A Modest House With Room to Grow

I've watched House Hunters enough to know that people choose houses for many different reasons. They may like the layout of the floor plan and that it's located in a desirable neighborhood. Some people factor in the commute to work or the school district. Others fall in the love with the character of a house; it's charming details and curb appeal. Some can visualize themselves having dinner parties on a big deck or turning a small bedroom into a nursery. 

I've definitely been there. I was IN LOVE with our house in Macon. I wanted to marry it and buy it lots of nice furniture. 

Fast forward a few years and we found ourselves in need of big change for a variety of reasons. After angst and peril and upheaval and sleepless nights, we decided to move to Fitzgerald, my hometown,

to a small house on my parents' farm. It's a fixer upper to say the least. 

Though this new house is perfect for us, it's not perfect in the "amazing floor plan and charming front porch" kind of way. It's perfect in the "this is good for our little family" kind of way.

This house is solid, but doesn't have the "look" I would usually want in a house.

The house is a little smaller than our old house, but more than big enough for what we really need.

The house is not especially beautiful. You wouldn't give it a second look if you passed by.  Its best qualities are intangible and to us they are invaluable.

It's a modest house, but it sits on a beautiful spot on the farm. There's plenty of room to grow in every way. I can live with that trade off. 

We moved from Macon and into my parents house at the beginning of June. We worked fast and furiously all summer long and then moved into the new house about three weeks ago (the 23rd of August, I think). As I look back at these pictures, it is unbelievable to me how much we were able to accomplish.

Daddy stopped everything to throw his time and resources into the house. Mama kept Ford every.single.day while we worked until dark-thirty. She also fed us and washed our clothes. My brother, Jonathon used all of his days off to help us, even going so far as to go with me to Ikea. That, friends, is true love. 

I want you to know that when I say "we" did this or that, that it is a collective "we." It was nearly never just David and I working, and even when it was, we could both work because Mama was watching Ford. Everything we accomplished was with someone else's tools and because someone had shown us how to do it. Most of the time, Daddy and Jonathan were here working and planning and making everything come together. It was a family project, for sure. 

So without further delay, here are the "before"pictures of the house. Please try to resist the urge to pin all of the beauty. Ha. 

This is the front door and you walk into a large room that is the living and dining area. This side is the living room.

Here's another look at the built-in bookcases that features a gas heater fire place. 

This is the view from the front door of the dining room side. Through the door on the right is the laundry room and through the door on the left is the kitchen.

Here we are in the lovely kitchen. You'll see the back door to the left. The house was built as more of a cabin retreat. It's rustic and make shift. The cabinets weren't made for this kitchen and didn't fit quite right. 

Continuing around the room, you'll notice the window that looks in the laundry room. (The laundry room and master bedroom closet are additions to the original house). 

And on the other side of the room, all of the appliances sat next to each other. 

This is the hallway that connects the large front room with the bedrooms and bathroom.

This is the master bedroom. 

You may notice that all of the rooms have window units. The house didn't have central heat and air, but thankfully it does now! Also, both of the bedrooms have exterior doors for some reason. 

This is a walk in closet in our room (full of someone else's clothes…we had a lot of cleaning to do too.)

This is Ford's bedroom. You can see the door that comes in from the hallway and another exterior door. Just want you want in your child's room, right?  An escape route. 

Another window unit. More brick and paneling. Pure excitement. 

We had pulled up the red carpet at this point to reveal the (also red) concrete floor. 

And finally here's the vintage tile bathroom.

Spoiler alert: We still have a vintage tile bathroom. But don't worry. We made some happy little updates in this room, too. 

Finally, here's a little sketch to give you a general idea of the layout of the house. It's a small house, but the rooms are laid out well in way that maximizes our living space. 

I'm excited to show you the after pictures and walk through our work room by room, but I must warn you that we are still very much "in progress." I'm so proud of the work that we've all done and how great the house turned out (I think we all had some doubts!). There are, however, little and big things that we haven't gotten to yet and the house is far from being decorated or styled. I think that's the reality that most of us live in, though. There's always another project that we want to get to or something that we want to update. That middle ground is real life. It will be fun to share those next projects and decorating ideas as we get to them, but for now we are thankful to be living in our house!

I'll be back on Tuesday with more pictures. Yay!