Behind The Scenes: Life, Projects, and the Real Stuff

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I haven’t shared a behind the scenes post in a while and to be honest, I do miss writing these types of post. Posts that are like journaling, and just putting my thoughts in writing. My time is extremely limited but I do enjoy sharing life behind the pretty pictures, renovation madness and personal updates about my family. So today, is about what’s been happening in our little corner of the world!

If you are new here, we are a multigenerational family living under one roof, going on 15 years! That sounds so insane to even type but it’s our reality.

Imagine living with your mom, dad, son, and fiancé all under one roof. It’s a bit of a circus sometimes, but it’s our circus, and we love it! We’ve got three generations worth of wisdom and support, which is pretty darn amazing.

Mom & Dad Road Trip to Stowe, VT

The last couple years, my parents have been on a mission to travel more. I think it’s my mom feeling like they are getting older and need to travel before they can’t.

family trip to Portugal

They recently took my entire family to Portugal (which was amazing by the way) and have been planning smaller long weekend trips every other month or so.

This past weekend, my parents hit the road for a trip to Stowe, Vermont, to visit my grandparents relatives. For those of you who have been following since the start of the blog, you know that my grandparents also lived with us for almost 8 years before they passed away.

My grandmother still has two sisters who live in Vermont who my parents are close to.

family trip to portugal

My Dad’s Obsession: Lawn Mowing

My dad has embraced partial retirement. Now, he’s a Monday-to-Thurday worker, and he is obsessed with his new John Deere and mowing the law. Yep, he takes that job seriously and our grass has never looked better.

We have a wild turkey that is obsessed with the John Deere tractor!

To be honest, I am thankful he is crazy about the lawn because for the first 3 years we lived in the house, I mowed the lawn and it’s a 3-4 hour process which eats up half the day! I barely have enough time to pee, never mind all the maintenance that goes on around our house.

Thankfully my dad likes the lawn and manages it!

Mom’s Horse Love and Loss

My mom has been retired now for almost 2 years. She loves to head to the horse barn twice a day and care for her horse, DJ. You may remember, she lost one of her ponies to old age about 1.5 years ago but DJ is still thriving, even though he’s almost 30 years old!

weekend plans + cleanup

She is a pet lover of all kinds and took over caring for our remaining 3 chickens and her passion for container gardening keeps her busy around the yard. She gets credit for all the beautiful container flowers around the yard which is due to her 2x a day watering ritual which takes her over an hour each time!

sand color umbrella, brown gray rattan outdoor chaise lounge chairs, pool house, blue striped throw blanket, white plants, green shrubs,paver patio, japanese maple

When they went on vacation to Stowe, I was in charge of the flowers which thankfully it rained every day! ha. Seriously, who has time to water plants for over an hour every day! 🤪

Teen Driving Adventures and My Stress

Okay, so my son got his driver’s license recently, and well, it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions for me. Pride, worry, you name it.

Teaching him to drive (so thankful for Jim for doing many of the lessons because my anxiety just about killed me) created so many flashbacks to when I was a teenager and nobody ever told me that parenting was this difficult!

Sorry, no pictures of “said teen” as I would be a dead mom 🙄.

Jim’s Property & New Business Adventures

My fiance Jim is on a mission! If you are new here, Jim moved in with us over 3 years ago which I’m very thankful for.

yellow split level house black shutters with garage
Jim’s split level was custom inside with vaulted ceilings and open concept – so pretty!

At the time my son was in middle school and us moving, was not an option. So Jim sold his house (below) and joined our multigenerational family under one roof. I actually think he likes our living arrangement more than me sometimes 😂.

When Jim moved here from Foxboro, most of his remodeling client base was in that area. Over time, he has developed a niche in our area purchasing land, building custom ICF homes (he started a new company – more on that below), as well as building custom garages and additions.

Ranch Fixer Upper

Renovating a handful of fixer uppers in the last couple years has also been fun which if you follow us on Instagram, you probably see many of the behind the scenes real-time work.

A peek at the exterior ranch house remodel

The ranch house above is the latest fixer upper that recently sold.

Renovation Projects

On top of all that, he is still continuing his home remodeling business for select kitchen and bath renovations, custom basement remodels (he is currently doing one now that is 1700 square feet, has a movie theater and full kitchen, living room space which is amazing!).

