Personal
Then and now, 2003 (left), 2005 (right)
We've successfully remodeled one house, once a prominent eyesore on the pigtrail (HWY 16) at the edge of Fayetteville. We sold the house in 2007 to a couple taking exceptionally good care of it! As you can tell from the pictures, we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the old girl. The original house is probably about 100 years old, with a stone foundation. A kitchen and bathroom were added, according to neighbors, in the 50's. The original hand-dug well is still behind the property. A late 90's addition added 3 additional bedrooms and a laundry room. We completely remodeled the place, inside and out, and added the generous two-car garage. With original heart pine floors and windows, it's a really cool old house. We'd still be there if it had enough room for our horses!
Remodeling: The second house
Then and now, 2007 (left) 2008 (right)
After successfully cutting our teeth on the first 100+ year old house, we decided to take the proceeds and get some room to roam! Lynn had four horses at the time (now five!) and commuting to Greenland everyday to feed them added over an hour of commuting to her day. Easter 2007, we stumbled upon what we now refer to as "The Farm", just up the road in Elkins, AR on the pigtrail. The current owner had visions of development and an appropriate price tag attached; but luckily, the bottom fell out of the real estate market here in NWA. We ended up with the place for about 2/3's the asking price. It had been vacant for over a year, plumbing and electrical totally shot, and of course was another 100+ year old house. It's our current never-ending project. With 10 acres, we were able to put up a barn and bring the horses out to their new home in Fall '07.
This house was built in 1896 by R.H. Stokenburry (buried just next door!). Originally a tomatoe and strawberry farm, it backs up to the west fork of the White River. It's beautiful flat land that's perfect for horses and hay; we made over 300 square bales just this spring. And yes, we're making them ourselves with our old John Deere ;)
Making Hay (...while the sun shines)
Cut, rake, bale... and then pick it all up! We've done over 500 bales (~50lb each, over 10 TONS of hay!) this season with our trusty NH 273 and John Deere 1020.
