The best parts of the past four years have been bookended by highway drives; it was the price I had to pay to spend time at a 20-acre hobby farm owned by my mentor/friend. Sometimes I made that drive covered in pine sap from hours spent moving tree branches, or cedar dust from mucking horse stalls. On occasion, I made the drive with adrenaline coursing in anxiety (the cat was stuck in the cupola) or in excitement (my new horse had been dropped off while I was at work). There were times I drove out just to help put the mower deck in the truck before turning around and heading back to my apartment.
I can’t pinpoint it, but at some point in all of those drives, there must have been a moment where it shifted from “I’m going to my friends’ farm” to “I’m going to my family’s farm”.
I had only been making that 45 minute round-trip drive for about a year before someone made a joke about me putting a tiny house on the back lot. It was genuinely a joke – to ruin that pristine land with a tiny house or similar would be a shame. But eventually, I pointed to the little white house on the hill that overlooked the front pastures, and said “I’d rather just buy that house”. That joke lived for a little while, but eventually they encouraged me to send a letter. So I did.
A few days ago, I drove over just to help put the mower deck in the truck. The drive was a lot shorter this time – about 1 minute instead of 22, because I closed on the little white house on the hill two weeks ago.
The Details
I only spent a little bit of time on the farm during the negotiation and inspection period this past winter, so to walk onto a property in peak summer bloom was really incredible. The property spans ten acres and includes a 1,700 square foot Cape, an early 1900s cow barn, and a small 2-stall horse barn. Much of the land is untouched field. It’s everything I hoped it would be… but my work is also cut out for me if I hope to achieve my goal of growing most of my own food.
Over the past two weeks, I’ve been doing my best to juggle immediate improvements, moving in, exploring the property, and setting the groundwork for the future. It’s been a whirlwind, to say the least.
Week 1 on the Farm: An Adventure in Drywall
Surprisingly, my week 1 to-do list ended up being exactly right. I changed the locks and toilet seats, cleaned every crevice of every room, and threw myself into scraping the popcorn ceiling in my bedroom.
Popcorn ceiling has a tendency to grab on to dust and cobwebs while also being nearly impossible to clean. To make matters worse, the main bedroom has dormers that bring the popcorn ceiling down to eye-level, and I knew it was going to bother me to no end. Scraping popcorn is a tedious and dirty job, but the quotes I received were well out of my budget, so I decided to do it myself.
In total, the process for one room took about four days:
- Day 1: Scrape
- Day 2: Sand, drywall repair (re-tape drywall junctions, skim-coat as needed, mud over screws and imperfections)
- Day 3: Finish drywall repair, prime
- Day 4: Paint
I made plenty of mistakes that are very obvious if you know what you’re looking for, but I am overall ecstatic with the result. I made it needlessly stressful by having a self-imposed deadline surrounding the delivery of my furniture, so I’ll take it much more slowly if I end up tackling the other rooms in the future. If you ever feel the need to scrape popcorn, please know that a mask and protective eyewear are required, you should start in a closet to learn how to do it, and having a friend to help would go a long way towards saving your arms.
After scraping the popcorn, I had just enough time to paint both the bedroom and living room ahead of my furniture delivery, which also coincided with the delivery of my new couch and lawn tractor. It was an expensive week.
Week 2 on the Farm: Infrastructure Investments & Exploration
Since the early days of planning this farm purchase, I knew that having solar panels was going to be a major priority. In fact, I scheduled a meeting with a reputable solar company before I was technically under contract on the property. That meeting went as planned, and the engineers discovered a couple of great details about my property:
- The previous owner installed electrical conduit that runs from the barn to the house, which will allow me to install solar panels on the barn. (The solar guys were especially happy about this because the trenching required for installing conduit is usually the dealbreaker for solar installation on outbuildings. And I’m especially happy about it because solar panels will look a lot better on the barn than they will on the house!)
- The barn, which was built in the early 1930s, is in excellent condition. The exterior looks pretty beat up, so I was worried the engineers would dissuade me from installing solar on them. Instead, they were enthused by the “full sawn” nature of the lumber paired with the new metal roof installed by the previous owner – a perfect combination for solar installation.
My popcorn ceiling adventure coincided with a heat wave. My house (my house! that will never get old to say…) has no air conditioning beyond window units left by the previous owners. They are older, extremely loud, and have visible mold; it wasn’t long before I knew I’d be seeking out a quote for a ductless mini split system sooner than I had originally planned.
Thankfully, the quotes for both of these major projects came in below my previous estimates. That being said, Week 2 was more expensive than Week 1. I’m hoping to break that cycle in Week 3…
When I wasn’t taking meetings, spending a ton of money, or unpacking, I was able to do some property exploration this week and found a lot of unexpectedly useful things:
- three old apple trees, an asparagus patch, and loaded blackberry vines
- a trash pile that likely spans many generations – I need to rent a metal detector!!
- a suitable location for composting
- a suitable location for an orchard
Moving Forward on the Farm
My intention, at least for the summer, is to post a weekly update about what I accomplished each week. Time is moving very fast, and I’m being pulled in different directions with my various projects, so it’s easy to feel like I’m not making any progress; it’s my hope that forcing myself to reflect and document will help me to see just how far I’ve come.
Week 3 should include installing garden beds and exploring the barn, which is full of equipment spanning from modern times all the way back to the early 1900s.
I’ve also been posting on TikTok, so you can access video updates there.
When I started this blog, I honestly could not fathom ever being able to say “I bought the farm”. But here I am. How lucky am I?!
Talk soon,
KC