That Scottish Farm.
Renovating a farm steading in South-West Scotland.
Their first reaction was, “Sh!t. We’ve bought a farm”. Now things have settled, the original name for the project has returned: That Scottish Farm, a play on their normal business naming protocol!
Join Jess & Dan as they attempt to transform a dilapidated steading, farmhouse, and workers cottage into a bustling family home, rare-breed “pony palace”, and the base of their businesses.
What in the heck?
We’re Jess & Dan and we’ve jumped into the absolute abyss of home renovation. It really was a case of Shit, we bought a farm… now what!?
The farm we ended up buying is an old dairy-turned-beef cattle farm in Scotland. It’s seen much better days. Because there is no chance of a mortgage at present, we have a special deal with the seller in which we have exactly 2 years from the date of entry to get the property under finance, or we lose the whole lot and end up bankrupt.
On the day we secured the place, Dan said, “Sh!t, we bought a farm.” If you know us from that sentence, then hey, it’s us, but we grew up a bit (a bit, a tiny bit!).
The stakes couldn’t be higher, but we have a plan, a small pot of funding and a vision for where our dream home will end up. The question is, can we do it?
Our Updates:
Who are we?
Jess is a multi-award winning portrait photographer, specialising in dogs, and lives on Yorkshire Tea. She grew up on the Yorkshire Wolds, a rural hilly farming area in England, and has been on or around farms since forever.
Dan is the 6’5” chief content manager, and he lives on “chococrack” – aka, chocolate and hazelnut spread. He’s from the Hull villages really, and this entire project is a massive lifestyle change for him.
We bought a farm because it was Jess’ dream, and because we prefer the peace and quiet of rural life (people are scary!). This farm was all we could afford because it is unmortgageable, but we’ve loved it since the start anyway, thanks to this entrance driveway:
We needed to house 3 horses: A 10-year-old spaniard, a weanling, and a flighty-in-the-stable unbacked 3-year-old. They were arriving on October 16th. The race was on (amongst everything else we were doing at the farm), and the budget was TIGHT.