A little bittersweet after Granann’s passing last year, but I’m excited to share the new farm name. Welcome to 410 Farm.
We considered many different farm names for almost 2 years, and while “Cory’s Farm” kept coming up, nothing really stuck 😉
Last year, I received a birthday gift that was really special to our family. Granann passed on an heirloom, the transom that was over her father’s medical practice in Indianapolis, Indiana. I’m not certain of the timeline or specific years, maybe some of the family can help me out with that?
Today, my great grandfather’s antique transom is over our mantle and reflected in our family farm. It has been cracked over the years and several moves but has no shortage of character! Â I kept it in the original frame that hung in Granann’s house for as long as I can remember.
The antique transom from over the door my great grandfather’s medical practice.
We love the heritage and wanted to put our own spin on the farm name so Cory came up with a new logo for the farm.
We’ve focused some energy on the barn this year, so I’ll be sharing all of the updates we’ve done to the barn in my next blog post. You can now follow the farm on Facebook at www.facebook.com/410Farm
As always, thank you so much for checking in as we FIX THIS FARM!
Had enough door jokes? NOT ME. I’m just thrilled to have all of the doors hung upstairs. With door knobs and trim!!
Door, knob and trim. This one is Claire’s closet door.
The upstairs hallway.
As you can see, we also hung pictures in the hallway! Finishing a room and decorating it are two completely different worlds to us right now. So, I’m reminding myself to be grateful for the little things. I’ve realized there are so many details that go into a room (read: so much to do!), even before the decorating process.
Thanks for dropping in as we FIX THIS FARM. Our door is always open! Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’ve been spending too much time with Cory and his Dad jokes 😉
Over the Christmas holiday Cory hung drywall in the mudroom and I did the mudding, sanding and painting. Mudding, by the way, might win the award for my least favorite DIY project! It’s simply maddening. (And still not perfect.)
Drywall hungSanding. so much sanding.
3rd coat of mud
It’s been primed grey but we won’t pick a final paint color until we see the floor installed.
The brick floor will go in next along with some paint, storage for coats and then all things muddy! I can’t wait to get all of the shoes and coats out of the kitchen. Â More pictures soon.
Thanks for hanging out as we FIX THIS FARM. And you’re welcome, for not handing you a sanding block. xoxo
In this post we are celebrating a milestone! No more exposed insulation. As we approach the one year mark with this farm, we can finally boast that we have walls!! (For now, this might not be the case if we get a wild hair next month.)
Cory replacing wood paneling.
We were able to find unfinished wood flooring that was similar to the size of the existing wood paneling. However, it wasn’t beveled so Cory had to route the edges to match.
The wall is up.
Oh, the wood paneling. We have big plans for all of that wood. (It includes a lot of paint.) Stay tuned for that!
We also have a new light fixture in the Den.
New fan in the den.
We have several projects that will be wrapping up over the next two weeks so I’ll be posting more soon. Thanks for joining us as we FIX THIS FARM!
We’ve been in the house for almost 3 months now. It’s still half construction site, but it’s now officially home! We (mostly) finished the two upstairs bedrooms before we moved in, but we’re still putting the finishing touches like baseboards and framing in the windows.
Claire’s room is so close to being done! Cory framed in her window and completed her built in toy closet. I painted it but we haven’t put shelves in yet. This space was previously part of her closet. It was a narrow long space, so we decided to break it up and open the access. This will be a more functional way to store her toys, separate from her clothes and true storage items. Here is the during and almost final product of Claire’s built in toy closet:
We also haven’t hung anything on our precious walls!!! I do want to hang pictures, but the thought of putting a hole in our freshly painted, newly hung drywall still makes me cringe (a lot).
The progress has slowed down a bit now that we live here. As expected, we spent time over the summer cleaning up the property and keeping it mowed. We miiiight have even spent some time floating in the pool with friends and family! We also found some great end of season bargains on outdoor furniture. We got a sofa set for the deck, a pair of chases, new umbrella for the table and two huge deck boxes to store all of the fun new pool toys.
