Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
In case you haven’t been following along on Instagram, we sold our house last week and we are under contract on a farmette!!! AAAHHH! We are SO excited!!!! The home (an old-ish brick Colonial with 5 bedrooms and 5 baths) sits on five gorgeous acres and I can hardly wait to start personalizing the place in late August!
One of our main reasons for moving (other than the fact that we were short one bedroom and two home offices) is that Kevin, the kids, and I really longed to live in a more rural setting (chickens, and flowers, and sheep- oh my!) and Katie really wanted to be closer to town. (We live almost 20 minutes away right now (by interstate) and Katie is a very active 85 year old!) I wasn’t sure if we’d ever find what we were looking for (I mean, a hobby farm closer to town?), but believe it or not, the farmette sits just within the city limits, and all of our soon-to-be neighbors have 5 acres too, so it really does look and feel very rural.
I can hardly wait to give you the full e-tour just as soon as we close on the place next month! The first area we’re going to spruce up is the in-law suite. It’s about 600 square feet and it will be made up of three separate rooms: a bedroom (which includes enough room for two recliners just like they have now), a kitchen (larger than Katie’s current one), and a bathroom, complete with zero-clearance shower for Jim. Katie will also have a separate sitting room for reading and sewing in. Oh, and she’s been writing really lovely poems lately too!
The house has such good bones (and LOTS of them at nearly 4700 square feet!), but it hasn’t been updated in the past 30-ish years, so we’ve definitely got our work cut out for us. Here’s a sneak peek of the meadow out back:
I’ve got so many ideas pinned, and saved, and stuffed into folders, but the thing I’m looking forward to most is listening to the landscape and honoring the homes (classic) architecture. It has a decidedly “English” feel (or it will once I get my hands on it- ha!) and by going with my gut grin, drawing on memories, and injecting equal parts elegant and simple, I hope to create a homeplace that not only allows expresses how we like to live, but that also echoes who we are.
And while the makeover process might take several years to complete, I have a feeling it won’t take long for the home to develop a really special resonance. Because, honestly, it already has one. There’s just something about it, and I look forward to showing you around very soon!
Hope you have a wonderful week, reader-friends. If you need me, I’ll likely be running around the neighborhood collecting moving boxes! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Layla
Wow – so exciting! So happy for you guys!!!
Congratulations! So very excited for you. I’m looking forward to seeing you tackle a new design space! How fun!
Congratulations! It sounds exciting! 🤗
So exciting!!!! Can’t wait to follow along in this journey 🙂
I’m so happy for you and your family. It’s going to be sooooo fun to follow along…I absolutely love that you are posting here!
First of all, thank you for introducing me to the adorable term, “farmette”. I have been following you for years. The opportunity to watch you put all your special touches on another home? I am beyond excited! Congratulations!
Awesome! Can’t wait to see you work your magic on your new home!
I love the family picture and I’m SO excited for you all! I’ll miss your old house, but I know that HOME is wherever you LIVE. (That new family sure got a gorgeous home though!)
I’m so happy for you!!! It seems just perfect for your family. Can’t wait to see your adventures and everything you create in this beautiful place. xo
This is the first blog post I’ve received from you in a long time. Have you adopted another child? It seems as if you just put in all that work fixing up your in-law suite in the property you just sold, but this certainly sounds exciting.
I was wondering the same! I’m not on Instagram so I feel like I’ve been missing updates
I was excited to see this new post pop up, I miss seeing your posts in my in-box. I didn’t know you had added to your family…how wonderful! Congratulations on your new home!
Thanks for asking, I was wondering the same thing!!
Can not wait to watch you make the house your kind of HOME! I am sure it will be beautiful!
I am so excited for you and your beautiful family! You are such an incredible person and I look forward to following along on your new home journey!
Yikes! Layla, Congratulations! I truly know how you are feeling because, we also are moving! We’ve sold our home (&pool😥) in Florida and moved back to our home town in Louisville, KY. We have family in TN and OH so we are back within a 3 hr drive from them👋👋👋 Anywho Layla, our ranch is going to need some updating and im hoping as you move thru your process I can “copy” some of your ideas!
