About a week ago, Tom and I became the owners of this 20 acre piece of rural property in northern Minnesota. The land is beautiful, about three-quarters meadow, the rest wooded, and abuts thousands of acres of state woods. This is the kind of place you don't come across that often, an old farm homestead, peaceful and calming. (This would be the moment for a dreamy, sweeping musical piece, like the theme from Gone With The Wind...)

But I digress. Getting back to reality - included with this property is an eight-year-old prefab house. (Insert that loser sound here; wah-wah-wah-WAH~) This house had been pretty well trashed inside and would not have been our first choice for a home-type, week-end or otherwise. But, as the saying goes, it is what it is. After looking it over, it appears to be in solid structural shape, but just needs some major fixing up inside. This journal is intended to be a record of our clean-up/remodeling progress to transform this place from homely to homey. We will be doing the work with a tight budget in mind, and doing as much of the work as we can, ourselves.

Check back - I will be posting some pics, inside and out, of the house, so you can see what we're starting with.