Now that it’s turned chilly we had a cover made and winterized the pool. The one we chose is highly rated for safety, a 95% mesh weave, and will (hopefully) cut down the algae growth over the winter. We got lucky and were able to use all of the existing anchors for the cover so we didn’t have to drill into the concrete, phew!
We had some of the water hydrants in and around the barn replaced and spent several weekends clearing and burning branches.
Our major project in the house right now is the upstairs bathroom. It will be Claire’s bathroom and serve as the guest bathroom. I have a design plan and the tub is installed, so it should go pretty quickly now. I’ve got a test spot of the paint color drying on the wall as I type. This is some of what I’m planning:
clockwise from top right: floor tile, shower tile, vanity, granite for vanity, shower curtain, and wall color
We also replaced the water heater. Not as flashy, but oh so necessary!
On a more fun note, we were very generously given their outgrown swing set by Grampa (Cory’s Dad), Grandma Judy and Ben! Cory and his Dad spend most of last Sunday reconstructing it on the farm. Claire absolutely adores it (thank you guys)! We will be spending a lot of time out there enjoying it this fall!
More updates coming soon, along with more pictures of the upstairs. As always, thanks so much for checking in as we FIX THIS FARM!
Without further ado, the big exterior reveal: Before & After pics
Before – Front Door
We couldn’t be happier with the new look of the house. The new siding is finally complete and the new windows are in! There is so much more light in the house now.
As you can see we changed two of the windows on this side of the house. The far left hand window was shortened to accommodate shelving and storage that will go in the new mud room. The second window from the right was shortened because we are remodeling the master bathroom and there will eventually be a shower right there.
After – Front Door
Before – road sideAfter – road sideBefore – Back
The back looks totally different! The deck is on the project list this summer as well.
After – Back
(spoiler alert – the pool is my next post!)
We also love how the grey blue plays off the stone.
Siding and Stone
We have been so touched by the kind words that so many people have sent us. Thank you for following our journey as we FIX THIS FARM!
Two more posts to come tonight, we’ve been super busy! Â – Beth
We’re also excited to share that the pool is no longer just a hole in the ground, it’s officially a POOL! One that you can actually get in without needing some sort of tetanus or cootie shot afterward. We got to enjoy it with family on Memorial Day. I have to admit, it’s pretty nice to take quick swim breaks while working in the house.
Pool BeforeVegetation cleared, coping primed and stairs epoxied.
wait for it… you’re sitting down, right?
Pool Done!
I even got to ride for the first time in my own ring last weekend. It was absolutely amazing!! I’m so grateful that Sam brought her fabulous mare Fiona out for me to play with! Icing on the cake – I got to ride with Garland and Diesel THEN we all got in the pool post ride.  Pinch me 😉
Good Evening, BONUS POST! Tonight I’d though I’d share some area history that took place just down from the farm. If you live in the Greensboro area you’ve probably seen several newspaper articles commemorating the 30th anniversary of the week Fritz Klenner blew up his Blazer on 150 after a shootout with the police. For our out-of-town followers I’ve linked the recent articles below. This tragic true story goes much deeper and is fully documented in the book Bitter Blood written by Jerry Bledsoe. The book even made it to the number one spot on the New York Times best seller list in its prime.
Perhaps it’s because it took place so close to home, or that it’s just such an outrageous story but I think the Bitter Blood saga is so interesting and I had to share!
Years ago both John and Susan Stout (the original Sunburst barn owners) shared memories of the day the Blazer blew up. Susan once told us (all of the barn kids) that when she heard the explosion she left the horse she was riding standing in the ring as she ran down the driveway to investigate. Â John shared that after the crime scene was closed and police left he buried the dog from the Blazer in the horse graveyard on the back of the property.
