From a 3,600-square-foot 1930s home to a 32-foot travel trailer, three old oilfield buildings and a 1980s single wide, our journey with homes has taken some unexpected turns.
When my husband and I married, he owned a beautiful 1930s Tudor-style cottage that I immediately fell in love with — original hardwood floors, tall ceilings, gorgeous fireplace mantels and a built-in china cabinet. I couldn’t wait to start putting my own touches on it, beginning with the easy things like paint and decorating.
Years later, 26 wooded acres came available at the right price. We bought it thinking it would someday become our retirement property. “Someday” arrived much sooner than expected. A 32-foot travel trailer, eight dogs and I moved onto the property while my husband continued working and living less than an hour away.
Those eight dogs have since become eight dogs, four cats, ten chickens and two large raised garden beds. The property still has three old oilfield buildings, a 1980s single wide and what sometimes feels like an endless list of things that need to be repaired, rebuilt or brought back to life.
We started this chapter in our 50s. There have been some huge wins and some spectacular failures, but somewhere in all of it I found a kind of peace I didn’t expect to find here. I’ve learned that almost anything can be given a second life, renovations take much longer than you think they will, and even a carefully planned project can find new ways to spend your money.
We’re not contractors. We’re homeowners figuring things out, using what we’ve learned over the years, making mistakes and trying again. My husband can fix almost anything, I’m usually thinking about how we can improve or organize it, and when we’re on the same page we make a pretty good team.
This blog is where I want to share that journey — our completed projects, what we’re working on now and what we hope to tackle in the future. I’ll share pictures and as much of the story as I can remember for each one. Projects will range from the travel trailer and turning old oilfield buildings into tiny homes to the single wide. We might even cover the garden beds and just life on the property. My focus will mostly be on renovations from the perspective of DIYers.
If I Could Go Back, I’d Document Everything
If I could go back and tell myself one thing when we started this journey, it would be to document everything.
I wish I had every cost broken down. I wish I had before, during and after photos of every project, notes about what we learned, how long things really took, and what we would do differently next time.
But when we started, I was excited and full of energy. I wanted to get to work. I had no idea how long this journey would become or how valuable all those little details would be years later.
As DIYers, there are so many things that disappear with time: trips to the store, materials we used, unexpected delays, and how much we have spent. There are warranties, paint colors, finishes, measurements, product numbers, receipts and the name of the store where we bought something we suddenly need to match three years later.
Time has a way of stealing those details from you.
I understand their value now, so I’ve started recording them. Moving forward, I’ll have a much clearer picture of our projects than I have had of the work we’ve already completed.
Recording those details takes moments. Not recording them has cost me hours and money over the years. Those few moments are worth it.
And I’ve realized there is another reason to document the work.
When you stop and record the details, you’re creating a history of your home. You’re preserving the before pictures, the problems you found, the decisions you made, the work you put into it and what that place became because of you.
Someday that history might be handed down to the next generation. Or it might help an entirely new family understand the home if you decide to sell.
It’s more than recording what you spent at Lowe’s on a Saturday. It’s part of the story of your home.
What I’m Doing Differently Now
We’ve recently started another project, and this time I’m doing things differently. I’ve created tools to help me stay organized and keep the records I wish I had from all those earlier years.
We pay cash for every project we do. We save, do a job, save again, then move on to the next one. That was always our long-term plan. When we finally get to the end of this property, it will all be paid for.
The tradeoff is time.
Projects can stretch out for months or even years, and the longer they take, the easier it is for receipts, costs, product information and little details to disappear.
With our newest project, I’ve been taking more pictures and documenting what we spend, what we bought and anything we may need to remember later. I created a renovation tracker to help remind me of the things worth recording. I may not use every column for every project, but this one will have a much healthier history than some of our earlier work — and I believe that will save me time, money and stress in the years ahead.
What We’re Working on Now
Right now we’re working on the old single wide. It had significant rot and damage around the area where the front door used to be. We have most of that section repaired now, and I’ll be sharing the project here once it’s complete. This time, though, the entire process is being documented as we go.
And there is plenty more to share.
Over the years we’ve built custom sliding barn doors for very little money, repaired everything from floor joists to walls, and installed new vinyl plank flooring in places where we once could actually see the ground outside. I have a long list of projects we’ve already completed — and probably an even longer list of what still needs to be done.
Why We Choose to Do So Much Ourselves
We personally do almost all of our own work. There are exceptions. We certainly weren’t going to try drilling a 550-foot well ourselves. Sometimes a job requires equipment, expertise or skills we simply don’t have.
I’ve also watched family members complete major renovations using a combination of DIY work and hired contractors, and I’ve learned a lot from being close to their projects too. There are very real advantages to hiring the right person for the right job.
There have absolutely been days when I’ve thought, We should have just hired someone and this would already be finished.
But then I look around at everything our own hands have repaired, rebuilt and changed, and I realize it has given me a deeper connection to this land and these buildings than I think I would have had otherwise.
This is our story. It won’t be the right way for everyone, and I don’t expect it to be.
But the hope is that we can help give others some insight from our experiences and a little more confidence that “you too can do big things” as my granddaughter says!