Autumn at the Farmhouse (with a vintage truck!)

There hasn’t been much time lately for decorating the farmhouse, but when our friend Kim Balson Photography asked if she could park a 1955 Chevy Pickup Truck on our front lawn for some photoshoots, I couldn’t resist heading into town for pumpkins and mums and cutting down some cornstalks from the garden.

Kim took some pictures for us while she was here. I am always the one behind the camera (that’s my comfort zone!) but it’s nice to have someone else take them for a change.

My goofy gang came out for some pictures too. They loved having a truck parked out front, ha!

The girls are growing like crazy lately. Lucy turned four in the spring and Rosie turned two earlier this week. In these strange times, I’ve been so glad they have each other. We’ve spent all summer working together out in the flower field with my mom, and now that we’re heading back inside for the colder months, I’m glad they play together so well.

Almost a year ago, we updated the porch by adding a cedar tongue-and-groove ceiling. You can see the “before” last fall and the “after” when I decorated the porch for Christmas. Garrett also fixed the front of the concrete on the porch this summer and it made a huge difference. Our house has been around for 117 years and we’re doing everything we can to keep it looking great while we’re the caretakers.

Just to show how far the farmhouse has come, this is what it looked like back in 2015 when we moved in. I almost can’t believe it’s the same house!

Since then, we’ve painted the whole exterior, fixed the beams and post, added stairs, repaired the old screendoor, built the shutters. and cleaned up the garden. We did the majority of the work that first summer (before we had kids!) and then every year since we’ve worked away at it some more.

The one improvement I’ve been debating for next summer, is painting the risers on these front steps, kind of like this porch I pinned. The original plan when we first painted the house was to do the steps as well, but then we learned that our beloved dog Whiskey likes to launch himself off the stairs and leaves little scratches. It would have looked awful if we’d painted the tops of the steps, but now I’ve been debating doing at least a bit of paint on the risers. It’ll have to wait until the warm weather returns next spring, so I have some time to think about it, ha!

This was such a fun photoshoot and it’s made me want to have a vintage truck someday, just to park around the house, ha! My dad had a 1955 Chevy Pickup when I was in my twenties that we had roadtripped back from Texas, along Route 66. He eventually sold it to my uncle who restored it. You can see the before in 2010 and the after in 2013 of the restoration.