I may not have really mentioned this here on my blog, but my husband is getting out of the Marines. That in of itself is such a huge change for our family, but when you add the sale of our last house, leading to having two kids in an apartment (along with the newest addition to our family baby Myles) we are just trying to hold it all together here at the Hathaway Household. I think it’s safe to say that we are SO ready to settle down. With that said, we are relocating and officially MOVING!

If you follow me on Instagram @welivedhappilyeverafter, you know that we found a charming 100 year old farmhouse built in 1910. I was thrilled, and spent so many late hours researching old homes, their problems, and quirks. This was literally a dream come true.

In fact, once I saw this listing pop up I made my husband drive us in the SNOW (in the south they don’t plow roads) to go look at the outside of the house. It literally took our breathes away. It had land, with a cotton field in the back; a pre-plowed plot for a garden; and not one, but TWO barns. And did I mention the hunter green metal roof? I could already see our family there 20 years down the road.

When we finally were able to go inside it, lots of cosmetic things were popping up. Basically everything was going to need to be gutted. It had suspicious mold on the ceilings in some areas, no AC, and all the heating was outdated. Not to mention it was just plain ugly, and they had covered up all the previous historical charm with mis-matching shaggy carpets & paneling. But that was okay. My husband and I could see past it. We knew exactly how we would fix it.

I even did a mock up floor plan in photoshop. Oh man, it was a dream come true. And I knew you would all love following along on our remodeling adventures.

Then everything started falling apart. After the home showing, I remembered something… Asbestos. Oh no! The house had tacky ceiling tiles that I was 99% positive were asbestos. I had already been worrying about lead paint, but asbestos made me sick to my stomach. It’s kinda a deal breaker- those ceiling tiles would need to come down or we couldn’t get the house. But I was thinking it would still be okay… even if we had to drop 20K on getting them removed. We ran all the number on the repairs we expected, and they were huge, but we were still willing to do it if there were only like 5 or so huge projects (Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC, Kitchen, Flooring, and making it Open Concept)

Well, the day of the home inspection came… and I was praying so hard. I told God he better have something bad happen during the inspection if he didn’t want us to get this house. You guys: half the electrical outlets didn’t work (and weren’t grounded), the heating wasn’t on… when the owner went to turn on the water the pipes were gushing from beneath the house… the gas stove wouldn’t even light, and the lead paint tests were red hot. Every freaking thing that could have been wrong was wrong with the house.

I didn’t even want the kids to be inside the house. And I was like, “How are we going to live in and remodel this house with a baby and two little ones?” I just sat outside the car while my husband finished the “inspection.” There was no way we could do this as a live in remodel…

So with that, I held my breath and said goodbye to this dream… for now.

We are looking at more houses tomorrow, but none of them have the charm that this one does…maybe it will sit on the market for a few more years and we can meet again under better circumstances… who knows.

… See more house tours on my Insta Stories.