Meet Ashley at A Forty Year-Old Ranch

It's time to "meet" another one of the followers here at The Hand Me Down House!  YAY!  I have just loved visiting all your blogs and sharing your projects and stories with everyone!  I'm slowly but surely getting through all your submissions -- so don't worry -- you'll all be introduced soon! :)

Today I'd like you to meet to Ashley at A Forty Year-Old Ranch.

Ashley and her hubby bought a ...... can you guess!?  A forty year-old ranch three years ago and have been fixing it up ever since.  And right from Ashley's blog -- here's her story:

"My husband and I set out to look for a home with "character" that we could fix up three years ago. We were living in a newer house that was hard to infuse ourselves into. And truth be told, it just never felt like home to us.

We saw the forty year-old ranch the day it came on the market. We had always loved the subdivision and when it came available our realtor called us immediately. I walked out of the house and swore to my husband that we would never own it. It was cluttered and dirty. It needed more updating than I thought we could ever possibly do. But it had everything we wanted in a home. As hard as I tried to fight it, I was always pulled back to this house. We prayed about it long and hard and both knew that was where we were supposed to be. We decided this on a Friday evening. The next Saturday morning, our house sold and that evening we put an offer in.

Less than two weeks later, we pulled the moving truck into the driveway of our new home. We cleaned our butts off, and started the renovations the day after we moved in by ripping out some old carpet. We haven't stopped since. It's our home, the only home our children have ever known. Its the place where, hopefully, all of their memories will be. And the safe place we can all come to, when life gets a little too scary. Home. This is OUR home."

I LOVE stories like this!  Wonderful homeowners that come in and save a house and make it beautiful again.  And here is their forty year-old ranch:

Adorable, right!?!  Wait 'til you see some of the things they've done to it!

This is one of my favorites on Ashley's blog -- I thought it was an amazing transformation the second I saw it!  Here's their playroom before:

And ohmygosh the AFTER (absolutely gorgeous!)  It doesn't even look like the same room, right!?!

The best part of it is, they have a very discretely sectioned off play area behind the sofa:

Genius!  You can read more about their living room redo by clicking here.

Another area they recently redid was the laundry room -- this laundry room almost makes me want to actually do laundry :)

Here's their before (which looks like mine currently ...... ):

And look at their awesome redo!

And get this -- they spent $59.00! YES -- that's it for an amazing makeover! 

You can catch up on their laundry redo here.

Ashley also does lots of decorating with vintage finds and crafting with them too -- such as this awesome door they put in for their office -- LOVE this door!  It reminds me of my great-grandma's farm house when I was little:

And check out these cute pears she made with vintage sheet music -- adorable!

Thank you SO much, Ashley for sharing your blog and your Forty Year-Old Ranch with us!  I'm just in love with your house -- don't be surprised if you find me at your door with my suitcases soon! :)

Be sure to stop by A Forty Year Old Ranch and say "hi" to Ashley! :)

Do you want to introduce YOUR blog to us?  Get the details, here.