This fall we moved from out home and community of 14+ years as Husband shifted to a new job in a new location over an hour away.
I’d be lying if I said it was without some pain and tears.
We’ve been so blessed to live in an amazing house and it has become home to us and our children. Today, I’d love to share our old home with you.
If you are a lover of old home charm, you are in for a treat!
I’m also sharing some before pictures so you can see how it has transformed in the 14 years we owned it.
1901 Victorian Tour
Front
The first thing you notice about our home is the beautiful turret. It was built in 1901 and boasts so much character inside and out.
We couldn’t afford much when we were first married and we looked for a year and a half before buying this home.
We chose to live in a little town (population 800) away from the more expensive Ames, Iowa where my husband worked.
We brightened up the exterior significantly, got new garage doors, and planted tons of flower and vegetable gardens. We also planted many fruit trees that have matured and produced so much fruit! Our Macintosh apple tree gives us about 300 pounds of fruit per year!
Who says you can’t “homestead” when you live in town?
A note on my decor style and time and money
As you look at these pictures, I want to let you know that almost everything you see was thrifted, gifted, or some sort of second hand find.
As a one income family, we have always been careful about what we spent on this category. I did the best with what we had available and was always grateful for each new treasure.
I also want to say that the changes you see happened over the course of 14 years. We did very little the first 5 years (except what was necessary). Instead of putting our money towards major renovations we aggressively paid off our home mortgage.
How did we do this? 1. By buying a house we could afford, 2. Scrimping and making do in all areas of life
As a one income family, being 100% debt free was a way of extra security for our family.
And what amazing timing on paying off the mortgage!
Within a year of paying down that debt, one of our children had a life threatening illness. Suddenly, what had been our mortgage payment transformed into medical payments. It was a gift to be able to give him the treatment he needed without feeling pressured financially.
Our family has gone on to have several serious health issues, and being debt free continued to help us through those times.
Porch
We did new lighting, windows, doors, and walls on the porch. It was a favorite place to sit and enjoy a sunny day.
Entryway
This space made me fall in love with the house. When husband and I walked in here, he knew it was all over for me – ha!
About a year ago I (finally) ripped the carpet off the stairs, something I have been wanting to do since we moved in.
We also removed the chair rail (which wasn’t original) going up the stairs. (Did you notice the beautiful vent covers?)
See the little door under the stairs? About 6 years ago I painted the inside walls white, ripped up the yucky carpet and painted the planks dark green. This became our daughter’s life size doll house with the addition of an antique wooden mini play cupboard. (Kicking myself I don’t have a picture of that precious space!)
Also notice the BEAUTIFUL pocket door leading into the kitchen
Homeschool Room
This space started as a dining room, then was our office space for a bit, then it changed into a permanent homeschool space.
Living Room
The highlight of this space is probably the curved glass turret windows and the beautiful woodwork surrounding them.
I share this last before picture because I think it shows how “sparse” we lived when we first moved here. We didn’t go out and buy new furniture to fill our new home but took things as they came to us (painting/fixing/reimagining them to suit our tastes). We also lived with the floor unfinished for a while!
I leave the image here to encourage you that your home doesn’t have to be perfect.
I don’t see a single thing in this picture I purchased except for the couch slipcovers and chair slipcovers (second hand). Everything else was family hand me downs!
Kitchen
So, so many hours spent in this kitchen. I make about everything from scratch (bread and granola – yum!) and also had a large garden. This past summer I put up well over 200 jars of food in this space.
This picture is about 10 years ago, after painting the cupboards and moving the hardware (I just spray painted the old knobs instead of purchasing new). Later I faux plastered over the wallpaper, tore up the lineoleum and refinished the floor underneath, and ripped out the weird corner cupboard thingy.
Laundry and Mudroom
This was a wonderful space! Perfect for kids coming in from playing in the snow or dropping groceries after running errands.
Not shown is a huge closet for our coats and space for a shoe rack with all our shoes as well as the door to the back staircase (leads to the servants’ quarters).
About a week after we moved into the house, we had a major water leak while we were gone. The hardest hit area was also the terrible laundry room which had awful painted paneling with a wallpaper border, carpet, crummy cupboards and closets, and an old drop ceiling. I wish I had better before pictures for you!
Half Bath
Boys’ Room
Girl Room
Master Bedroom
Nursery and Library
On the opposite wall (not shown) there were about 5 large bookshelves that held lots and lots of books! I think this room was purple and pink when we moved in but I don’t have a picture of it!
Large Bathroom
One strike against this house is there is only one tub/shower. It never seemed to bother us even with 5 kids and I actually liked only having one bathroom to clean.
Servants’ Room
When the house was originally built this was the servants’ quarters. It has been a guest room and now office space for sending you all those planners!
Yard
This large yard was such a blessing to our brood. When we moved in it was broken up by fencing, which we ripped out to allow for the whole backyard to flow together.
There was space for a large vegetable garden, lots of fruit trees, asparagus, raspberry bushes, lots of flowers, and space to play.
Other pictures
Unfortunately, there are several spaces I don’t have pictures of including the basement and massive attic. The attic was literally 3 stories!
Here are a few other pictures I thought you might enjoy.
I hope you enjoyed the tour!
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I loooooooooooooove house tours, thank you for this! I especially appreciate the just-moved-in and interim pictures. It was so nice to get a sense of how even though the finished product is so beautiful, it didn’t happen all at once in some home renovation TV show magic. And you had a turret!!! I literally have a list of “dream home” features and a turret is on the list. Honestly.
I think it helps to get the whole picture instead of thinking people are living in a show ready home all the time!
It’s so beautiful! I love the original woodwork, something I miss from my great-grandparent’s house. I love the huge yard, too. You did an excellent job!
Yes! The yard was a HUGE blessing to our family and we loved all the big trees and tree swings too!