Summer Farmhouse Renovation Recap (Year 2)

Join us as we talk about progress on our 100 year old farmhouse fixer over the summer, plus how the vegetable garden is doing with its deer fence.

While neither the house or the garden is quite finished - there's always something else to do in the summer - they're getting there.

We knew going into this whole-house reno that it would be a years-long process, so we're just celebrating every step along the way!

One of the things we've thoroughly enjoyed this year (after the deer got everything I planted last year) is eating the garden's vegetables and being able to preserve sauces, frozen veggies, and more.

Summer Farmhouse Renovation Video

Summer Farmhouse Renovation Recap

The Wall Reveal

The photo above shows the living-dining room wood wall that was revealed when I pulled off the wallboard (also is the backdrop to the video).

Are you wondering why I did this? Two reasons.

The first and most important was that I wanted to see if the wood walls were useable as is - were they shiplap that we could just paint?

The answer to that is obviously, no.

While all the walls we've uncovered so far have been wood, none of it has been usable shiplap (tongue and groove) and the living room walls turned out to be the same.

And actually worse than the other walls we've uncovered - multiple doorways were uncovered and filled in with any random wood they seem to have! In the video you can see that the wood on the left side (just outside of view above) is actually cut into 3-4 ft strips nailed next to each other.

So, no, we can't use this as is. But we can take the inspiration from the original walls - it was built with wood walls and wood ceilings, so we will try and replicate that wherever we can.

The second reason I want the wallboard gone or covered up was that it was done in the last decade and the texturing was super modern, which just bugs me in an old house.

Sometimes I think life would be so much easier if I didn't care about these things, but there it is, ha!

Things We Accomplished

Farmhouse Remodel

• Rough Electrical permit passed
• Framing permit passed
• All insulation installed in new addition (calling for permit soon!)
• Consulted with builder about kitchen remodel
• Started removing wallboard

Farmhouse Garden Progress

• Completed the deer fence and gates (still need arbor and all lower areas to ground covered with chicken wire for ground squirrels).
• Completed more raised beds and planted with tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, zucchini and more.
• Started on a garden "coffee patio" using broken concrete.
• Harvested and enjoyed it!!

Here's a link to the Garden Tour Year One where you can see the whole garden and plans for the future.

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(NOTE: This was originally episode 61 in our former podcast. It's been rewritten as an update with the video content.)