Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Farmhouse

One of the things I love is taking the scenic way home.  Especially when Jamey is driving so I can focus all my attention on the houses out my window.  This isn't about house envy.  It's because I am utterly fascinated and intrigued by other people's homes, especially old (and even run down) farmhouses.  What did it look like in it's glory?  Did it ever experience glory or was it always a struggle for the people who lived there?  Who lived there anyway?  Were their children born upstairs and their parents buried up on the hill?  Where were their gardens?  Their woodpiles?  The tree which held their children's swing?  And, more recently...Did they ever keep bees?




Once someone's hog shed, this is now my children's play house.

And more than anything, I want Jamey to pull in the driveways and let me walk through the rooms- abandoned or not.  Most people would invite me in, right?  Well, seeing as Jamey does not let me do this while he's driving and since I would not have the courage to do it when I'm out driving around on my own, this hasn't happened.  Yet.



It's funny because years (and years) ago when I was a teenager if I had driven by an old ramshackle farmhouse, it would have given me the willies- broken out windows, sagging porch floors, chipped paint, rusted junk piles and high weeds would have sent shivers up my spine and reminded me of horror movies I now wish I had never watched.


But now, it's different.  Because now I live in an old farmhouse.  Me.  My husband, my children.  Our family comes to visit.  Cousins and friends play in the trees, dig holes and have camp fires.  There's nothing scary about a lonely farmhouse whose lane is no longer visible from lack of use.  Sitting alone in a cluster of trees among pastures, it one day held a vibrant, pulsing household.  Likely there was a woman living there who scrubbed the floors, wiped down the walls and hand sewed curtains for those windows.  There were likely children who pulled weeds, worked in the barn and fed the animals.  There were likely meals prepared from the garden, root cellar and canning jars.

complete with rock collection display

So this is why I put up with an old farmhouse- its draftiness, its creaky floors, its anything-but-level door ways, ceilings and floors, its critter issues, and its never-ending to-do lists. It's all to preserve its history, recycle its structure and add to the generations of people that called it home.

If you have it in you, I highly recommend going the old farmhouse route.  And then please invite me in when I come knocking at your door.
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11 comments:

  1. "recycle its structure" - I love it.

    Signed,
    A fellow old-farmhouse owner

    Ps. For the record, in my house, babies were born upstairs.

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  2. I so enjoyed this post. Oh, the memories you are making for your kids...and allowing then to make for themselves. What a FUN playhouse they have....complete with rug?! :) Have a happy day.

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  3. Thank you for the posts they are so wonderful! I hope you are feeling better! Praying :)

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  4. I would love to have an old farmhouse, to live in the country, and you would most definitely be welcome to stop by for a visit. I like to take rides in the country too and look at houses and dream of life in the country - a place where I can walk out on my porch in the morning and not have neighbors crammed in all around me, but have them close enough I can still see their house. To have some land for a large garden, chickens, bees, horses, and maybe even a milk cow would be great :) Unlike you I have house envy, farm envy, country living envy...but I'm trying to be content where I am :)

    Thanks for sharing these little bits of your life.

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  5. I am just like you and Brad is just like your hubby! I LOVE to explore old places. Age fascinates me!

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  6. So many great memories ahead for your children! I grew up in an old two-story in a small town- population 100. Our neighbors used the back of and old dump truck (it was detached) for a playhouse. I fear so many children these days are missing out on so much by not getting to use their imaginations due to all the electronic stuff.
    Keep up the good work!

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  7. If I ever live in an old farmhouse, I will totally let you in when you come knocking!! :)

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  8. I love old farmhouses and buildings in general. I spent most of my childhood in an old farmhouse and can remember what it looks like to this day if I close my eyes over 50 years later. The house is gone now ( burned). But my fascination with old farmhouses has lasted a lifetime.

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  9. I loved this post, it is something I do, driving past and wondering. I used to live in NZ and in the last year moved to the UK. I would also like to go in and find older people and ask them to be surrogate grandparents!
    When I was young I lived in an old farmhouse and as a girl I used to go into other farmers fields and even play for hours in their abandoned old barns!

    It was wonderful!

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  10. Thank you for sharing this. It's good to know there are others who care so passionately about the old and worn out like I do. I am struggling right now to let go of a family treasure. My husbands mothers family is auctioning their family's pre Civil War homestead in June. It is the remaining 170 acres of an original 1000 acre plantation in Georgia. We come from a big farming family and my husband and I almost bought it about 2 years ago, but decided to build our home at our family's current working farm. No one else in the family wants the old farm and the taxes are too expensive to just keep it for "keeping it in the family" sake. Sorry for being long-winded but it has reminded me to not hold on too tight to the things of this world, because we know they are just temporary. They too shall pass away. I find great pleasure in bringing new life to the "old" things that others just pass by. We are kindred in spirit indeed! God Bless :)

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  11. FYI - at least a portion of your "rock collection" are prehistoric tools made by native americans. Looks like your farm has been enjoyed by people for thousands of years!

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