Monday, October 5, 2020

The Ranch House In The Woods

Hi, Friends, 
How are you today? 
I hope and pray that you are well. 
We are less than two weeks away from our proposed closing date on the little ranch house in the woods. 


When we put the offer in, my sister asked me; "What do you love about it?"
Hmmmm. I had to really think about it. I didn't really love anything. 

I like the metal roof. 
I like the big front porch. I can't wait to set our bench, our 4 gallon crock, a pumpkin and a mum on it. 
We will paint ASAP but I'm not sure what color. Eventually, we need to dig out the flower bed next to the porch. It's too high and we think it will affect drainage. 

I really like the screened in porch. I'm pretty sure that this element will be one of our favorites when we are all said and done. 



I really like the kitchen. 
It's got a peninsula which we have never had before.  We will take down the pendant light and the bank of upper cabinets so that it will feel more open. We will install some shelves, I think. The backsplash is laminate. It will come down too. Eventually, we'll do butcher block counters. I'm trying to decide what to do about the cabinets. Do I paint or not? 
I'm actually happy about the white appliances since it differs from what we have at home. 


I plan to make the laundry feel more a part of the kitchen. We don't have a washer and dryer yet. She has a deep freeze in there too but we won't get one of those. I don't trust power outages since we won't be there full time. 


I like the French doors in the dining room. 


The dining room is a pass through to the screened in porch. 
The table that I thrifted is drop leaf so that it can be out of the way if we'd like. 
This space needs a chandelier, I think. 


I really like the little back yard that looks out into the woods. 


A poor pear tree needs to be removed. 
Bill would like to put a barn out there. 


There is a cozy square outside of the screened in porch. A little path leads to the quirky guest cottage. 
The guest cottage has a bathroom and a kitchenette. This space will be a little she shed but it will also serve as overflow for guests. 
This cozy square would be a great place for a fenced potager garden someday. An unused septic tank needs to be removed first though.  


There is a lot of stuff in the house. It makes it hard to visualize which is rare for me. 
What I don't like. 
The ceiling is popcorn, I think. Ugh!. It's also painted in a semi-gloss which creates a weird vibe, in my opinion. 
There is not an entryway. The door opens right into the living room. The door isn't too bad and it's already painted green. There needs to be a little table or something to make it feel entryway-ish. (New word alert)
There is a corner faux fireplace. Bill wants to remove it pretty quickly. I'm not opposed to painting it to see if it will work. 


The floors are stained concrete. I'm not a fan of the finish or color. We're researching what we can do about that. I think I'll want carpet in the bedrooms but I'm not sure what to do about the living spaces. 
That is not something that can be changed right away so we have to live with it for a while. 

You might ask, "Why are you getting it if you don't love it?" 
 Bill loves it. 
Now for story time. 
It was a seller's market when we bought this house in 1993. We were moving back from Lubbock and  
I came to town by myself. I looked at about a dozen houses. I saw another house in another neighborhood that had potential. I really loved that house. It was smaller and in the middle of our price range. It was very brown but I could see potential. (A guy I dated once or twice bought that house. It's still very brown, which is too bad.) When Bill came to town on his own, he went and saw it but he didn't like it at all. He saw our current house and loved it. I was still not convinced. I waited for that "This is the one." feeling. We both had it when we saw our house in Lubbock but in 1993, we had three kids and we needed a house quickly. 
Needless to say, I adore this house now.  





When we went country house hunting in August, we put a contract on the first one we saw. 
We dismissed the other two. When we pulled out of the 1932 Farmhouse toward the end of our option period, I searched the internet for another house. There was one house that I liked but it ended up being in a flood plane. We never saw it in person. 
After searching for days, Bill came to me and said that he thought that we should give House #2 a second look. It's a seller's market again. He liked the property. He thought that we could make the house into a comfortable retreat. He thought that we would grow to love it as much as we love our city house so I said yes. 
It's been fun to make lists of what we need and what we are going to do to make this country house our own. I think that after some cosmetic changes, I will absolutely love this house. 
We can't wait to get the keys and get started. 
 

I spent the last week sanding, painting, staining, and recovering.
 I'll share that soon. 
That is all for now.
Katie 

7 comments :

  1. That's what it will take, Katie, and you will get there. What fun to have a get away place and the yard is beautiful..Stay well..xxoJudy

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  2. Katie, this house has so many possibilities. I'm lovin' that great screened in porch and French doors. I know you will soon have it stamped with your own fun personality and vintage style. It's clear you're having a great time painting and planning. I love having the updates!

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  3. Hi Katie. I love the screened in porch. I see so much potential in this cute farmhouse. How great you have a little guest house on the property too. I have always wanted to have a house with a smaller guest house on the property for guests. That will be fun to make into your she shed. Cannot wait to see your plans with this house.

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  4. I think it's going to be darling, Katie. You can do so much with it. I love the porch and how fun that it has a guest house! Now THAT's really fun! Three cheers!

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  5. Hi Katie,

    So excited about the house and look forward to seeing it become your. The screened in porch will be great.

    Think? You'll have a She Shed.

    Cindy

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  6. I know you'll make it shine with love! Ranch houses are hard to find as land is getting so expensive and it looks like you have lots of beautiful property.

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  7. What a nice story! I'm glad you picked this house and although you've both put in a TON of work, it'll be so nice once it is all done.

    Enjoy the process,
    Hugs,
    Barb :)

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