A Year in our Country Home + What’s Next

I realized this week that we’ve now owned this home for a year, which has flown by, though we didn’t move into it until the end of May. Today I thought I’d share my thoughts on what has been a pretty big lifestyle change and look at what we’ve done here so far and what we’re currently working on.

I remember waking up the day we moved wondering “What have we done?”, not sure how I was going to like living in a fairly remote area on a large piece of land. I grew up literally just outside Washington, DC and for the most part have always lived in a suburban neighborhood. A year into it, I can honestly say I absolutely love living in the “country” and have zero regrets. It is so peaceful here, I feel like my stress level is down and the lifestyle is a bit slower. It was just what we were hoping for when we decided to make the change (you can read more here).

Of course we recently added chickens (and by we, I mean my husband) into the mix, so that is another element of country life that we’re fully embracing. Construction of the coop starts next week (fingers crossed) so they will soon have a permanent home. I also have been working hard on getting our garden established, one of the goals of moving here was to be a bit more self-sufficient so we’re slowly getting there. The landscaping is a huge project on a property this size, and we’re currently beginning a multi-step plan with the garden, a new shed/garage and of course, the chicken coop so that is our main focus and probably the best answer to “what is next” as far as home projects go.

We jumped into what I considered the most urgent house updates as soon as we moved in, including our basement, kitchen/laundry room and patio. I have shared them all before, except a full patio reveal which I’ll do once I finish getting the space all spiffed up. Overall the house is in a great place for the time being, but at some point down the road we’ll need to update all the bathrooms.

I have just finished putting in the landscaping around the patio, so it looks a little better now. We love having an outdoor living space and it has an evening sunset view, which makes it feel over the top!

I shared the entire kitchen makeover process here and here, along with the laundry room and our entertaining bar all of which was done last fall. While we were in the thick of the renovation it all felt pretty overwhelming, I am so happy all the projects are now complete.

We also had a rec room and gym space finished in the basement early last summer. I have not shared those spaces in total mostly because they are rarely clean enough to show! The basement is my kids’ space to hang out and the gym is still a work in progress, I hope to have it finished this summer. It’s been really nice to have the extra space though so I am glad we finished it all right away.

I still have details to finish on many of our rooms, including bedrooms so I know I haven’t shared as many spaces as I have in our other homes. Above is our main living room, we use this space all the time. I shared about our sofas in this post and the gray velvet chairs in this post. We upgraded to a Frame TV and it’s fun to change the artwork seasonally. The drapes are new and from Lush Decor.

For all these years I have primarily been blogging about home-related things, but in looking forward I foresee my focus changing more toward food and cooking and health. My interest and energy is moving more into that space, I will be beginning a Culinary Nutrition program in the Fall and most likely will pursue a full certification in Functional Nutrition. As you may know, being in a decade-plus battle to overcome lyme disease, one of the best tools I have found to feel better is through diet and lifestyle changes . It’s been a big part of my life for years, so it seems only natural that my focus shift toward sharing more along those lines. Much more to come on that!

As always thank you for following along with our home journey, I hope you all have a beautiful day!

XO,

Please visit my Health and Wellness website 11MLWellness here.

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