Starting Over AGAIN…seems hard for me to get into a rhythm of writing about anything, nothing or something. I skip whole years, usually months but I am going to try to be committed to writing multiple times a week.   So to foster more devotion to the art of blogging, I am going to focus on one of the big “Start Over” events going on in my life.  I am building a modern farmhouse on a lovely piece of land outside of Austin, Texas.

I saw both my parents and my in-laws retire and look for a new place to live (mostly warmer climates) and I thought since I will likely work until they find me hunched over my laptop no longer able to write, calculate, make power points or herd cats, I better build my dream house now and enjoy it.

This has been a two-year process to-date of figuring out what I want, finding land, finding a builder, and finding an architect while learning some very hard lessons along the way.  If you have built a totally custom house from ground up, this will resonate with you.  This process is not for the faint of heart….

So today we will visit in photos, the AS-IS version of my home before we talk about the TO-BE version.

I have a lovely house now and have had it for 26 years, yep, once I get in somewhere I tend to stay put.  Since I enjoy decorating my home, my current house has been through 4 or 5 redos.  There was the move in, I have no money phase, the now I have some money but no direction phase, the red walls, red anything phase (loved loved loved this), the more shabby chic (ish) phase and the present day pottery barn meets vintage and re-purposed stuff phase.

Benjamin Moore Seaspray on the walls–a white with under tone of green, my vintage bee poster (Save the Queen) and lots of layers on my bed

My dining room table that seats 14 set for a baby shower.  The paint is my favorite greenish khaki and is meadowview from Benjamin Moore and the trim is Linen White from Benjamin Moore

and the outside is set up for vegetable and flower gardening..

Before the 25 inches of rain we had in one month, these were part of the 80 heirloom tomato plants I had growing…

and  a great room with a chocolate lab

Please leave comments, follow this blog and if compelled tell your friends and neighbors to follow and watch as we build my modern farmhouse.