Wedding Barn Additions & Ect.
We went on a crazy adventure 3 years ago, choosing to step into the world of renovating a 160 year old barn. We laugh now when we are asked about it, we both agree that had we known the full cost of this project, we would have never said yes, we would have been fearful, overwhelmed, and we would’ve never believed that we would have the finances or grit to get it completed… We are so thankful today, that we didn’t know the future, we took a big old leap of faith into the unknown, with our crazy hearts open to whatever God said yes to. So here we are today, doing this thing, living out what was only once a dream.
We want to give a shout out to all the beautiful folks that have literally carried us through this past season, there are sooooo many of you. Our Big House Church friends that launched us out of Virginia and have prayed over us to find this place and continue to support us with prayer and financial blessings. Our worship community here in Lebanon has literally prayed this place in with us. They have fed us, loved us, put up with our craziness, they have brought financial gifts over and over to our front door, they have labored at this property with us, from laying floors to painting walls, to praying that we pass every inspection that we have. We are so incredibly grateful.
Our families have overwhelmed us with their generosity as well. My brother Shane has sat at so many dinner tables across from us the past 12-13, years. Shane has been listening to this dream of ours and literally cheering us on, in a way only Shane can, which is, “yeah I think we can do that”, or “I’ll see what I can do” which always means, YES! He has bailed us out of trouble so many times with his big machines and even bigger brain, and giant heart, he is such an incredibly valuable asset to Cedar Bay Farm, and to our family. We are overwhelmed that he has partnered with us as we’ve chased this dream for so many years. We literally could not have done this without his YES!
Of course, Shane is just one of our family members, we could write a blog post about each of them to tell the story of how everyone has left their fingerprints on this place, and someday we will.
September of 2019 we had our first drive by the farm . We saw a sweet old farm had been listed for sale with 62 acres, that we couldn’t afford, but we wondered if the owners might consider selling us just the house and barn and a handful of acres… So, we hopped in the car and quickly drove by the property. I recorded it on my phone, not knowing what the future held, but now it’s so fun to watch. It was a bit overgrown; We couldn’t really see the house well from the road, we could only kind of see the barn through the trees, but what we could see was the beautiful tree lined pasture and pretty old black fence, we were captivated… I called the listing agent and requested a visit. The rest as they say is history.
Soooo, last July we were made aware that our business needed to make some updates to stay current with Ohio Code, dreaded words in our house, (only due to some crazy rules) especially last summer. We started working with an out of town architect that is a genius with OH code and old barns, (this is rare) together we came up with a plan, one that we weren’t sure how to accomplish, due to time constraints, and very little of that green stuff called, CASH!! Just another test of our faith… we pushed forward, and to be completely transparent with y’all, (because everyone always wants to know where the money comes from) it came from a home equity line, our 401K, and generous donations from regular incredibly brave folks that felt lead to invest in this dream.
We made plans to add a lovely front entrance, which included a very costly, but super cool glass door system, and a rear exit and staircase. We added a state of the art fire alarm system, and commercial grade bathrooms, and a prep kitchen. We weren’t able to start our project until February as we were waiting for drawings and approvals ect. I say ect, because that’s another LONG story, a journey with it’s own beginning, long middle, and ending. I’ll write about that another time, because the older I get the more I know that the story in the middle of all the insanity is a really good story, one worth telling, but for another day…
So, slowly but surely the projects became completed. The night before our first spring wedding we were still putting down trim in the bathrooms, and final touches on all the details, but by the grace of God the projects came together just in time. Our first Bride and Groom of our spring season took some pretty fun pictures in the new spaces on their wedding day, that we will keep forever! I’m sure they weren’t biting their nails wondering if we’d ever get it completed in time.
We will wrap this up for now, with a GIANT thank you to all of our couples for trusting us with your wedding day, for supporting us as we grow our little dream, and to our families and friends that haven’t given up on us, we love you!