It’s such a small world – we once met Fritz Klenner’s first wife at a Horse Trial in Southern Pines. Once she realized our group was from Greensboro she shared her story with us. She recalled sewing Fritz’s medical school patches onto his white coat. She said she was completely surprised when she found out that he never actually attended medical school and was a total fraud. SO CRAZY!
Hello! We’ve made some major progress since my last post. Hold on to your jig saws, here come the pictures. (I’m still a little uncertain as to which one the jig saw actually is, but I’m picking up the DIY lingo!)
With the help of our WONDERFUL family we were able to make quick work of clearing all of the vegetation out of the “pool”. It’s amazing what 9 Peters, 2 Grahams, and 2 Cates can do when promised pizza and future swimming! THANK YOU ALL, we really appreciate it.
The family hard at work!Pool WorkdayDoesn’t look like the same hole.
We did have to call in the professionals for several projects. Getting the water back on was quite a feat! The well for the whole property is run off of the barn electricity so we had to have the Duke power meter relocated. It was previously housed on a dilapidated shed. Once the box was relocated, the power lines re-routed, and finally connected then we could turn on the well. It took 4 different visits from 4 different crews. Then, Claire and I spent a day with the plumber replacing pipes in the well house to get the water actually running again. We finally have water in the house! Thankfully the pump seems to be working fine but the pressure tanks will need to be replaced soon. Add it to the list… it’s a darn good thing that I enjoy making lists.
We’ve also had carpenters Joe and Mitch out working on the house. They pulled all of the rotten cedar siding down and put up OSB and Tyvek in preparation for the new vinyl siding. They also installed all of our new doors. We made modifications to 3 out of 4 doors on the house.
Even Tyvek is an improvement!Tyvek with new storm door.
Since the house was retrofitted for handicap access it had a big sliding glass door as the front door. We re-framed and replaced that with a traditional wooden front door. We closed in the porch overhang into a small mudroom and added a storm door.
Cory’s office door was replaced with no major modifications. However, we did have to replace some water damaged sub flooring.
Joe and Mitch working their magic.Cory’s office door installed.
The biggest change was made to the door in the living room. In order to increase access to our outdoor living space we wanted to open the area up as much as possible. So the wall, bay window and small door all came out to make room for a 9.5 foot, 4 panel french sliding door. I’m so excited that it completely changes the space and adds a view of the pool!
Back door onto deck.Back door open.
The siding and window crew started today, so check back soon for the official before and after pictures. I can’t believe the difference already!
Thanks for following our journey as we FIX THIS FARM. xoxo – Beth
We’re making some major progress! A month has flown by since we purchased the farm and we have had several great work weekends. Huge shout out to our family and friends for all of the help and support!!
PODS arriving
Our PODS were delivered and our second 22 yard dumpster is completely full. We de-tree’d (new word) the pool and backyard fence line then drug everything to our newly constructed burn pile. Which, was harder than it sounds… trees are heavy. Very, very heavy. We also pulled the old pool cover out of the bottom of the pool. It’s starting to look like a proper hole in the ground. I mean pool!
Pool Before
After:
Pool (mostly) tree free
Burn pile and another pile ready for the chainsaw:
Burn pile
Now that the new roof is on and there are no move active leaks, Cory is working some magic on the upstairs! I’ll let him show you his transformation thus far. It’s amazing!!!
I was thrilled to get some major scrubbing done downstairs – from ceilings to floors! Cory moved in our dishwasher and refrigerator. I also got the laundry room scrubbed and a fresh coat of paint on before Cory brought in the washer and dryer. I can’t wait to get some fun storage bins. Â I’m on a mission to optimize every single bit of storage space available in this house. I’ll post pictures when the laundry room is complete!
Don’t be fooled, this month has not been all work and no play for the Peters. We did take time out to monkey around a little for Claire’s FIRST BIRTHDAY!
As always, thanks for following us as we FIX THIS FARM!
