Winston-Salem: A New Hope

This is the first post for the new format. This is now a renovation blog. Here's the story:
     Baltimore is the devil's hemorrhoid. That needed to be said in order to explain how excited we are to leave it and begin the next adventure in our lives, in North Carolina. I found this amazing property by myself on the internet shortly after it was put on the market. Its a 40 acre lot with a pole barn, milking shed, and 1800 sf house with a full semi-finished basement. The land was owned by a family since the 1920's and it used to be a dairy, they sold many surrounding parcels and finally were down to 40. The house was built in 1960 and the owner passed away last winter and left the property to her children, who sold it to us. I won't go into the tedium of the purchase process here, but it was a long and complicated procedure to acquire all the necessary pieces of the puzzle, maybe not the best choice for first time homebuyers, but sooooooo worth it.
     Here are the pictures.

 This is the view from up the hill from the house (our "extended" front yard)

 The view from the top of the hill just past the barn. a stream crosses the property and connects to a creek that forms our northern border. We own all the meadow area back to the far tree line.

 This is where our stream flows into the creek

 This is the family room, that will eventually be the master bedroom

 The kitchen and dining room are nice sized and open, but could stand some upgrading.

 This is "the wood room" it is a country abomination, but it is the first project I will be tackling.

 Beautiful dogwood in the front yard, as seen from the wood room.

More of the wood room, and another fireplace, needs some updating. It was owned by a woman in her nineties and built in 1960, so everything screams "OLD LADY!"

     There are many more photos, but these give you an idea of what we are looking at. The plan is to renovate the house over the course of the first year. After that I go back to teaching, and we start to work more on the farm/property, including livestock! Check back soon, I will try to put up all the major  projects that I tackle.