A BLAST FROM A PAST FARMHOUSE RENOVATION

I was going through some older photos last night and came across some images that I thought I had lost forever during a computer crash.

I was so delighted to see one of my favorite fixer upper projects, not to mention my previous home where many memories were made.

I believe it was in 2009 when my husband and I purchased an old, delapitated farmhouse on 67 acres in the country.  I’ll never forget what the realtor said to us as we were about to enter the home.  “I just have to warn you, the place doesn’t show well!”

The outside didn’t show well so I just chuckled and thought to myself the inside couldn’t be any worse.   WRONG!!  Upon entering I immediately found myself gasping for fresh air!  I had to put my sweater over my nose and mouth to breath it was that bad.

What was smelling so bad you ask?  It was a mix of numerous things.  There was the stench of unkept cat box odor, dog and cat urine and feces everywhere.  That’s not all.  As we started our way upstairs, there was unidentifiable small piles scattered about.

We entered one room which had a few cages that had chickens in them.  All the time I was thinking there is no way we would ever get the smell out of this house.

There were 4 bedrooms and a bath upstairs.  The bathroom had big hole in the floor, and the tub was not hooked up.  The woodwork and floors had so much potential and were not painted, the ceilings were tall, and the views from upstairs, beautiful!

The basement was like it was a scene from some horror movie!  Oh the odors, still lingering but now with very musty, wet basement smells to boot!  There were a few cat skeletons in one area, a pile of old rotten melons in another.

I could not wait to get out of this house!    So we said  our goodbyes and on our way home discussed the property.  I did not want to purchase this property because of the smells, but my husband had a different outlook on it.  He reassured me that the smells would go away.  So we agreed to purchase the property , rolled up our sleeves and began clean up on this fixer upper.

We renovated it into a bed and breakfast which we ran for 7 years before we burned out.  There was also an old chicken coop which we renovated into a cabin.  There were several wedding that were held there also.  A beautiful, babbling creek welcomed our guests as they crossed the old wooden bridge.

Here are a few photos of our previous fixer upper in its finished state.  I could not find any before photos to show.  Oh  Yes, Those HORID smells?  They went away after stripping all the wood work and floors.  I am sorry about the quality of the photos.   I could not get original images to download due to the size of each of them, so I had to do a screen shot of each.   These images were taken before I really stepped up my game in photography.   Thanks for stopping by and reminiscing with me and have a great week!