

We moved into our house last spring. My dream was always to live on some acreage and have space to relax and enjoy the outdoors. Our previous home was located in a busy city north of Atlanta. As the city became more crowded, we decided to venture out to a little slice of paradise not too far away.
My husband and I have always enjoyed riding around on weekends looking at different areas and houses. We spent countless hours online hoping to find our dream home. We knew we wanted a farmhouse style home with at least a couple acres and some form of water on the property (lake, stream, river, pond— any would do just fine). One thing that I didn’t know I wanted was a fixer upper…and that is where it all began.
We found a charming cape cod style house in the northeast suburbs that some like to call horse country. The land was owned by an older couple that could no longer maintain the property. They didn’t even have the house listed with a realtor, there was just a small tattered sign right outside the gate reading “for sale by owner”. On a rainy day in late December, we called them up, and they invited us to see the house immediately. We were only 15 minutes away, and we headed over in the pouring rain to what was soon to be our forever home.
Now, as a Cancer woman, if you are one you understand, your home is like your sanctuary. Caring for your home is important and creating a warm and inviting place for your family to dwell is a top priority—it is my top priority. Let’s just say after peaking awkwardly through the house on that rainy December day, surprisingly, it wasn’t the house that sold me— it was the land. The land was perfect. It was the perfect balance between grass, trees, a wooded area, and the beautiful lake that resides next to our property that sold us. Because of the jaw dropping beauty of the property, I saw so much potential in this fixer upper, and our journey began.
In Spring 2018, we finally moved in. We started with a deep clean, repainted a few rooms, and furnished the house with what we had. My husband, Patrick, also did some handy work of his own in the basement laying floors and installing plenty of shiplap (which we will show in future posts). The house was perfect, but I knew I needed to add more of my personal touch to it.
We decided to renovate this past winter. At first, it was just going to be a screened porch to living room conversion, which quickly turned into the kitchen, master bedroom and more. Yikes! After almost four months of living in the basement and enduring a few bumps in the road along the way, we finally moved back upstairs and feel at home. I hope you love the pictures of our little slice of paradise!
Next Saturday, I will take you through the ins and outs of our kitchen renovation.
Ash ♥
Love this! ❤️