I recently had a blog friend ask me for more pictures of our house.
So, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane....
with a little history of the farm.
The farm has been a part of our family for the past 10 years.
Originally bought with friends as a weekend retreat,
it served as a place to get away from the hustle and bustle of life
in the city and suburbs.
During these years, we started to acquire our goats, chickens, and horses.
We gardened, and started orchards and split our time between two homes...
(exhausting lifestyle!)
Several years later, our friends and partners bought a retreat
on the Chesapeake.
Three homes were more than they needed,
so they sold their half of the farm to us.
Owning two homes was more than we bargained for.
Commuting an hour to take care of critters and gardens
made no sense, so.....
We sold our home in the suburbs, and headed to the farm full time.
The original farm house was actually a contemporary home,
not our taste in style, and wrought with problems.
Living in this home full time was out of the question.
The heating bills alone would have broken the bank...
not to mention the structural problems that had occurred over the years.
We tore down the contemporary home and had
it taken away for salvage. By the time it was torn down,
there was nothing left but the block foundation,
which we removed and buried deep in one of our cornfields.
In place of this contemporary structure,
we built the home of our dreams...
a log home.
It took from November till July to build our home.
During these months we spent a lot of time
in the guest house...
a one room A-frame with a sleeping loft...
very, very small cozy.
And we happily took residency in the summer of 2009.
Driving up the long driveway, you approach the house at this angle.
This is the upper back deck which runs along the entire back of the house.
It connects to a screen porch off the kitchen.
The front of the house has an upper deck and a lower
porch.
It took a while to get a nice yard.
This was the first year.
By the next summer, things were looking better.
The barn is quite a distance from the house,
and still matches the color scheme of the old house.
It has several stalls, a workshop, a greenhouse,
feed room, and a hay loft.
The vegetable garden resides within the tall fence in the forefront.
In the very front is one of our 4 upper pastures.
More landscaping projects last summer helped to finish
off the look of the front yard.
Several truck loads of mulch later, we were happy with the look.
One of my favorite touches is the beehive weathervane
on top of the garage.
The landscaping remains a work in progress,
as do the gardens and orchards and berry patches.
I am thinking that I should do a walking tour of the house at some
point...video style....what do you think?
Comments
Isn't it amazing the changes....when you look back on it....just the little things you do each day add up!!
Congrats on that move...what a wonderful and wise choice! One I know you have never regreted!
Michle
Thanks for sharing!
Blessings
Tonya
Thank you for the tour of the making of Bee Haven Acres.
~ Tracy
Suzan
We did draw our own blueprints. Hubbs had found a picture of a front similar to this house and I drew the house behind the front. It took a couple tries until it was structurally good...as I am no architect or engineer. But here we are, and it is just what we dreamed it would be. We heat with geothermal, but most of the time use our fireplace...it puts out a huge amount of BTU's and has a catalytic converter that even burns the smoke....very clean and very efficient. There is a chimney that is visible from the other side of the house. We are thinking that someday we will add solar...when it is a bit cheaper and also has better storage capacity.
Bev
Maura :)