by Jenny Marrs

Our farmhouse.
A few years ago, one of my favorite homes in our town’s downtown district was set to be demolished in order to make way for a new parking lot. The home was built in 1901 and had been neglected over the years, yet my husband and I had an affinity for the quirky old house and could not bear to see it knocked to the ground. My husband, Dave, started researching and eventually convinced me that it was possible to move the house. {I thought he was off-his-rocker-crazy but agreed to his plan}.
City restrictions prohibited moving a house from one spot in the city limits to another. The obvious question here is, “how did they ever come up with such a law? Was there a surplus of families moving houses all around at some point in our town’s history?” I have no idea. But, lucky for us, the restriction forced us to move the house out to the land Dave had purchased years before. He originally bought this land not knowing what we would ever do with it. Now, we had a vision – this is where we would raise our babies.
In December of 2012, we moved the house.

Prepping the house for the move took a little over a month. The actual moving day lasted for hours… starting very early in the morning.

After the initial move, the house had to be placed on an already prepped foundation and then pieced back together. Next up, the entire inside needed to be gutted and the real work was ready to begin.
The restoration took a little over a year.
THEN:

NOW:

Old homes have so much character and our goal was to maintain the integrity of the home by bringing it back to life. I adore all of the unique angles and hidden nooks in this house.







I love that these walls have held a hundred years worth of memories. Families have lived and loved here, babies have been born here, tears have been shed here, and laughter has bounced off these walls over the years. What an honor it is to be able to contribute to the legacy of this place with our little clan.