It’s time to share some photos of our newest project: “The Little A Frame in the Big Woods!”

One thing I’ve realized about our family, is that we never seem to pick the “easy” moves in life. This is the fourth house we have renovated, making our own.

It seems like each house gives us bigger projects, and crazier life circumstances.

This last move, we went from our newly completed house in North Carolina, all the way to the mountains in New York. While we loved North Carolina, we never felt like it was our “Forever Spot.” So we traded in our beautiful white farmhouse, for a fixer upper A Frame in the big woods of New York.

The main reason we picked this house was because it is on the same same road as several of our good friends. While I had my eye on some rural farmhouse properties, they were all just too far out. Moving onto the same road as friends has been the best choice for our family. You can’t beat having a good local community. Another plus of the A Frame is that it also have more acreage than our last house, along with being located on the side of a beautiful mountain.

If you followed along with our last house, you may realize that an A Frame was NEVER the style of house that I personally saw myself in. While my husband got to see it in person before we bought it, I had to rely on a facetime tour. It was in the area we were hoping to buy in, and had the best character out of any other houses we had looked out (hello wood floors and beams!) So we decided to go for it.

Once we bought the house, the hardest part of this move transpired. There were some major renovations that needed to be done before we moved into the A Frame. It had sat unoccupied for many years, so there were some big projects needed to make it livable. We knew that it would be easier to do some of the complicated renovations before we moved in. Some of those projects were walling up the loft, adding an upstairs bathroom, refinishing the floors, and having the crazy tall walls painted. And all these decisions had to be done while we still lived in NC. So We weren’t even present for so many big projects. While I am happy to have gotten some of the renovations done beforehand, the house was still in very bad condition when we moved in (with me being 9 months pregnant!) We had no running water, and were heating with the wood stove, all while moving in right at the start of winter.

We were in survival mode for so long, and I think that’s why it has taken me so long to even post anything on here. When you are moving from the house you spent 5 years making perfect, and starting all over again, I had to be super patient as we transformed this new house, one small project at a time. All that with a new baby, has kept us busy. But now that I feel like we are starting to make progress, I am so excited to share some of the before and afters with you all.

This is the view that always makes people laugh- check out that “throne” for the toilet! This space was just wide open to the rest of the house. It was a major “must change” item. I think this house was built by a bachelor in the 80’s. We needed to change it to a family home.

Since we were in such a time crunch between jumping on buying this house, selling our house in NC, and trying to get renovations done ASAP, I don’t have as many “before” photos as I would like. Some of these are the “in process photos.” But at least you can get an idea of what it looked like before I got my hands on it in person.

This is the first downstairs bedroom.

And this is the second. We had to run electrical in here to give both rooms lights.

This was the state of affairs when we moved up to New York. Exciting, but also very stressful. They were adding the wall in the loft, refinishing the floors, and painting everything.

Here you can see where we added the wall to the loft for a more private master bedroom.

Again, all these decisions had to be made while we still lived in NC. So it was pretty hectic.

Here’s the Master Bedroom (used to be the loft) You can see how we added a privacy wall, and then raised the floors to create space for the plumbing in our newly added master bath.

Making paint and stain color choices was one of the things that was SO stressful. We had one shot to get it right. I love the paint choice I made, Simply White by Benjamin Moore. But our walls are slightly textured, so I did agonize over if the off-white would date the space. But I think it turned out good.

The floors are where I wished I could have been there to try out options. After seeing it sanded, we decided to just have them seal it, no stain. But it turned out so orange. I regret not trying to white wash it. But since I can’t go back, I’m just embracing it.

Here are some of the bones of the master bathroom. I think everyone hated installing the sink I picked. But I don’t care.

Here’s another view of the bathroom once the floor was put in.

This is a view of the basement. It was totally unfinished, so we added drywall, and made the “long distance/not in person” call to have them add a drop ceiling. Ironically, we actually just went back and removed the ceiling, and the closet. But you will have to wait to hear how that played out.

This is a view of the other room in the basement. Funny story, we moved and redid the washer and dryer hook ups 4 times… or was it 5?

Some big spaces that we didn’t have any work done on were the exterior and the kitchen.

While there are still a TON of things left to do to make this A Frame “home,” I’m so excited to share the progress we have made with you all- Stay Tuned!!!