Finally Got Our Farm!

Its always been a dream of mine since the time I was a little girl to have a house with some land and a bunch of animals to care for.  Growing up, I used to visit my family's farm in Jersey and it always felt like home to me. The smell of the air was different than it was in PA.  I couldn't quite figure it out at the time but something about the satly air mixed with the miles of open farmland was a smell that I"ll never forget. I remember the first time I got to ride my Aunt Jesse's horse, I felt like time stood still.  I remember music playing on an old radio in their barn.  One day, I thought to myself, one day will own a farm of my own just like Aunt Jesse's.

25+ years later and I'm now a wife,  a  mother of two amazing kids and a successful Real Estate agent, but found myself still feeling like something wasn't satisfied.  We've owned 3 wonderful homes that we've raised our kids in but we never had more than a half acre of land with any of them. Our last home was gorgeous- it was 4000 square feet not including the basement with a 3 car garage overlooking a beautiful.. FARM, but sadly the farm wasn't ours and it was sold shortly after we moved in and new construction was beginning to take place.  So much for our views :(   We had great neighbors at that house, but there was very little privacy and we never really felt like it was our 'forever home'.  More space, more land, more privacy is what we wanted.   They say things happen for a reason, because in 2007 the market around here crashed and we lost a ton of $ in equity and we found ourselves upside down on our mortgage.  We ended up selling the house and rented for a few short years until we got our financials on track and were ready to buy again.  We knew if we were going to be buying another house, it would definitely have more land with some privacy, and be a place we could stay forever in if we wanted to.

Well, we finally purchased our eight and a half acre parcel of land with a small house, small barn and a few out buildings last July. Bonus- it even has an in-ground pool!   Though the house was dated and needed a ton of updating and maintenance, we saw the unlimited potential this little place had, and it was in the award winning Downingtown Area School District which is where our daughter was going to high school.  We fell in love the moment we saw it, and my daughter even saw the potential it had. Truth be told- I think she saw the barn and had visions of goats, chickens and other critters floating around that cute little head of hers.  We were all in.

The day we made settlement, we began ripping carpets out and replacing them with wood floors and its been one project after another ever since but everything we do, we do ourselves with sweat on our brows and hearts on our sleeves.  Our love has gone into each project we've accomplished so far and this little sleeper is starting to come alive!


Here are a few photos of the house before we bought it.