Ok, I can admit that this whole blogging thing is probably not my forte. The last time I updated anything here was last fall and it’s completely embarrassing. Oh well. You may or may not know that I am a full time kindergarten teacher and mom of two and when the school year gets going, it starts with a vengeance and doesn’t really ever slow down. Needless to day my excuses are minimal and really lame I know but, our crazy work and home schedule doesn’t always allow me this treat of sitting in a quiet house with kids napping, giving me the solitude I have to write in peace.

Alright, enough about my excuses, here’s what’s going on with the homestead. Last year we began the process of thinning back the apple trees and this year we continued that. Because of all the trimming, those trees are now producing twice as many apples and although they are still very small, they are weighing down the branches! My husband had to go down to the orchard and prop up some of the limbs that were in danger of breaking because of the weight. We bought a couple picnic tables and brought them out to the orchard so we could enjoy the beautiful weather we’ve been having out there and have been picnicking frequently.

So, on with the more exciting part of this update….the house! When we first bought the property we knew it would be years before we would build our house but we had other plans too. A garden, orchard, farm, and another item on our list was a guesthouse/apartment. On our way home from a trip about a month ago (while the kids napped in the backseat), my husband and I started talking, dreaming and scheming. We were running through scenarios of selling our house, where we would live, how long it would take to build, etc. Suddenly the idea came to us that we could build this little guesthouse before building our main house. He knew a family that had done something similar. They had built a small apartment above a garage and were currently living in it and saving up to build their main house.

At first the thought of living in a 900 square foot house with two kids sounded claustrophobic to me but the more I thought about it and the more we talked, the more we realized it was a wise plan for us. It would mean that we could live on the property much sooner and begin expanding our orchard and starting our small farm. Based on multiple quotes we’ve received from contractors, this little, box house will be fairly inexpensive to build and could possibly lend us debt free if we did it the right way. This would mean we could hoard money each month free of a mortgage until we had enough to begin the process of building our main home.

With those goals in mind, we quickly met with our real estate agent to begin the process of putting our house up for sale. We started working on some little fixes like paint touch-ups and some kitchen updates that make the house so cute I now don’t want to leave. But, I know these updates are getting us closer and closer to that dream of ours so I’m sucking it up and dealing.

Our house is set to go on the market this week sometime and if you’ve ever sold a home you know the process is painstaking. Keeping the house clean and staged is not my idea of a fun, relaxing summer home with the kids. We’ve been searching for house plans for this little guesthouse but haven’t found anything that’s tickled us so we have resorted to drawing up something on our own. We’ll meet with our home designer soon to start the ball rolling with more accurate bids, etc. and if all goes as planned, we’ll have it up by Christmas!

I’m so excited to share more updates and the whole building process with you all and hope you’ll join along on the journey with us.

Aimee