Empty 1800s Farmhouse Tour | We’re Going on An Adventure

You read that right! I’m taking you on an old 1800s farmhouse tour because we bought a little farm and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Hey guys! It’s been forever since I’ve shared here at Open Doors Open Hearts.

I’ve missed this little spot where I can share and I’ve missed you guys so much.

But I’m finally back and I can’t wait to share today’s post with you!

I was able to create a video to go along with this 1800s farmhouse tour blog post and you can watch it by clicking the link below.

I always try to make sure that both the blog post and the YouTube video are as equivalent in quality as I can, but for this particular post, I do believe that the video is better.

It’s just easier to get a visual for the farmhouse that we bought and the flow from room to room.

For those of you who prefer blog posts to video I have pictures for sure, but it is harder to walk through the house with the pictures.

If you don’t want to watch the entire thing go to the chapters and jump to the “empty farmhouse tour” section.

YouTube Video

The story of how we bought an 1800s farmhouse

For so many people this probably sounds like a totally random thing.

I never shared anything about wanting to move and then suddenly we just did it.

So for all of this to make sense I feel like I owe you some background information.

The back story to this 1800 farmhouse tour

My husband grew up on a 100 acre farm.

They weren’t actively farming it while he was growing up, but he had all the space.

After we got married and started looking for a house, he was very adamant that he wanted land.

So, fast-forward 7 years ago when we decided to moved back home.

I was pregnant with our second and our first was only 1 year old.

(It wasn’t the plan, but God blessed us beyond measure with our girls being so close together in age.)

Anyway, I really wanted a move in ready home.

Our house in Columbus was a little bit of a fixer upper and I was exhausted and needed a break.

But because I wanted a move in ready house that meant we couldn’t afford the land we wanted to go with it.

Ultimately we sacrificed the land.

We had 1.5 acre at the old house, and innitially thought it would meet our needs.

In the beginning it did, but soon the garden grew bigger and we decided to get some chickens.

Two years into chickens and I decided I wanted to get a cow.

It’s been the running joke for nearly 2 years now.

Last year I jokingly asked for a cow for Christmas and my sister bought me a stuffed animal cow haha!

So at the beginning of 2023, we realized that 1.5 acres wasn’t going to work.

We couldn’t even build a pole barn that accommodated my husbands workshop and a place to park the cars when he needed to work on them.

How we found our 1800 farmhouse and land

So in May of 2023 we started looking at houses with 5-10 acres.

Between May and October things were pretty boring.

A house would be listed, we would go look at it, decide it wasn’t what we wanted and then we would wait until the next house hit the market.

Well finally a property with 28 acres showed up.

It was a late 1800s schoolhouse that had been converted into a house.

It had a pasture and a little barn, a wooded portion, a big open field that was farmed, and a pond.

I struggled with a couple of the design decisions in the house, but the biggest was the windows.

This old schoolhouse had long skinny windows that went from the first floor to the second floor.

The current owner had put a pretty fence in front of the window on the second floor to prevent a child from walking over and pushing on the window, or slipping down the gap between the floor and the window.

Like if I stood on a ladder beside the window on the first floor I would reach up and touch the top of the second floor.

It was so bizarre.

AND these windows were in the rooms that would have been the girls bedrooms.

It just didn’t feel right to me

But, at the same time it was 28 acres!!

Which was way more than we ever imagined we would have.

So I felt like I had to find a way to make it work, even with the window situation.

I told Justin I wish it were a small farmhouse so that the bones of the structure were for living.

I also told him I liked the pond, but thought it would have been AMAZING if there was a creek running through the woods.

Anyway, we were told what the seller wanted for the place, so we gave him an offer for that amount.

But he came back and told us he needed more.

So we moved on.

But it was devastating.

I cried.

We thought we were going to own 28 acres and felt like it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

But we also knew God had a plan for us and if this was it He would have made a way.

After that we decided to take a break.

It was emotionally exhausting and we just needed some time to collect ourselves.

It was during the “break” that I got a text from the realtor who showed us the schoolhouse.

She sent me the listing for a farmhouse built in 1850 sitting on 40 acres!

I didn’t even look at it.

I sent it to my husband (he is much less emotional than I am and I knew he would be able to filter if I should get my hopes up or not).

He immediately called me and told me we needed to schedule a showing as soon as possible.

We looked at the house that night.

Long story short, we loved it, made an offer, and they accepted.

So on December 20th we were officially moved out of the old house and into our new home.

Its been a wild ride, but that and all that comes with moving is why I haven’t been sharing like I usually do.

My favorite part of our 1800s farmhouse tour

I feel like I can’t share this story without telling you how God made this happen, and the ways that He blew our minds with what He is able to do.

So let me spend a few moment giving glory to Him and how AMAZING He is.

Barn Beam Mantel

We FINALLY finished the barn beam mantel at the old house.

But we didn’t finish until August or September.

My husband was really upset that it took him so long to finish it and that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it for Christmas.

