This is the story behind the House on Maple Lane.
OUR 60’S RANCH BEFORE ANY REMODEL
Welcome to the House on Maple Lane, I am excited to be starting this blog to showcase the process of our 60’s ranch remodel and turning this house into a home on a very tight budget. Our journey started a little over a year ago when my husband and I were praying and fervently looking for a home. A place that would would not only meet our family needs but allow a space to move my photography studio. When this home came on the market, as a one-story ranch with a back studio apartment and as a bonus, a pool, we had to take a look.
OUR FIRST LOOK
For most people walking into this home, they would probably walk in and turn around and walk out. For most of the home was straight out of the 60’s and the outside was overgrown and unkept. But to me, I saw nothing but potential. The bones of the home were good, and you could tell at one time this place was filled with beauty and care. Living in the country was always a goal for me, David, on the other hand has always been a city boy, so he was a little reserved. Spoiler alert, he and our children are loving the country lifestyle.
We will just say we fell in love with the house and land, and could’t wait to turn into our home. After much prayer & council, we knew it would be a miracle to pull this all off, but we both felt lead to keep moving forward. Fast forward thru all the back and forth details that finally lead to an accepted offer. It was contingent on our current home selling. We quickly put it up on the market and had 2 offers within the first 6 hours!
The emotions thru this process were all over the place and we knew we had a lot of work ahead of us. Some may call us crazy but we were literally preparing to move from a 3000 square foot house & studio space into a 1800 square foot house. So with this downsizing we knew we were going to have to purge and make some creative solutions. That journey alone was probably one of the hardest time periods in my life. I was working nonstop, and felt like all I was doing was moving things around.
THE 60’S RANCH IS OFFICIALLY OURS
This home we purchased ended up including almost all the contents, so we have to move, sell or junk it all. Then we then had to clean, paint, repair and remodel most of the home before moving in. We knew we were gonna be working on a lot of remodel projects as we lived in the home, but had a few we had to get done before actually moving in. At the same time, we had to pack and prepare our entire home & my studio space.
We closed on this house a year ago on July 6th 2023 and I have documented most of our journey over the last year on the ongoing projects. We still have lots of fun ideas ahead of us so keep checking in! One of the things that sold us on this property was the big beautiful maple trees that lined the lane and our front yard. So this is were the House on Maple Lane comes from! So glad to have you along on this great adventure in making our new house our home!