Welcome! My name is Carrie, I am a little woman of German descent and I am embarking on a bit of an adventure. I have a passion for old homes, particularly restoring them. I also love to read and learn about cool things that other people do so why not share my story? I lost my dad unexpectedly late last year and that, among other things has inspired me to live big and write about my experiences. I have never blogged and have limited restoration skills, so this should be fun :)
My story begins in Western NY in an old farm house. My dad, born and raised in Germany, met my American mom in South Africa and they settled in the states in 1975. He bought a farm with about 100 acres in Findley Lake, NY and that is where my passion for old homes was birthed. My sister and I lived through a restoration/ several additions/ complete transformation of that old house for most of our young/ adolescent years. I have fond memories of family and friend get togethers that involved my dad cutting the new hole for the kitchen window above the sink with a chainsaw, to not so fond ones of taking a bath in a room gutted to the studs. I remember the house jacked up on stilts so we could dig a new basement out by hand with shovels and a conveyor. I lived my best life on that farm. We had ponds, willow trees, animals, a play house and lots of love. I witnessed an amazing man that came from poverty in a post WWII Germany make something beautiful out of a little bit of nothing. That experience is embedded in me and defines a part of my existence.
Fast forward a few decades, and I now live in VA. I moved here in 2001 with my husband and 2 children. We bought 8 acres and built our first home. We had 2 more children and both of us built our careers here. Sounds like a dream, right? While I am thankful for our home and the life that we provided for our children, I was longing to return to my roots. There was an old farm house about 3 miles from where we built our home that I could not stop thinking, imagining, dreaming about. I built a relationship with the owner, but ultimately she wasn't ready to sell. Long story short (many prayers and tears later), we were able to buy that house with 20 acres. My dad gifted us an amazing opportunity to breathe life into this old farm house. Many people laughed at us for even thinking about taking the project on, but even more people cheered us on. Countless people stopped by during the process to tell us stories about the farm or to just share their admiration. We purchased the property in 2017 and moved in late 2018.
My Prayer
So, my prayer for this farm was that God would somehow bless my family and give us healing and lots of memories. The blessings have been plenty, healing has come from those blessings and some heartache along the way, but we have so many beautiful memories to cherish. Since purchasing the farm, we have added a daughter and son in law to the family and 5 grandchildren. I never could have imagined losing one of my parents at this stage in my life, especially with so much more left to live and experience. The last in-person conversation that I had with my dad last year, I was able to share with him that we bought another house and we were gearing up to gut it. He just grinned. He knew I had been looking and encouraged me to pull the trigger on a few other homes, but when I told him about this one, he just knew it was right with my soul. We shared a few laughs about our farm in NY and he apologized for passing what he called 'this sickness' on to me. I am truly thankful that he did!
What a beautiful home and family!