Before we jump into our “diamond in the rough” farmhouse chapter (and the furry—and not so furry—creatures we found living there 😄), it feels important to pause and honor the family who owned this land for nearly a century. John and Fennie McGuffey settled here in 1923 , and according to the late Ken Pennington—our beloved local historian—they built a small cabin on the property. We have a wonderful photo of John and Fennie from the 1920s standing proudly in front of their h

It all started with one of my typical bouts of insomnia. Wide awake at 3:00 a.m., I grabbed my iPad and started scrolling real estate listings—something I often did to lull myself back to sleep. As I scrolled, I came across a listing for a modest farmhouse with acreage on Lookout Mountain, and something about it made me pause. Bill and I had been scouting properties for years, looking for our “Golden Pond” retirement/weekend getaway. We’d camped at Cloudland Canyon State Park