Except the behind the hutch part.

It’s something I grew up thinking romantic thoughts about and hoping I might be able to experience one day, maybe when I retired.I caught the “restoring and old house” bug early on in life and I know it’s an affliction that a lot of other people have too.

I thought today I’d share our story and our tips just for fun and so you might see how you could do it too if it’s your dream as well..In the planning stages, it’s all about the money.Oh my goodness, living that hustle-and-bustle city life is expensive!

Big mortgages, big child-care costs to cover those long hours you have to work, and expensive fuel costs so you can get to the job to work the long hours, all that.It all adds up and you can really feel like the only way to get ahead is to stay put in your tiny townhouse, put budgeting ahead of everything else, and just work work work until hopefully you move up the corporate ladder and maybe get a bit of a raise.

Those were exciting and character-building years for us for sure, but when I reached the ripe old age of 27 and our daughter Kennedy was about 5, I was done with it.

I remember the exact moment when we realized there might be a loophole in “the system” and we might be able to actually get that big house on that big property that we wanted our kids to remember growing up in AND actually lower our cost-of-living.I guess I can be OK with that.

Hay ridin’ cousins are pretty cute!.I don’t have those pictures ready, so I’ll just have to spring them on you one day when you’re least expecting it.

…and suddenly we were in a rainbow!.It’s just fine if my front door decorations are simple and sweet for now.