Design Real Talk: Ohio Edition - This Old House

Sometimes We Have No Idea What We are Getting Into!

December 2025

It started innocently enough. After years of looking, we found what we thought was the perfect little home away from home in beautiful Holmes County, Ohio. What was once an original cabin built in the 1960s had been added onto and modified over time—nothing unusual, nothing alarming… or so we thought.

A funny side note that would later prove very important: we purchased this house fairly sight unseen. I was probably still hopped up on new-baby hormones, but I had to have it. My in-laws did a FaceTime walkthrough for us, but the signal was terrible, so we only caught glimpses—corners of rooms, blurry ceilings, a lot of frozen images and "it seems nice."

Then we drove six hours to see it in person… only to find out the tenant hadn’t been notified and refused to let us inside. So it goes. I still wanted the house.

After the inspection, reality began to creep in. We knew there were issues—the center beam supporting the front of the house was slowly sinking into the ground, with no concrete footer beneath it. There had been years of neglect, poorly trained pets, a rodent infestation, and plenty more lurking just below the surface.

And that’s when the real story began.

We decided to start with what was necessary - fix the beam, gut the main floor bathroom and update paint and flooring. But of course, as soon as we started to open things up, we were finding surprises. I also didn't realize that if you stood at the sink, you couldn't open the dishwasher with how the kitchen was configured. So that got added to the list!

The whole front facade needed to be re-thought, which led us to delete the four seasons room altogether and make it part of the interior. But again, the more we opened, the more problems we found.

• There were additional unsupported footers under the sub flooring

• Areas of sub flooring were rotted

• Years of cobbles and band-aids were fully exposed

• Oh, and did I mention animals had ripped through our HVAC system, so heat was just blowing under the house

  

  Floor joists with destroyed critter eaten hvac underneath

  

  Support beam delicately balancing on a cinder block stacked on another cinder block

  

  Floor joists with lots of cobbled pieces to get thickness and sizing - poor construction

  

  Ohio home with support structure nightmares

  

  Ohio home with structural issues under construction

  

  Ohio home construction nightmare - this old house

  We learned many lessons with this home, and have continued to. Anyone that has an older home should always be aware that you never truly know what's behind the walls...but this was a real gem!

  
  

All of that to say we had a year of lots of ups, downs and unexpecteds but ultimatately, this home has become everything I ever dreamed. I look forward to many more years of family time and happy memories being made here. And will never forget what we went through to get it to where it is!

Boucle sofa in neutral tone with antique magazine rack

Ohio home makeover green kitchen with navy blue accent chair

Cozy ohio family room with blue striped ottomans and neutral sofa

Have you had a nightmare experience?! Or just enjoy hearing about the before and afters, and all it takes to get there? Tell me all about it in the comments.

Xxo,

Laura