used to be and I feel like you either appreciate that or you don’t. Being able to give this little house the much-needed attention it deserves is something we find much value in.
So why this little house?
There are two other factors that played big roles in the purchase of our home. First of all, we both love the idea of small living. Our home is less than 1000 square feet, 989 square feet to be exact. Neither of us feels the need to have a huge house, it just isn’t something that’s important to us. We were going for cozy and efficient. And secondly, we want to live within our means. We aren’t out to try to get the biggest and best we can afford. Buying a small fixer upper meant the financial freedom we were looking for with the added bonus of bringing an old house back to life and making it feel like ours.
We want our home to be haven to relax in at the end of the day. Being diyers by nature, having a house to renovate has been the ultimate project and we’ve gradually tackled one task at a time on a shoestring budget. With each project we’ve undertaken we’ve researched other people’s DIY experiences, which only fueled my reasoning to share ours. I found it difficult to relate to either the size of their “small house” or their “small budget”. I want to share the very real, not always so pretty, sometimes head scratching, even profanity causing, experiences that we’ve had renovating, creating, and above all falling in love with our home. And the fact that it IS possible on a practically non-existent budget.
Another important fact worth mentioning is my obsession with interior design. I have loved houses since I was a child and being a detail oriented person by nature, certain things about houses just seem to stay with me whether they be architectural, decor, or otherwise. It amazes me that you can take a space, choose the right things to fill it with and create an entirely specific feeling. Also I don’t just love old houses I love old stuff too! Ha! I grew up going to auctions with my Dad looking for treasures as well as watching/helping him remodel the farmhouse I grew up in. It’s safe to say he definitely passed on the DIY gene along with his interest of restoring and repurposing awesome home furnishings and decor. Ed and I love mixing the old with the new and creating a ‘collected over time’ feel when decorating. We like a clean, crisp, cozy feeling in our home mixing farmhouse and industrial pieces. I can’t wait to share our ever evolving style with you!
To sum it up we have a small house and an even smaller renovation/design budget which has led to experiences I believe are worth sharing! We’d love for you to take part in our journey and we promise to provide you with the knowledge of lessons learned as well as some amusement, as we fumble our way through this DIY adventure that has become a lifestyle!
Hope y’all enjoy!
