Our Farm
- The main farmhouse
Subscribe to the Home Renovation posts via RSS and watch us tear our house apart
Subscribe to the Farm Life posts via RSS – decorating, maintenance, living on a farm
We live in a four-walled timber-frame farmhouse near Frankfurt, Germany. The house was built in 1834 and we have the tallest barn in town. When we bought the house it was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath. It’s now a 2/2 with a 1/1 guest house…and we hope to make it a 4/4 within the next few years by building out the attic.
The farm is built in a U formation with a gate across the front serving as the fourth wall. The barn and several other building complete the U and behind the barn we have a 1,000 sq. foot garden. We’d like to be self-sufficient here and eventually get off the grid…but we’ve got plenty of other things to complete before we worry with that.
Recent Posts about out home renovation projects
- Using Evernote to organize recipes
- The power of new windows
- Waiting on the electric bill
- Decluttering Progress in 2011
- Simplify cleaning with a personalized schedule
- Hemming drapes with ease
- Lessons Learned: Upstairs Bathrooms
- The crucial element of organizing stuff
- Time to give our walls some color
- When you need help decluttering
The renovated guest bath downstairs
Projects we’re working on
- Horse Stalls Build Out – 95%
- Mud Room Build Out - 65%
- Garden – 40%
- Woodworking workshop – 40%
- Miscellaneous organizing around farm so we can find stuff – 40%
- Chicken coop conversion to outdoor kitchen & seating area – 40%
- Master bedroom closets, remodel – 95%
- Wine Cellar Build Out – 5%
- Mackenzie’s Nursery – 25%
- Climbing Wall – 0%
- Clean out long attic – 0%
- Build out attic in main house – 0%
- Wood-burning hot tub – 0%
Projects we’ve finished
- Renovate avocado bathroom
- Add a kitchen – Part 1, Part 2
- New bath upstairs
- Convert kitchen to office
14 Responses to “Our Farm”
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- No Ordinary Homestead » Before and After: The Old Kitchen Becomes an Office - [...] The Farmhouse [...]
Tiffany is an American who has been living in Germany with her husband since 2001. The two are self-proclaimed "Self-Reliant Yuppies" who are in their early-30's and bought an 1830's farmhouse several years ago, which they have been turning into a more sustainable and green dream house. Two cats, a Newfie and their 2 year old daughter enjoy the adventure with them. Tiffany enjoys cooking, rock climbing, lux-camping trying to turn her black thumbs green and taking road trips. Visit the 
i like your blog!!! well done. good luck with all those projects. i too want to get into sustainability. we live in the outer banks, north carolina.
have a great day!!
amanda
Thanks for dropping by, Amanda! Sometimes it seems like our to do list has a to do list of its own…but we hope to get our act together in 2010 and really push through with a few important projects and start making our farm easier to take care of. There are so many items that require so much maintenance and attention…and we just don’t have that sort of time. All the best in your sustainability efforts! Remember, you can start nearly anywhere — even if it’s just making your own cleaning solutions and baking your own bread.
I smiled so hard when I clicked on the farmhouse link and saw the picture…a farmhouse in Germany is definitely nothing like what we call a “farmhouse” here in Canada–but it is beautiful! And timberframe houses are really built to last.
I laugh to myself all the time when I think about this being a “farm”…because in Texas our farms are so very different. But this place is fairly typical for a German farm in the city. We’d love to have something with a bit more land around it…but here it’s usually either hardly any land or tons of it…and you need to have millions if you want tons of land!
I love old farm houses! Great job on really bringing yours to life.
Wow Tiffany, you are so very lucky, this looks fabulous and I love your plans to be eventually self-sufficient. Great work; great blog; truly great dog
what a great house!! I love your blog! Thanks for stopping by mine
Oh your house is beautiful!! My grandmother’s family is all from Germany near the black forest. I have only visited once by dream of a day when our family may be able to take an extended vacation and really immerse ourselves in the old world ways!
Hallo und danke fuer deinen besuch auf meinen blog! Your farmhouse is wonderful! I miss Germany – I lived by the Bodensee for a year in the mid 80s.
Funny thing you were the second person from Germany to visit my blog today. Good luck in your ‘homesteading’ adventures!
Love your house!!!! The outside is incredibly pretty and storybook like compared to most US homes. =)
Your farmhouse is beautiful!
I was really suprised when I realised that the ‘gingerbread house’ is the farm….what an interesting and lovely home to live in!! I found your blog while searching for information about a german farm that one of my daughters friends has done an exchange to earlier in the year, and now her german family are coming here. I think our Australian bush with its browns and gold and olive greens will suprise them too!! Anyway I was completely distrcted with enjoying your blog and haven’t looked any further- I loved reading your thoughts and sharing your expat experiences. thank you
we are a single parent family of three
dad 45
alisha 24
matthew 16
we want to farm we can help a older couple farm
all we wanted to do was farm our whole life
we wanted to do chores and care for animals and farm
we live in ontario canada and if you know anyone that needs help farming and has a place for us to stay
even a old run down country home
we are looking for a farm we can live and help at
integrity@cyg.net
What a truly lovely home! Our farmhouse sure needs a ton of work. We’ve been here one year just fixing everything as it all has been neglected so long.