We have lived in our home for two years now and I think there is some confusion because we have owned the property and hosted markets for six years. So, today I am going to share the whole story with you. Grab a cup of coffee and lets have a chat shall we?
It is true we bought this property six years ago. Cameron wanted to buy cows and I wanted to start a pop up of sorts once a month. The property where we now live and host markets came up for auction April 2016. Cameron and I had just done a debt free sweep and I still believe that had we not buckled down and paid everything off we would have never had the courage to buy a second property.
When I shared my dream of having a little pop up market Cameron was supportive but wasn’t sure about the idea of having it in our home. As I was washing dishes one night an idea popped in my head of using the barn on this property. We hadn’t bought it yet, but we had permission to come down and look at the property. When I walked outside to tell Cameron my idea of doing a pop up in the barn he said he was just thinking the same thing. Weird, I look back and have no idea why we thought a pop up in a barn was a great idea, but we did. We drove down, looked in the barn and saw that it was divided in to stalls and after seeing that it seemed meant to be! I would rent out the stalls to vendors and we would host a market!
Next up we just had to buy the property. We kept the hope of purchasing this place a secret. Our kids were 6,4 and 2 and the time and we thought it would be a good idea to see if our parents could watch them, but they both had plans that weekend . So, one rainy morning in April we loaded up the family and I packed a backpack full of snacks and games and we headed just down the road to the auction. It by far had been the most stressful thing we had ever done bidding in thousand dollar increments. But in what seemed like minutes that place was ours and we were about to embark on a dream and journey we never imagined.
Cameron and I made a deal that he wouldn’t buy cows and I wouldn’t host a market until we had the house for rent. We have loved this little place since we bought it, but the house is really close to the road and with tiny ones it made us nervous. We were comfortable in our current home so renting this house seemed like the best option.
We worked the entire summer cleaning up this house. Once it was ready for rent we prayed for whoever would live here and God brought us two of the sweetest people we have met.
Once the house rented I set the date for our first barn sale. It was nearing the end of July and I set the date for the first weekend in August.
So, for the first four years of our market hosting we rented the house. In the beginning markets were concentrated in a small area and as it began to grow our hearts began to stretch and we found ourselves open to the idea of moving and making this place our home.
In 2019 Cameron’s cattle herd had grown and he was needing more ground so we purchased another farm not farm from our home. We felt like the responsible thing to do was sell where we lived and move to the property where we host markets. In 2019 we began renovating this home and in the beginning of 2020 we moved into what is now the Broken Oak Farmhouse. It wasn’t finished, but we were ready to be back out living in the country (we lived in our BNB town during renovations). The fall of 2020 we welcomed y’all back out to The Broken Oak for a market and for the first time we welcomed y’all with this place as our home.
Next up is the renovation! From the very beginning there were things I felt this house needed (like a row of windows in the kitchen). I will share the process of how we decided on finishes and before and after photos.
Thank y’all for reading our story. We love our home and love welcoming y’all in whether it be during market season, sharing a recipe or a tour here on the blog.
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