I pretty much know what to do but the family room fireplace wall presents a problem! It’s a long wall and the fireplace sits up on a fairly wide ledge. How to decorate the ledge??
Wish I could send you a picture! Good luck…God is blessing you, girl!
Cant wait to follow along!!
Just Yay, Yay, Yay !
I dropped Instagram so please keep us updated on the blog!!
That sounds exciting! All that Yard! Awesome!
I can’t wait to follow along! Such a wonderful adventure you are on!!
That sounds like a wonderful place. We live in a small town on 2/3 of a block an 80 year old house with room for a garden and dogs and a small guest/hobby house. I amexcited to see what you do with your new place.
Was great to see a post from you. Obviously, not following Instagram means I’ve missed some huge changes in your lives. Congratulations on your new home-to-be.
I have not received any updates in what seems to months….I see a beautiful young lady in your picture. I don’t remember anything about your plans for a second child came to be.
Happy for the new place!
Always a fan
I’ve been keeping up with your move over on IG and I am so excited for you and your fam!!
So happy for y’all!! It will be an amazing farmette for certain. 😃
Such wonderful news! Congratulations! Excited to see the before and to follow along with the renovations.
That is so great, I thought you might be when I saw the video of you walking around the property.
I’m so looking forward to watching your creative flare on your new property.
Such a talented duo enjoy your next journey 😊🌺
not an IG person. too many different places to try to keep up with. It was great to hear your news. It seems you may have added another person to your family ???
The new project will be great to follow.
So very happy for you and all your family! I like others have not received any posts from you in a very long time so I did not know y’all had adopted another child. She is beautiful and looks like she may be a teen already! God’s Blessing in your new home!
I am so very excited for you and the whole fam 🙂 Can’t wait to follow along as you make it your own. Also you need sheep. I just got my first sheep this year and they are the BEST.
CONGRATULATIONS to you and Kevin, and your whole family! I haven’t received and email update from you, so I gather that the beautiful young girl is a new daughter? Please give me the link, so I can see how that came about! You and Kevin are wonderful, making sure the PARENTS are right there too. God bless you both. Oh, and Stevenson has gotten so big!!!!!! –gv
I am not on Instagram so did not know anything about your move and additions; family member. Please update us and keep posting to this blog. I have followed you through the adoption from Haiti and have wondered what you were up to. Your new farmette sounds amazing. Can’t wait to see it and all the wonderful things you and Kevin will do to it. I so enjoyed the family photo.
Congratulations!!!!
Congratulations! You have been missed but you have been busy. Can’t wait to see everything.
Congrats on your new home! Your family photo is so beautiful!
I couldn’t be any happier for you if I tried. That might be the most precious family picture I’ve ever seen! Best of luck on this new adventure. I. Can’t. Wait. to see you spin your magic, Layla!!
I also have not received any updates in quite awhile. The last story I saw was your daughter receiving all her birthday mail. So excited for you and the new adventures to come.
I’m not on Instagram. So excited! Keep us updated!
Very exciting!!! What a dream! A praise! An answer to prayer. So happy for you all. ❤️
Thank you, Gail! I can’t believe it’s already August…move in day will be here before we know it! 😀
SO, SO good to hear from you and extremely excited about your new home. I can’t wait to see more!
Thank you, Molly! 😀
Like so many others here-I haven’t received any emails in a while too. I am not on Instagram either. That girl is gorgeous. Is she your daughter? I cannot wait to see the changes you make in your new home. So exciting. Congratulations on all to all.
Hi Kathy!
That’s “Meme” in the photo. We started mentoring her in 2019, she came to live with us in February of this year, and we are in the process of adopting her now! 🙂
Your family is beautiful ! I loved the family pic of all 6 of you! I am so excited to read that you all found a new home that checked off the items you need and it all sounds so dreamy!! Is your daughter, Mimi about to start college or is she a creative like her mom and dad and starting blogging / social media business / photography business? I’ll be thrilled when you share the new home and the new country farm on the blog! I am so happy for you !
Yay! I new post with very exciting news! Can’t wait to read and see more!