Let’s do some quick introductions… I’m Leslie Zook (formerly Banke), and you are… AWESOME! Thanks for checking out my blog. I am so excited that you are here! Hopefully stay and you enjoy the Journey with us as we live life, remodel a family farmhouse, run a business, and survive it all!!
A little backstory to get started I moved into family the farmhouse in 2014. The farmhouse is where my dad grew up and it has been in the family for over 60 years. Originally combined there was 100 acres with forest, farm land and a home with shops or outbuildings. So from living in town my whole life to moving into the country it was a big change, especially when you’re living by yourself!
Country living quickly set in, from having well water, to having to conserve the well water water, to mice in the house (oh HECK NO), to getting a cat (Welcome to the farm Raven) to help with the mice…, to loosing power with crazy storms the list goes on and on. BUT with it came incredible sunrises, peace, quiet and space!!
Now let’s talk about this house… it’s been through quite a bit!! Structurally it’s already been added on to/remodeled a few times and it’s still only a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom 1200 sq ft home as it stands now. For a single girl in their mid 20’s with her cat (at the time of moving in) it was perfect and comfortable! Fast forward to 2017, I meet Joshua Zook (my now husband). We get married in 2019 and I instantly become a “bonus mom” to Jaz! As you can imagine the house gets just a little smaller feeling… oh and we added another cat (Coco), a dog (Joey) and two bunnies (next blog post is all about them)!
It’s now 2023 and a lot has happened in these last four short years! Including buying the 5.6 acres that the family farmhouse sits on!
A year ago August, Josh getting his general contractors license and starting Elevated Handyman & Construction LLC. I still can’t believe it’s been a year and wow we’ve been blessed!!! We had no idea if it was going to take off or crash and burn but we jumped right in with tons of faith! We now have 3 employees and are rocking it!
Josh and I have been having tons of conversations about this house, what is our future for the farm and we decided (after TONS of hours of research of options, and I mean toms – like everything from selling, buying a manufactured home to building a stick built brand new) to go down the journey of doing a remodel! Hence the blog! We can’t wait to share this adventure with you!
Welcome to Acres Away!!
Oh I’m so excited about this and the adventure that awaits. So fun!
Thank you!! We are excited about this as well – mostly the end result! lol But yes it will be an adventure through the process!