Welcome Home Wednesday #1

Today I am starting a weekly blog topic:

Welcome Home Wednesday

Featuring The Classy Coop (aka The Money Pit)

In this picture you can kind of see the garage doors-I love them! Oh, and you can also see the high chair on the front porch, we don't really make the baby eat outside...just getting rid of baby gear :-(

Many people have asked to see our home, and after the challenging journey we had to take to get this far, it only seems fitting to set aside a special day of the week to highlight what we Frankus family members refer to as our Classy Coop, aka "The Money Pit".

A quick recap for those of you who haven't heard the story (please feel free to skip over this if you've heard/read it before):

In 2007, my husband and I decided to get back to our small-town roots and purchase a 100 year old home (scratch that, fixer) in the quaint town of Molalla, Oregon. We currently owned a very nice home in a subdivision, but both of us were feeling the walls closing in on us. With the housing market hot at the time, we purchased the fixer with plans of dropping the equity of our perfectly good home into improvements. Little did we know, the housing market would flop within the month after our purchase, leaving our one income family with two mortgages. Skip forward 3 years over all of the extra expenses, surprises (driving up to a shadow box-only 3 walls standing and no roof) and battles, and alas we are home sweet home!

Here is a photo of our home when we purchased it in 2007:

My husband and I had were constantly struggling to meet in the middle during this remodel. My goal was to maintain the character and integrity of the old farmhouse, and his was to make it efficient, durable and practical....oh and did I mention we were on a tight budget?

We were able to save all of the original columns and corbels for the front deck-Yay!

One thing we did have to change was the siding material. My husband really wanted the easy maintenance of the Hardiplank lap siding, but I was afraid it would make it look too much like all of the new homes being built...so we compromised and instead of going with the 6.75" reveal we got the 4" reveal giving it more of a shiplap siding look.

Here we are as the proud new owners...I laugh as I type this because we had no idea what the next few years would entail.

I wanted to start outside and work our way in. As you can see, we still have a lot to do. This summer our goals include finishing the picket fence, painting it, getting gates up to keep our littles safe, sprinkler system, a yard, and the beginnings of some landscaping/flower beds. I envision a full and whimsical cottage garden, but know it's going to be years in the making.

This is the view from our front door. Our house sits just off the road and our little slice of heaven extends via pasture to one side, and down a hill off the back to a little creek.

This is the view I wake to every morning. A stately lilac bush that smells incredible when the winds sweep through, and an open field that I would love to run through.

This is directly off of the backside of the house. My husband added this deck, and I am so excited for all of the summer dining we will do here. In the distance you can see the log mill. We weren't quite sure about it at first, but now that we are here we love it! The sun comes up over Mt. Hood in the morning and rests atop the stacked logs making them look like an artistic sculpture. All day long, we have the hum of mill as background noise.

Next week I will invite you inside, where we'll take it one room at a time. I am hoping to share before and after photos and explain any special projects/techniques we used. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I'm thinking of eventually turning this into a linky party so that we can all share in decorating/remodeling ideas.