As many of you have known, we were in the process of building a new (old) farmhouse (read more on our build journey here). Well, I have some BIG news to share. Our build has turned into…a rebuild! What’s a rebuild you ask? Well, technically it’s a remodel, but the homestead house that we’re renovating is in complete despair, so it’s basically a rebuild. To stay within a remodel classification and avoid expensive new build codes, we’re leaving one existing wall of the homestead house and (re)building our new home from there.
A lot has happened in the past three years since we started our journey to our forever new (old) farmhouse. First, we bought a ranch on a 24-hour whim (read more about that here). Second, the latest codes and cost of building have skyrocketed since we set out on our building journey (thanks to living in over-regulated California and devastating wildfires in our area). We plan on saving over $200,000 from the start by not building new and doing a classified remodel.
The great news is that we will be back on the original homestead and family farm that has been in my husband’s family for 5 generations. We’ll also be able to build “add on” basically anything we want since we’re only leaving one wall up on the homestead house. Other good news is that we’ll be able to save a lot of money and preserve a tiny portion of the homestead house by “remodeling”. And when I say save a tiny portion, I mean a VERY SMALL part of it. The poor house is in such bad shape that it’s inhabitable as it now stands. We have some ideas to save some brickwork and maybe some of the old flooring where it can be saved to be repurposed in the rebuild. We won’t know what we can salvage until we get in there and start taking it apart.
I’m excited to share this new direction and news with you! We’re just in the planning stages and most likely won’t be able to really tackle anything until spring since I’m about ready to pop with Baby #2. But I wanted to share this news since many of you have asked about where we are in our build process.
Since the rebuild house will be in a different location on the farm than the new (old) farmhouse build site, we’re back to the drawing board with exterior and interior plans. This location change brings different views and lighting, so we want to make sure we take full advantage of what the homestead house site has to offer. Below are classic farmhouse exterior inspiration photos that we are using for our design process. Cheers!
Megan says
The exterior of one of those houses, my husband built. Im so glad you love it but you did not credit the builder. You just wrote texas cottages. Just thought you should know.
Home Sweet Farm Home says
Hello! Texas Cottage is where I found the image of this beautiful home and at the time of this post, no further information was given on their photo. I did a Google Image Search and found no further information so I put them down as the source. I would LOVE to properly give credit to your husband as the builder. Can you tell me who I should credit and where I should link to? Thank you!