What My Future Farm House Might Look Like

So, I might have gotten a little ahead of myself about posting interior pics today. I hope you’ll forgive me, but it was wishful thinking that things would move faster than they have with this house, which has meant a lot of sleepless nights for me this week, let me tell you.

Anyway, I’m going to give you the full tour of the house (I guarantee you’ll be surprised, since you could have knocked me over with a feather when I walked through it) just as soon as all the legal stuff is taken care of.

The good news is that I made it over two of the smaller hurdles to officially having the keys to this place fairly easily. The BIG hurdle is coming up soon– hopefully early next week, so I can get it out of the way and then enjoy smooth sailing until closing. For a little taste of what I’ve been going through for the last three days, here is an email verbatim from one of the people I’m working with to take care of the legal crap:

Stanley,

You have mentioned differ title company’s mane in title provider. Please advise if you want to switched to another title company?

 Singh Devi [not her real name]

As you may suspect, my name isn’t Stanley, but no amount of clarification on my end seems to get the point across. Clearly one of us isn’t speaking English, but to be honest on the amount of sleep I’ve had in the last three days, I’m not sure it isn’t me. So, it’s been an adventure fraught with questions like, “Am I making this bigass check out to the right person, in the right country?”

In the meantime, however, you guys have come up with some great names for this house. Among my faves:

  • From Allie – “The House of Unexpected Adven-Hey look at that new saw.” (So appropriate, but a bit of a mouthful)
  • From Karen – Brick Manor
  • From my BFF from college – The Calling House
  • From a lot of you – The Brick House, or even just The Brick (or Bric-a-brac, also apt)

To be honest, “The Brick House” was growing on me pretty early on, until my grandmother pointed out that it rhymes with another “house”, and now I cant get that out of my head. She suggested I name the property, not just the house, and I’m completely bummed that Wuthering Heights is already taken.

We’ve been kicking around names like “Tenterra” (after my mom) and my suggestion of Hilltop Manor (since it is at the top of a hill-ish thing), although the word “manor” is a little too stately for me. Those Brits were so good at naming their properties. Perhaps Longbourn after my favorite Austen novel?

Nothing has stuck yet, but I’m working on it.

And, for a little taste of what I’m working with here, I’ve sketched out a not-even-remotely-to-scale floorplan:

001

The original brick part of the house was built in 1860, and the addition on the back of the first floor came on in the 90’s to my best guess.

 

I’ll tell you this, it’s a big house with a lot of potential. I can’t wait to get started on it.

22 Responses

  1. I am so excited for you. Seriously. I think I’m living vicariously through you or something. I love city life, but all of a sudden I want to own a farm.

  2. I would love it if it turns out to be the Brick House – then there can be a battle between that other internet Brick House (in the western deserts) and yours. You’ll totally win because you have fierce miniature donkeys while the other Brick House only has tiny sleepy dogs.

    1. Oh my god, I forgot there was another Brick House, which is stupid because I totally got my closet pipe idea from them. Well we can’t go down that road, I’d hate to start an internet battle. Those dogs look ferocious!

  3. I have an old house on a hill, too. I’ve often thought of naming the property, and hit the same snags. I don’t want to sound pretentious. I don’t want it to be too fancy. One great thing about an old house is that is has a lot of history. Maybe if you wait a while, you’ll find out something from your the house’s past that makes a great name. For now, though, why not just stay simple with something like “Farm House”?

  4. Sometimes it’s flipping hard to think of the perfect name! And yet other times, the name is just waiting right there in front of you. I named my current project house the Wee House. All based on the bottles of pee just hanging out on the kitched counter when we did our walk through.

    Perhaps you should simply name the house Stanley?

  5. Well…if you’re naming the structures, I like “The Brick” (to distinguish it from the Shed, the Shop, the Barn, the Privy and whatever else may be on there)

    For the property, and in honor of the Brick, how about the “HOme of the Third LIttle Piggy”? (Or HOTLIPs for if you need to tweet it)

    Good luck on the closing!

  6. You’re grandmother sounds awesome.

    I like the idea of naming the property instead of just the house itself.

    How bout “Accidental Acres”?

    There’s actually a town in western MD called Accident. I have to believe it was founded in much the same way you stumbled upon your new property.

  7. I like Kitbrick Place.
    How about Kitbrick Cottage?
    Hillbrick Cottage?
    Brickhill House?

    I always just end up calling house by the street they were on – the Pleasant House, the Bellevue House, the Sunquist House. Although my victorian Tri-plex is called The Nest, becasue it was such a rat’s nest when we bought it.

    Glad to hear you are over some of the hurdles. Hopefully things will come together soon and all the sleepless nights can focus on what your going to do instead of all the financial/techincal details!And how many times this week have you driven out and wandered around peeking through windows? Its so hard to stay away at this stage!

    Floorplan looks very workable.

  8. I suggest Serendipity Hall.

    (Serendity means “accidental discovery, blessing, break*, dumb luck, fluke, good luck, happenstance, happy chance, luck, lucky break, stumbling upon, tripping over” – which pretty much gives the back story to this propery.”

  9. Kit,

    Looking forward to following your adventures at the Forever Farmhouse.

    I don’t know if you are familiar with this blog, but I thought it might provide inspiration. The owners move from Dallas to NH and transform a farmhouse and barn.

    fortheloveofahouse.blogspot.com

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