Agresti Acres Adventures

After hanging up my loupes & trading my operatory sneakers for sh!t kicking boots, we have settled on 8+ acres of pure joy.

This is something I have wanted to start writing for over a year now… I am finally able to take about .3 seconds and try to sum up all that we have done & how much my life has changed in the last 24 months.

July 2023 was my last day in the operatory. After 12 years as a dental hygienist, I walked away from my patients, a wonderful practice, & dentists that I loved working for and with. The cost of childcare was getting to be overwhelming and the only way to offset it was for me to work more. I was so torn, I love dentistry and I am very passionate about oral health for all ages. But something was calling me home; my 2 boys. At the time my youngest wasn’t even one, I was nursing [& pumping], up all hours of the night to soothe & was starting to actually dread my work, something I had never felt before.

Jake, my amazing husband, finally looked at me and asked if I would want to stay home with the kids. I thought he was joking at first. Our first date (at 22) he asked me:

1. What my credit score was. 2. If I wanted kids. 3. If yes, how many? 4. Did I plan to be a stay-at-home-mom?

My answers…

1. was higher than his 😉 he dated other girls who did not know how to handle their finances, I was too broke to not know how. Years later we went on to not only pay off our mortgage, but also $180K in student loan debt by my 30th birthday (story for another day).

2. YES!!! A million times, yes!

3. 4 children – he said he wanted “none” and agreed to compromise at 2.

4. Absolutely not. We were in our Spring semester of Senior year of college, I worked for 5 years to obtain my Bachelor’s of Science in Dental Hygiene from West Virginia University, I was not about to NOT WORK! It was what I had studied, trained, and strived for – I had wanted to be a dental hygienist since I was 8!

But here we were, literally losing money monthly for me to keep my sanity at a job that employed me 18 hours a week. My bosses were amazing, they were even entertaining starting an in-office daycare to help me and the other employees. But something kept telling me, cleaning teeth was not where I was supposed to be.

Daycare cost went up 15% & I needed to make a decision quickly. Within 2 weeks. I decided to stay home. I knew I was never going to get this opportunity again and I wanted to give it a try, I knew I could always go back to work. So, I gave my notice and bawled to my bosses over my decision to leave & they were so kind, so understanding, & let me know there was always an operatory for me to come back to.

After a few months of being home with two under 3, I finally got my barings and found a rhythm. I became incredibly passionate about natural and holistic living, and since my oldest was born, I was very passionate about what food he was eating and what was being put on his body. Enter: rabbit holes. I had already made my way down several, but didn’t have enough time to research old ways of doing things, truly natural living, like our ancestors had. As I entered more rabbit holes, I became obsessed with the idea of owning land. I think it was always an idea in my head, but never dreamed I would leave the “dream house” that we just built 1 year earlier.

Jake is a real estate agent, so I lived on the MLS site and was looking at houses all the time for fun. I had dream homes till saved under my Zillow profile, that I knew we were never going to move to. One day, I set up a saved search for land. Anything under 25 acres, within 30 miles of where we were currently. One day later, 8.38 acres, 5 minutes from us came on the market. I knew we had to see it. I showed it to my husband, we packed up the kids, and drove down the road after naptime.

That was it. It was rough, the land overgrown, the yard maintained for the sake of selling the property, but the pasture and road frontage was so overgrown. We pulled up to a single story, red-brick “farm house”. With two HUGE pecan trees out front, a pear tree, 2 apples, 1 peach tree out back, & a small vineyard. It already began to feel like a dream. I knew I was crazy. he seller’s agent let us in so she could explain the property to us and why it was being sold. We walked through the partially enclosed carport to the house. Unlocked the door and walked in to a musty cabin-esque smelling home. The mudroom that we entered was painted neon green; the walls, the cabinets, everything was green & loud. I could see the kitchen, eat in area, and living room. It was wood paneling for as far as I could see. Soooooo much WOOD. & yet, when I walked in to the living room which had linoleum flooring & wood paneling EVERYWHERE, I saw the hearth. I was sold. My eyes welled up with tears; it felt like home. My husband turned to me, knowing that I was going to say I was ready to offer. He knew coming to see this place was a bad idea. We had just moved and built the “dream home” 20 months prior! He knew what kind of work and financial commitment this place was going to be for us to even live in it. We walked through the house, there was a piano in the front sitting room over looking the 5 acres of pasture, there were original hardwood floors throughout, with the exception of the kitchen and living room. It had charm. Sure, it was dated, it smelled funky, but it felt like where we were supposed to raise our babies. We walked the land and even checked out the adjacent 12 acres that was being sold as a separate parcel. It connected to a small, tiny stream and was mostly wooded. I left anxious and giddy that it could be ours.

We went home and discussed, surprisingly my husband was not opposed to writing an offer. I think he knew the potential and knew what kind of life we could live and provide for our kids with land like this. I had chickens and an expansive garden on my mind, he had a gun range and dirt bikes on his. We slept on it and the next day submitted an offer. I was sick to my stomach. I couldn’t sleep that night, I prayed for a sign that this was the right choice, that I wasn’t being rash. After 3 days went by, our offer was accepted.

And so began the packing & redesigning of our 1969 brick farmhouse…