It’s been just over eighteen months since we publicly shared our decision to buy by childhood home. We talked through so many other options before arriving at this one, but after living here (again) for the last seven weeks, it’s hard to imagine we considered anything else. There hasn’t been a single day where it hasn’t felt like home, I haven’t accidentally driven to the wrong house, and it turns out that living with your parents can be down right fun if you let it! I haven’t shared too much about our move since closing on the Rock House, but I’ve been hoarding lots of details and I wanted to share them with you before our renovation begins next year.
I’m going to play this like a Q&A, so pretend these are answers to all of your burning questions, okay?
We haven’t unpacked yet. Josh and I were at odds about this one, but I’ll concede he was right. As much as I wanted to have all of my things on hand immediately, I recognize what a hassle that would become in February. As much as we love the house as-is, many things haven’t been updated since the build thirty years ago. The floors need to be refinished and we’re planning to repaint every available surface. Can you imagine packing everything up again, after only three months, and then moving it back inside? Yeah, me neither. For the immediate future, we brought our clothes, kitchen items and all of the girls’ toys. Our furniture, art and accessories are packed inside a pod that lives just beside the back porch.
My parents are still living in the house. When we realized the timing of our sale would have us moving in just before the holiday season, we had to make a few tough decisions. My parents obviously couldn’t build a house in two months and they aren’t really sure what they want to build just yet. Instead of having them live in the RV over the holidays, we all agreed to share the house for a few months. They plan to move out and process the sale in late February and we’ll officially be on our own. For now, they moved into one of the upstairs bedrooms (my childhood bedroom / Ella’s future bedroom) and the girls are sharing the other (my sister’s / Sophie’s future bedroom). I’ll admit to thinking it was weird moving into my parents’ room while they still live here, but it isn’t nearly as weird as I thought it would be. We currently split the mortgage and utilities, we cook family meals and work together to do kid pick up and drop off. I suspect it will be a bigger adjustment when they leave than it was when we arrived.
We have a pretty lengthy game plan for the renovation. We made the decision to buy the house in the spring of 2015, so we’ve had plenty of time to discuss what we wanted to do with it. The layout is perfect and we love many of the finishes, but there are just as many things we’d like to tweak. Our goal is to make it a much more modern and minimalist space, so that means lots of paint and making updates to the existing finishes. There aren’t many construction type projects, but we will be changing all of the floors, light fixtures, appliances and bathroom fixtures. This is much more than a facelift and will likely happen over the better part of next year.
We aren’t in a hurry. We recognize that this is our forever home. There are several things that are non-negotiable and that I want to have finished pretty early in the process next year. I know how those “one day” statements go and I don’t want to hate my kitchen floor or bathroom light fixtures for the next thirty years. At the same time, I don’t want to feel rushed and I want the opportunity to live in the house for a bit before we make any critical decisions.
We’re planning to video the whole thing. I’m not aiming to be the next YouTube sensation, but Josh and I both agree that documenting this journey on film is a must. Ideally, we’ll share a monthly video update, but I know better than to make any promises. There will be some combination of video posts and other DIY posts to share as we work our way through the process.
Speaking of videos, I have a pretty incredible one to share with you today. I remembered that my parents had home videos from the eighteen months my dad built the house, but I have no idea how long it had been since we watched them. It turns out, the VHS tape had some damage and we had to have it professionally repaired and converted to a digital file. There are a few places where the video skips, but for the most part, many of my favorite childhood memories were preserved. The videos spanned from the day we poured the concrete footers until the month before we moved it. We all regret that there aren’t any interior shots after the floors are laid and we’re all moved it, but since my dad built the house himself, we moved in much earlier than we should have. I wish I knew the exact timeline, but we lived without a functioning kitchen for months. I remember having a microwave, crockpot, coffee pot and refrigerator and my mom carried dishes to her bathroom to wash each day. When I tell you that my dad built the house, I mean it. He had a crew set the log structure and hired someone to lay the block and pour concrete, but literally every other project that went into this house, was a labor of love by my father.
Enjoy these fourteen minutes of my childhood. It was pretty much perfect.
Pssst. If the video won’t play in your feed reader, visit this link to watch on YouTube!
Josh and I are planning to film an introductory video for next month and I’d love to share an actual Q&A. If there is anything you’re curious about, whether design, demolition or family related, I’d love for you to leave a comment below. In addition to the video, we’ll be sharing the first round of interior photographs along with a few of our plans for the new year. We are super excited to share this process with you and can’t wait to get started!
