Hi!
I have joined forces with three other ladies from here in the Rogue Valley to share our farmhouses.
It’s exciting.
Kinda.
Mostly.
Until I realized that all of them are superior in tidiness, and niceness, and ambition.
BUT I am slaying imperfection…and other mantras my therapist has me repeat.
And this is actually me.
The other ladies have very professional looking photographs of themselves.
But it’s too late for them to uninvite me.
My friend gifted me a cotton candy machine where I am slowly mastering the art of shaping them to look like sombreros.
So, without further ado:
Here is a virtual tour of my 1875 pear orchard farmhouse that my husband, Bryce and I moved into eight years ago and are raising six children in.
I’ll start you off with our sunroom, a favorite room in the summer months, even with the windows not shutting all the way.
Which at one point were the culprit for a child falling out of one…no harm done, that we know of…
We bought some fruit bins from local orchards and fruit warehouses and cut them up to make a wall in homage to the home’s roots.
Painted top to bottom.
Oh, and some Pepsi letterboards, because, always.
Please note only a fraction of the kitchen is photographed,
I have intentionally omitted the ghetto sink
and the counter tops that are
warped,
pitted,
and are no longer fully flush
which makes you think twice about where you place an egg…
AND we fully intend on replacing our countertops, probably about the time that laminate comes back into style, I’m sure.
The kitchen were the only floors we couldn’t save. They just shredded when we tried pulling up the linoleum.
An old work table provides additional prep area,
which in all honesty is usually covered in Perler beads
{when the three year old isn’t stuffing them up her nose, true story},
play dough bits
and paint blobs.
Also, the laundry room, because it is VITAL to my peace of my mind that you know we do laundry,
and have indoor plumbing
and electricity
and missing socks
just like the rest of America.
And the dining room!
I think she’s finally where I want her.
We purchased the table and some of the school house chairs from a couple from Northern California.
He hand planed and waxed salvage wood for the table and she refinished the chairs.
The Gi.Ant chalkboard calendar is a window from our house we had to remove when updating our upstairs bath from a closet bath to a real size bath that people could stand up in.
Guys, and this!
I love the riot of colors and textures and my children…sometimes in that order…but not always.
I’m huge into metal because it is so dang durable.
The stairwell was the last thing I painted when we moved in eight years ago and once it was done, my home felt complete.
There’s just something about a hand worn banister.
And I fully intended to constantly switch pictures in and out but one day I was like
why?
And…so I haven’t.
That little rocking chair was first my uncle’s and then my mom’s and now ours.
And that type of story is the best story.
Right, so this room.
I bought that enormous Antiques sign when we lived in Denver for ten dollars and erroneously thought it would fit in our Honda mini-van.
The glass windows above the door frame hold dried flowers from my wedding bouquet and the windows came from my husband’s grandparent’s basement.
One of the quilts on top of the orange lockers was made using sugar sacks from my husband’s grandpa’s bakery.
The post office box my husband picked up for me on a business trip.
And the piano was free and I painted it one day when I was so discourged because my youngest had accidentally called someone and he felt obliged to leave a nasty voicemail bullet pointing all the ways in which I was failing.
So, if the world falls apart and there is only one room I can save, this is it.
This bathroom.
The thing about not buying new, is that you can take a room that is not original to the house, but give it the same amount of character just by what you let live in the space.
That rug came from my friend when she lived in Turkey.
My sister-in-law made my kids’ towels.
I bought the little red stool in Ohio when my husband and I went antiquing for our 10 year anniversary.
And I’m not even kidding when I saw EVERYONE should have a claw foot tub.
Right after clean drinking water.
We had the sinks shipped from Louisiana and the amazing thing is, even with shipping, there were still cheaper than buying a new double sink from Home Depot.
The arrow sign is from my husband’s grandparents cabin from up in Canada.
And also, on my tombstone it will read, counters by bathroom sinks are stupid.
With wall mount faucets and zero counter space I have single handedly reduced the amount of toothpaste waste and wandering sig. nificcantly.
How cute are those baby bath pictures?!
And let’s talk for a second about this toilet.
Don’t leave.
Guys, this thing never clogs.
No joke.
She’s my best friend.
These open shelves were originally u-g-l-y cupboards that I wanted to tear out, bury, and then dance on their grave.
But Bryce was like…oorrrr…
we could take off the doors, add some shelves and do an open library!
Just kidding.
He never talks in exclamation points,
but it was an excellent idea.
The quilt was Bryce’s grandmothers that she was given by her friends for her wedding and who had each monogrammed a square.
And we turned the weird little drawers into a reading nook, hanging the curtain using some of the square head nails we pulled out of the kitchen floor we couldn’t salvage.
Expose the bead board ceilings and you have something worth writing home about.
Which leads us to this room.
Where we realized hiding behind wall paper
was muslim
nailed to these beautiful walls.
You can find newspaper articles dating back from 1886.
{Also a giveaway pile with a toy giraffe guitar.}
I’m sure you’re like,
but where do the kids sleep?!
In squalor.
That’s where they sleep.
Their bedrooms are another post for another day.
Like when they’re all in college.
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Thanks for following along!
If you’re interested in some other farmhouses, check out these fabulous people:
Oh, and one last thing, if you are local and do Instagram
THERE’S A GIVEAWAY!
Find any of us on IG {@thehappyishhomestead if you’re looking for me}, be local and leave a farmer emoji in the comments on the tour posts and you’re entered to win these treasures from our homes.
Cheers,
Katie