Which if I’m being honest, I felt the same way.

But when we came here for the showing and walked into the basement guess what we found?!

In the 1850s they used hand-hewn beams for floor joists.

The basement has multiple beams that look exactly like the beam we had sawn down for the mantel in the old house.

We left one barn beam and moved to a basement full.

It felt like God was whispering “I know you’re sad to leave parts of your life behind, but I have so much more for you ahead.”

A Creek

I couldn’t share this 1800s farmhouse tour without telling you that this property has a creek running through the woods!!

Again, it’s just a little detail, but like ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

We have already gone and played in the creek.

Christmas day was in the 50’s here in Ohio, so we went for a hike with the girls and the dogs.

It was magical and amazing and the entire time I couldn’t stop thanking God for bringing us here.

We found an awesome place to go camping and another for a fun homeschool spot in the Spring and Summer.

Our Orchard

At our old house we had started a small orchard.

We had apples, blueberries, honey berries, strawberries, and rhubarb.

Another thing we talked about during this process was how sad it was to start that all over at the new place.

But here, at the 40-acre farm God gave us, we have mature apple trees, mature pear trees, hazelnut bushes, grapes, raspberry bushes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, rhubarb, and mint!

He didn’t miss a thing.

In fact, He gave us more than we dared to imagine!!

Seriously, even as I type this I am thinking how impossible this is.

But its real.

This is our new home!

Oh and we had planted a bunch of lilac shoots 3 years ago.

In passing I told my husband we’ll have to plant some new ones here now.

Well one day while we were out exploring I think I found a mature lilac bush.

I’m not getting my hopes up just yet, but come Spring I’ll let you know for sure.

The Infrastructure

I mentioned that I want cows.

Well, you can’t just go get a cow and bring it home like you can a cat or a dog.

You need a shelter, and fence and a place to store feed.

It’s a whole thing.

We planned to do all the things little by little.

Over time we would build the things we needed to raise the animals we wanted.

Would you believe me if I told you this property has pasture with brand new fencing and shelter for the animals and a barn to store hay?

You guys!!!

This is a dream come true and the only one who could orchestrate meeting all the minor details in our hearts is God.

He is gracious beyond words!

Other Little Details

For the first time in three houses I have a sink with a window in front of it.

So now I can watch the girls playing outside while I’m doing the dishes.

This property has mature climbing trees.

The girls love climbing the trees and that was one thing we would talk about at our old house.

In fact one time we said, maybe the trees we planted will be climbed by our grandkids haha!

The oven we put in here is gas.

I had an electric one at the old house and it was fine, but I loved cooking on the gas stove we had at our first house.

We have a big front porch that i can’t wait to share with you.

Our house is significantly smaller, but the front porch is so big!

One night while we were here working on things my husband took me outside to the front porch.

He then told me to close my eyes and to just listen.

I heard our creek babbling.

Immediately I opened my eyes jumped up and wrapped my arms around his neck!

It’s so peaceful out here.

The last story I’ll share is that we are surrounded by farm fields up by the house.

One day after we moved in my biggest girl took her apple outside and climbed a tree to eat it.

She came back in and told me “I was born to live here. I loved sitting in the tree and looking out on a field of gold.” (The fields around us currently had corn growing).

As a mama nothing could possibly bless my heart more than knowing my girls are happy here.

1800s Farmhouse Tour: The other side of the coin

In case someone believes that there has not been struggle or hard work involved in this process, let me share a couple more stories.

We bought this house from an Amish family.

So we had to do some work to get this house up to our English (that’s what Amish people call people who aren’t Amish) standards.

After we had the propane installed we turned on the hot water heater.

Since it hadn’t been running for over a year it started leaking, likely because it froze.

A pipe that once went to a jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom was cut and NOT capped when they took the tub out.

So when we turned the hot water tank on water was spraying all over in the crawl space and it took a while to figure out what was going on.

One morning after we were all moved in we woke up to no running water.

Had to get that fixed.

The next day the septic was backflowing into the basement.

So we had the tank pumped.

We thought that fixed the issue, but the following day there was more septic water backing up into the basement.

So we rented a snake and a camera and found a NASTY clog in the pipe between the house and the tank.

My dear husband was exhausted and covered in nasty poop water after fighting with the clog for 24 hours before it finally released.

1800s Farmhouse Tour: Hard isn’t Bad and Easy isn’t Always Good

The truth is, we’ve had problems here at the 1800s farmhouse tour the same as we had problems at the old house.

But I now have the joy in solving problems at a property that is going to allow us to do the things we’ve been dreaming of doing.

I’ve actually been telling the girls this a lot lately.

Hard isn’t bad.

Often the greatest things in life are some of the hardest to accomplish.

Our family motto used to be: We do hard things.

But I feel a revised family motto coming that incorporates the good and bad elements.

I hope that this was an enjoyable post for you and that you are excited about our journey in our new house.

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Have a great week! XoXo

Open Your Doors,
Aliya

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