We Bought A House!

Hi friends! I hope you had a great weekend!

If you've been following along for very long, you know we recently purchased a new home. Well, I say new, but it was actually built in the 1940's. The home had already been through a few previous renovations so luckily for us it only required some cosmetic work. It came with everything we were looking for - enough space, acreage, a pond, outdoor buildings and a convenient location. I've always dreamed of owning a French Farmhouse so it should come as no surprise that we purchased a Bedford stone property. When we were in France, I fell in love with the beautiful authentic Provencal stone farmhouses.

With being in Southern Illinois, it's likely that the stone for our house came from a rock quarry in Bedford, Indiana. Bedford is known as the limestone capital of the world, and is surrounded by limestone quarries. 

Before we started renovations, I began to dream about the exterior design and knew right away I wanted a pretty mailbox. I mean, a girl can dream right? :) To me, a mailbox is instrumental in creating the first impression of your home. I wanted it to be a visual staple that guests immediately recognize. Maison is French for "house" so I thought it was only fitting to have our logo attached to our mailbox. Thanks to Instagram, I quickly discovered Jenn from Van Booven Creations and she brought my dream to life. They specialize in plasma cutting and make some beautiful metal art and do many customized designs. You can find them here on Instagram. Jenn was AMAZING to work with. I sent her a few ideas and within days she had formulated and completed the design. 

Here's a behind the scene she shared with me.

I love how it turned out and that our logo can be viewed from both sides.  

The mailbox needed a little DIY work and accent painting, but I think they look perfect together. Our mailbox was a gift, but to find a similar one click here. In the next month or so, we will be attaching our house numbers and installing the mailbox at our new house once the weather is a little warmer. 

I shared some behind the scenes in Instagram stories, but we are now in the midst of remodeling our Bedford stone home. I tried to be as prepared as possible (thanks Better Homes & Gardens for these 15 Tips for Successful Remodeling Project - click here) and make product selections in advance, but with any project you always run into unexpected snags, delays and inconveniences. It helps that we are doing nearly all the renovations ourselves, but that means long hours after my husband has put in a full day at his normal job and even longer weekends. Did I mention we also have a small business and a 2 and 3 year old? Life is crazy right now, but in a good way :) In just a few weeks time, I'm so proud of how much  we've accomplished. It's been hard work, but with family stopping in to help out occasionally, it has help speed up our progress tremendously. We've been able to complete all the demo work, finish nearly all the painting and complete several exterior projects. Today we were even able to start the flooring installation. I've always admired my husband's work ethic - he has certainly been putting in overtime lately - but he still manages to spend quality time with our girls every evening. It's all about balance, but I'm so excited for this new renovation journey and look forward to making our new house a home. 

I'll be sharing more of our progress in an upcoming blog post so stay tuned!! 

As always, thanks so much for following along and supporting this little dream of mine.

Xx,

Amy