As you know, last weekend I went to Ohio for my grandparents auction.  They have lived in Farmersville, Ohio for the last thirty years in a log cabin that they built.  I grew up visiting them at this house.  There are so many awesome memories of family trips and family reunions here.  At one point they owned lots and lots of acres, but as they have gotten older they held onto only six acres and sold the rest.  These acres have a creek and open field with a closed in gazebo that has been called the “campground”.  There are corn fields all around them.  As city kids, my siblings and I loved visiting them because it was a kids paradise.  There was always an adventure to be made and things to discover.

Recently they bought a smaller house in a retirement community.  It is a really cute brick house with neighbors and a cul-de-sac.  I’m excited for them as they are excited about this change, but it is very different from the way of life they have lived.

(My boys here are attacking my 15-year-old brother, Gus, in the front lawn.  They were some kind of superhero here…aka..getting energy out after a nine-hour drive!)

As my grandparents have gotten older, it has been harder for them to keep up with such a big house and large property, so they decided to downsize.  My grandparents are some of the hardest working people I know.  They owned and ran a drug store for a long time.  My grandpa has always run his tractor and cut the fields/grass at their place.  He is an amazing wood worker.  His work shop and collection of tools is a craft-er’s dream!

Although we (the family) all knew it was the right thing and time for them to sell, it is still hard to say good-bye to such a special place.  Isn’t change hard!?!  After we got in town and saw the new place they bought, we drove down my favorite roads to their old house.

There is something so simple and beautiful about country roads with corn fields on either side of you.

I think it is stunning!

Now, here is your tour of the house I love and keep rambling about!  You pull in this long driveway and pass a huge barn that at one point held their motor-home.  That has long been sold, but it was they way they traveled to Georgia to visit us for many years.

I am so thankful that I got to go say “good-bye” to this place and also share it with my boys.  I wanted them to see a place I love so much.  It’s so hard to get so far north with three kids that we haven’t been back all as a family since Caleb was about 16 months old.  J and Reagan weren’t even here yet!

When you walk in you are immediately on a long screened in porch, that leads into the kitchen.

It was so weird to see their house empty.  All the furniture and items that didn’t go to the “new house” were already set up in the barns for the auction the next day.  I love this light fixture they had above their dinning room table.

The family room is open and was full of couches and chairs that we all hung out in.  In the winter ,they always had the wood burning stove going.

When you looked the other way in this room, you saw the exposed loft.  It is HUGE.  It held like a king size bed, a queen size bed, and a pull out day bed.  This is always where we slept.

Haha my mom would say it was always hard to visit because putting nine kids to bed here was well hard.  (Yes, I am one of nine kids…all from the same two parents!!)  As kids, we loved it!  We would peer over the railing and listen in to the “adult” conversations below.

My grandparents have kept their bed at this house and still have been sleeping there up till the auction.  That bed is  the only thing in their room right now except for a small dresser.

Here you can see the back of the house with the long screened in porch.

In the basement, was two rooms that were my grandpa’s wood working area/shop.  It’s so weird to see this empty.  It was his hobby/love to work and create down here.

I Love the huge deck they built!  We ate out here a lot.  There is also a hot tub around the corner in this picture.

The deck over looks the creek where we spent lots of time wadding in and throwing rocks.  My boys fell in love with this spot…just like I did.

My Jeremiah is a nature boy.  He would spend all day, everyday outside in the woods.  He couldn’t get enough of this creek bed.

Following the creek to the right you go into the back field “camp ground area”.  One of my best recent memories of this house is a bottle rocket war, at a family reunion, about six years ago.  It was Matt’s first time to my grandparents.  There was a mad football game too.  We got home from this trip and found out a week later we were pregnant with our Caleb.  We had no idea while I was out there running around and being rough and rugged that I was carrying a baby.

These pictures will always be special to me.  This post might be more for my family that weren’t able to go and say good-bye, or maybe just part of my processing that another phase/season in life is changing.  Trips to Ohio will not be the same, but I am so thankful I still have my grandparents and family there.  That love is stronger than a love for a house.

Thanks for checking out a place I love so much!  I will post #2 of this weekend showing the auction soon!