We Bought a Farm

A big life change for our family, we recently purchased a farm. Are we farmers? no.

Do we come from a family of farmers? no. We are just a family with big dreams, and for some reason, we're willing to take on a million projects.

A Failed Move

Several years ago, our lives were changing, and we tried to plan. We wanted to move into a larger house in our same neighborhood. I was pregnant with our son at the time. The move would mean that I would continue working at my full-time job, but I'd been working for years and was used to it. The idea of a brand new house worth more than our current one seemed like a decent investment. The new house was in the process of being built, but as construction continued, we began to have doubts. Is this a good investment? Will a larger home with a better view make us happier?

We did not buy the brand-new, larger house down the street. Nothing about it felt right, and I kept hoping that something better would come along in the future. Having worked with new home builders in the past, and seeing the work of the builder on what would have been our new house, I was ready to be done with new home builds. The opportunity of staying in our current home would allow me to quit my job. As my pregnancy progressed, that sounded like a dream come true.

A Different Future

Fast forward 3 years. We've been comfortably living in our neighborhood and casually looking for that "something better". We had years to discuss what we would like in a future home, and we also had a couple of years to live out our new lives in the post-COVID world. I had not needed to return to the workforce, and Reed's job was remote with occasional trips out of state.

We had a good idea of what we were looking for:

• Closer to my parents' house

• An easy drive from the airport, without tolls

• Closeness to multiple good school options

• A smaller home, possibly a ranch style

• Closeness to restaurants, shopping, and kid-friendly activities

• Land that could be used to house aging parents, investments to operate a small business, and space for things like a personal garden or even a hobby farm

Finding the Farm

An opportunity came up in January that seemed intriguing. It fit everything that we were looking for, except it was a bit more of a fixer-upper than we'd hoped. Not only was the house a fixer-upper, but the entire plot of land needed repairs, including a dilapidated barn and shed. Is this something we could fix up? The land was beautiful. It was just under 10 acres, and in the perfect location.

We looked at the property a few times. We discussed what we would want to do with the property. I had hopes of establishing a large garden space, including rows of lavender, much like what I'd seen in the Provence region of France. Reed and I wanted to create a small hobby farm where we could raise our children around animals and teach them how to work and grow a small farm and business.

Turning the Farm into our Home

The concept would take years, maybe over a decade, but it seemed like a dream we were willing to take on. We bought the farm in April and have started renovating the main floor of the house. The work needed to make the place livable is huge. Aside from the 1970s ranch house, the barn needs help. There are broken fences, weathered railroad ties, overgrown trees and weeds everywhere. We don't yet have a tractor and the ability to clear the long dirt road in the winter. All of the repairs will take time and require much manual labor, but we are working on it.

Although the property is a huge project, we are excited to turn the farm into our new home. Whenever I'm out on the property, the space has a way of clearing my mind. I'm grateful that we are leaving suburban life behind. I'm relieved to have realized that the larger home in the master-planned neighborhood would not have improved my family's quality of life. The lifestyle we will be able to provide our family with will be meaningful and memorable. We won't have the big house, but we will have the freedom to grow our food, better plan for our future, and the opportunity to bring what was once a well-cared-for farm back to life.