Jim loves basement remodels! 😍

New Business Launch

Needless to say, the man is busy! Jim’s new business adventure entails being the newly appointed New England distributor for SuperForm Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF construction). In layman’s terms, ICF blocks are used to build a custom home vs. traditional wood.

An ICF home or addition is a massively efficient way to build and provides significant energy savings.

We are launching Jim’s new website and hitting the world of google soon so stay tuned for more details.

Land Purchases

Wow, that’s quite a handful, isn’t it? Managing all the tasks mentioned above, including dealing with the subdividing, 7 different lots, surveying, and permitting of the purchased land (which, frankly speaking, is a time-consuming and very expensive endeavor), keeps him fully occupied. Despite the challenges, he remains driven by a vision that fuels his determination. 😍

Out with the Old, In with the New Flip

We recently said goodbye to our ranch house fixer upper and jumped headfirst into renovating a new fixer upper.

It’s a cozy three-bedroom cape-style home in the area where Jim is from. It features 3 bedrooms with two bathrooms, and we’re excited to see the transformation and get it on the market soon.

cozy 3 bedroom 2 bath cape style home

Stay tuned because I will be sharing the entire journey with you soon.

New Hampshire Lake House Getaway

Oh, I almost forgot! We took a break from the hustle and bustle a few weeks ago with a getaway to our slice of heaven at our lake house Airbnb in New Hampshire.

It’s amazing how a change of scenery can recharge your batteries.

The sunrise view from our lake house deck is like no other!

The serene surroundings and cozy lake house were just what the doctor ordered. I never want to leave when we are there!

Me, Upcoming & What’s on the Horizon

I am just trying to keep up and maintain my sanity through this thing called life! Being a mom to a teen boy in this crazy world, juggling my blog which is my full time gig that pays my bills and working part-time wrangling Jimbo’s bookkeeping for his businesses is well, nothing short of insanity 🤪.

I do have some plans that are house related over the next couple months.

Decorating After A Renovation

The next 3 months I plan to get our house decorated.

If you have been following along, you know that the first 4 months of 2023 were all about renovating our kitchen, refinishing the hardwood floors (still need to write blog posts on this) and painting all the dark stained trim and doors, white.

refinished hardwood floors in bona nordic sealer
our red oak floors with Bona nordic seal

What an absolute crazy undertaking but it’s done! Now we have a pretty empty house because my mom and I want to add new area rugs, a new kitchen table set and decor. Needless to say, our budget is tapped out!

Area rugs are first on the priority list but they are expensive so I have been watching sales like a hawk! Decor and furniture are on hold until my bank account re-coops.

Our red oak floors refinished to look like white oak

Decorating after a renovation is stressful, especially on your pocketbook. If you have ever renovated “one” room, you know that always leads to renovating “another” room. It’s like a vicious cycle. In a good way, but still overwhelming.

Your once beloved decor doesn’t always coordinate with your newly renovated space so often times, you find yourself looking for some new decor or furniture.

Making a house a “home” is a long process and unless you have a money tree, takes time to accomplish. Often times, years! I would much rather live with a minimal looking space and save for what we really want.

My mom and I try to coordinate our tastes and decorate with a style that suits us both and thankfully, she is on the same page as me about waiting.

You can see all of our Mediterranean home renovation projects here.

New Website

Four Generations One Roof has a brand new website coming in about a week so be on the look out for that.

I’ve been working with a web designer for weeks and has been in the making for almost 2 months now.

I’m pretty excited about the rebranding and new design! Here is a peek below of the new modern and fresh logo.

Jim’s new website and business brand will be launched hopefully by the end of the year. Once mine is complete, I can focus on his. It’s going to be amazing!

Thanks for being a part of our journey! I’ll try to do these posts more often as I know my faithful followers love them ❤️.


Meet Jessica

What started as a hobby, Jessica’s blog now has millions of people visit yearly and while many of the projects and posts look and sound perfect, life hasn’t always been easy. Read Jessica’s story and how overcoming death, divorce and dementia was one of her biggest life lessons to date.

8 Comments

  1. Ann sammis says:

    Nice to hear what’s going on in your life. Glad everything is going well. Can’t wait to hear the next chapter

  2. diane lavoie says:

    Beautiful and exciting things coming in your future and shared with us.

  3. Beth Prokopf says:

    Wait Jessica, how can your son have his drivers license? He was just a little guy when I started following you!

  4. I enjoy seeing all the renovations and your decorating techniques. It’s such a gift! See you soon- Linda McT

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