The farm

During the 9 years that we owned it, I tried out many different names for our little farm, but none of them ever seemed quite right.  So, "the farm" was how we always referred to it-not a very exciting name for such a lovely place.  Considering that we had no animals or crops, it might also have been something of a misnomer, but, hey, it was in the country and we had a little bit of acreage.  It was a year ago today that we sold it, and I have been missing it a lot this past month.  So, bear with me as I recall the story, and indulge in some memories.

We were very dreamy and idealistic when we decided to move out to a small town, find an old farmhouse and settle in.  Steve had gotten a job, and we spent a day cruising around looking at "hobby farms".  This place was the last one we checked out before heading back to the big city, and I think we knew it was the one when we came up over the hill and saw it nestled there in the valley.  We called the realtor and set up a time to have a tour.  On the cold, foggy winter day that we saw the house, there were 7 renters at home trying their best to make it look extremely unappealing.   Considering the condition of the house, this didn't take a lot of effort.  It had been a rental property for 30 years, but somehow we saw past this in the 15 minutes that it took us to tour it.  We settled everything with the realtor by fax and phone, and set a closing/move-in date of February 1.  With our rose-colored glasses firmly in place, this is what we walked up to on move-in day.

There were 9 junked cars and a boat in the yard.

I think we may have said,

"Is this really what it looked like?", and "Oh my what have we done."

But, we couldn't argue with the fact that it was a lovely setting surrounded by huge white pines, had 4, yes 4!, porches and just had a good feel about it.  Little by little, room by room, we scraped and patched and

painted.

 

The kitchen was the last room that we remodeled.  I had been not so patiently waiting and waiting to finally turn this into the kitchen of my dreams, and could not have been happier with the results. 

 

We lived in the house for 3 years, then for 5 years drove back on weekends to what we called our "work camp". (don't worry, we did have some fun there too).

After 8 years of work, the house was finally done, and we had the very exciting reward of having it featured in Country Living magazine.  You can check out the article at

www.countryliving.com/homes/house-tours/christine-hoffman-1007

and you can get some behind the scenes dish at www.countryliving.com/janes-blog/christine-hoffman 

Our lives had taken a different turn, so it was a relief to sell it at the time we did, but I really miss it right now when the leaves are starting to turn and the cool, dark evenings are perfect for sitting around a bonfire.  I hope that the new owners are reveling in those very things right now.