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Blog #1 Dream, dare and do!
Maybe a bit naive, but we, Chris & Anke, were convinced that we could take on this adventure together.
Dreams, about living close to nature. In a farmhouse, with some space around the door.
Who doesn't dream of this? Inspired by TV programmes such as 'Ik Vertrek'. You just have to dare, leave your job, speak the language or not, no friends and family nearby, that is a bridge too far for us.
The search for a farm with opportunities to make dreams come true had been going on for some time. In 2017 we got the key to the farm in Boijl.
Around us we received various reactions. Where do you start? An old, dilapidated farmhouse with a lot of leaks and a poor state of repair. Not to mention asbestos in the whole roof.
Even the contractor said:
You have to have courage to do this'.
What a dirty job, removing the 100-year-old stop reeds in the roof boarding.
In 2017, we stripped the entire farm. At one point, only the old outer walls and the original trusses were still standing. A contractor hammered the new roof on in the traditional manner.
We cleaned and sorted the tiles one by one.
When you're demolishing so much, you almost think, just knock down the last part of the old farmhouse too.
During the first part of the renovation, we lived partly in the farmhouse and partly in the mobile home. As far as I am concerned, I would never want to live in a mobile home again, brrrrrr.... how cold!
For the winter of 2017 we had the roof closed again, we could move back to the farmhouse. That did mean camping in the farmhouse.
Filled with enthusiasm, not understanding where others would see problems, we set to work. We learned a lot. Every spare hour was spent on the renovation, and now, almost five years later, we look back on these years with pride. The end of the renovation is in sight. Privately we live lovely in the back of the farmhouse, on the first floor are 3 beautiful guest rooms ready.
The end result of the guest rooms' is even more beautiful than what we had in mind.
We are going to fulfil our dream of living on a farm in beautiful surroundings. The farm is of course much too big for the two of us. The idea was, to start a bed and breakfast, which we have already started a little. This beautiful place, a small paradise (in Frisian: Lyts Paradys) to live, we like to share with our guests.