Bliss Farm

Lifestyle

Before Abode, before the spec homes and design portfolios, there was Bliss Farm and Retreat.

It was my first big leap — a 50-acre dream in Barnardsville that I bought with my late husband in 2016. We put everything we had into that land: time, money, vision, sweat.

It was our home, our livelihood, and my first real estate development from the ground up.

The property came with a 3,600-square-foot farmhouse, two barns, logging roads, and a beautiful pond. We remodeled the house top to bottom: new tile, all new appliances, a concrete countertop we poured ourselves, refinished wood floors, updated bathrooms, and light fixtures.

Every dollar counted. We couldn’t replace every cabinet, so we made strategic decisions — like keeping the good bones and elevating the details.

Outside, we built a yoga deck from ipe wood with a mountain view, strung café lights across it, and carved a road into the hillside using a barter system with a guy who sold boulders.

We put in two custom-built cabins, a bathhouse, and platforms for bell tents — each furnished like a boutique guest suite. We added a dining deck, fire pits, and picnic tables for gatherings. Mature landscaping framed it all with grace. It felt sacred.

The aesthetic was always rooted in calm — spa-like, earthy, textural. I learned how to design for retreat energy, how to build experiences that people felt in their bones.

We hosted events, rented it out, managed guests, and lived on site. I learned about flow. Operations. Maintenance. Capacity. Boundaries.

Bliss Farm taught me how to stretch a dollar, scale a vision, and stay grounded. It was part real estate, part heart project, part spiritual training ground. I eventually sold it — not because I had to, but because I was ready to let that chapter close. Bliss Farm wasn’t just my first development. It was the foundation of everything that came next.