They’re still big, and in some ways, just as exciting (to us).

When we originally bought this piece of land in January of last year, we bought it to fulfill a 10 year dream of PJ’s to start an event space- a place for weddings and parties and anniversaries and celebrations. What better place to celebrate all of life’s joys than in the middle of nature with a huge mountain behind you? The views alone sold us on this property, and it came with a 5,000 sq ft metal building perfect for a venue. It was a blank slate that just needed finishing out. It. Was. Perfect.

But then…

March happened. Well actually, it happened at the end of last year, and everyone’s reality drastically changed when COVID 19 broke out and stopped virtually everything, including our big plans for the land. We talked about it a lot and weighed the pros and cons, and we ultimately decided not to move forward with the venue at this time. There was a lot of thought behind our decision, and we don’t necessarily feel the need to explain ourselves, BUT at the same time, we haven’t ruled out doing a venue all together later on down the road when everything settles down and everyone has recovered. We just don’t think starting a new venture (especially one that involves the gathering of large groups of people together in a building) when experts are saying there may be a recession would be the best idea/smartest business decision, both emotionally and financially.

However, we are currently working up some new plans for the big metal building that would involve a ton of creativity and hard work, two words that happen to be our middle names. We love a challenge and the prospect of a new idea, so for the last few days, PJ has been drawing up floor plans to turn the building into a modern farmhouse for our family. Can you imagine?! It wouldn’t be a permanent residence for us, but more of a weekend/holidays with the family/summer home where we would pack up and head out for a few days at a time. When we’re out there, we feel free, light, relaxed. There’s a sense of magic and wonder that we can’t explain. It feels like anything is possible, and out there, maybe it is?

We’re meeting with a contractor this week to get an estimate for what it would cost to finish out the building. Right now it’s all metal and wood and concrete, so the hard part is already done for us (thankfully). It’s up to us to come up with the finishes and layout and the overall design of how we want to live out there. There’s a certain feeling we want the house to have, one much different than our home in town.

Because the views and land around the building are so beautiful and important to us, we want the entire space to feel very much connected to the land, with lots of natural materials and windows used throughout, bringing (the feel of) the outside in. We’re very much maximilists when it comes to style and decorating (more is more!), but with this house, we want minimal, serene, relaxing, and calm. The land is our happy place, and we’ve been going out there every few days to let the kiddos run and stretch their legs and to just get some air. It feels so separate from the rest of the world, because it is (to us). It’s our own little world out there, a world that we’re craving more and more, especially now.

We’ve been looking at inspiration photos online for a few years now, so we have an overall idea of what we want, now it’s just a matter of putting them all together to get it exactly right.

Here’s a small peek of the feel we want:

Source: Pinterest

We don’t want to give too much away right now, because we plan to document the entire process in our vlogs/IG/here on the blog, but it felt too exciting and important (to us) not to write it down somewhere for now. We are beyond excited to get started and share this with you, and can’t wait for you to see all of the ideas keeping us up at night.

Until then xx