Building Grove House: The Beginning
So…we bought property in a beautiful citrus grove. After searching for about two years to find another house, we've decided to build our own custom home. It's just now starting to sink in that this adventure is really happening and we're looking forward to all the hard (but rewarding) work ahead. And in sharing our journey with you.
Since we're going to have to clear some of the trees for the house and additional building, we invited our friends and family over for an Orange Picking Day. We wanted to try and harvest as much as we could from the trees that are slotted for removal.
Let me just say….there are a LOT of oranges! And we barely, barely scratched the surface. We're going to donate hundreds of pounds to local food banks and shelters because we hate to waste such perfectly ripe, delicious fruit.
I knew everyone would need a break and some lunch since we planned to be there for the whole day. So I set up an old Boy Scout folding table with wrapped sandwiches and finger foods. Things that would be easy to grab and go.
We made fast friends with the dogs that live on the remaining grove property and Cashew was everyone's favorite. He's still in that puppy stage and is very playful and curious.
After lunch, it was back to picking….
My sister had picked up a bunch of potato sacks at a yard sale just a week earlier and they sure came in handy. We ended up picking over 1,100 lbs!
There's so much ahead of us and our day set us off on a memorable start. Spending it harvesting with family and friends is the perfect beginning to building Grove House.
I'm looking forward to sharing the design process with you as we finalize those plans. We're meeting again with our architect this week. I've been waking up at night writing notes on my phone of things I forgot to mention or new details I want to add. There's just so many details.
In the meantime, we'll continue to harvest the trees and I'll be juicing, freezing, canning and making anything and everything with oranges! Have any great recipes?
57 Responses to “Building Grove House: The Beginning”
I see marmalade in your future…What a wonderful thing! To live in an Orange Grove, what a delight.
Congratulations! I can’t wait to see what you do!!! Loved the orange picking story too! xoxo
I wish you and yours a lot of luck. It’s such a shame that those trees have to be taken down. But, I know that you will do your best to save what you can. I wish I lived closer.. my Mom makes orange marmalade every year. Enjoy the fruits of your labor!
xxx Liz
An adventure ahead, indeed! Do you have a juicer?
We feel the same about the trees. Wish we didn’t have to remove any. We’re taking steps to save absolutely as many as possible. And from the ones that will be removed, some will be given away for others to transplant in their gardens and the remaining will be used for firewood. Waste not, want not is my husbands motto.
Most people just tear them out without a care as to how to save or use them. Kind of sad.
We feel so fortunate to have so many! 🙂
Haha! Yes, but we’ve learned it’s MUCH too small for our needs now. We’ll be needing to buy something more heavy duty.
Our little one has been going non-stop for days! 😉
I haven’t seen orange groves like that in years! I think I’ve mentioned to you before that I used to live in California… almost bought a house in Riverside before moving to Nebraska. My dad was an electrician… when we were kids we’d go for Sunday drives to the orange groves and he’d show us the areas new building where were popping up that he was working on. Thanks for the memories! Enjoy your new adventure! I’m sure the house will be amazing!
Laurie 🙂
OH how wonderful! Orange recipes & ideas??? Well you could send out early Christmas presents to your friends and family who live in other parts of the country… when we lived in Florida friends of ours always sent out boxes of citrus from their grove. we make jelly, marmalade, juice, freeze them (yes I freeze whole oranges/lemons/limes to use later for the zest & juice. used to live in Alaska where we only shopped every 4 to 6 weeks during the winter because of road conditions & travel times plus a full freezer uses less energy than a partially empty one. there would always be citrus on clearance so we would buy it up! leftovers were frozen before they rotted… I’ve also made marmalade from our frozen citrus with no issues.)
Congratulations! It will be heavenly living with all those orange trees around you!!! Ah the memories!
How exciting Heather! I can’t wait to see what you guys have planned, you have such great style I’m sure it will be amazing 🙂
We have pictures when we were kids living in California taken in orange groves like that…so pretty! And how fun to be planning a new house build on such a wonderful piece of property. Even though we love our location now, our house isn’t what we would have built ourselves, so I’m just crazy enough to be looking for someplace where we can build…event though we just completed a whole house reno a few years ago! Enjoy the process!
Kat
How exciting! It looks beautiful there! Best of luck to you!!
I grew up on an orange grove in Orange County, CA. and there is nothing like the smell of all the orange blossoms…still live in the OC, and miss the orange groves all the time!!!
I am so excited for you and your husband! What a dream come true and the setting is spectacular! I am giddy to see what you will be doing. Congratulations!
What a wonderful journey. We built our home and still love our design.
I will love following your every step.
Your beautiful pics let me smell the orange blossoms. I remember traveling through groves like that when I grew up in S Cali. Ahhhhh!
What an incredibly fun announcement!
To live among all those orange trees is going to be a treat, not
counting the beautiful new home.
I know the chickens are excited! Will you move their current home?
These pics are just so lovely – and the dog is CUTE!
Congrats Heather, what a beautiful locale and such an adventure ahead. How wonderful it will be to walk out your front door when it’s all finished a pick fresh oranges on your own property. Wow.
I envision many blog posts documenting the process along the way and I look forward to seeing it all unfold in your lovely photos.
What a nice setting for your pretty chicken coop too.
Enjoy your day.
Such a Blessing for sure! Excited to see your updates along the way.I can’t even imagine how fabulous it would be to be able to grow your own Oranges & other Fruits.Beautiful Photos! ~Cheers & Blessings Kim
Thanks for the freezing tips Peggy! I had no idea and will definitely try this.
Yes, the girls will be coming too. And we get to add more, yay!
How very exciting!!! Love the planning and dreaming stage of building. We camped out and had a weanie roast at our present homesite. Not quite as glamorous but memorable all the same. Can’t wait to see your plans unfold! Congratulations!
The very first house I lived in when I moved to CA, before I was married {1994} was 1920’s cottage. There was an orange tree in the yard, being from Ohio this was the oddest thing–have fond memories of picking & eating CA oranges.
Enjoy your home building process…..
Warmest wishes//kara
I live in an old orange orchard neighborhood…everyone has orange trees!!
Unfortunately, that last cold snap was brutal on the orange tree in our yard. Our grapefruits should be extra sweet this spring, cold spells are good for them.
We always freeze orange juice, we literally have orange juice year round.
It takes up a lot of room in the freeze but so worth it. Mimosas for everyone!
Oh my goodness,
How exciting for you and your family Heather!!!
That is a lot of oranges, but so wonderful that your donating some to the local shelters and food banks.
I can not wait to see all of the progress on your new home, and I love the name, “Grove House”!!
Have a lovely week.
Sincerely,
Melinda
Oh my! How exciting!!!! I love the pictures as I always do! I cannot wait to see everything you come up with! I just know its going to be beautiful! You have an amazing eye for beauty!
Heather,
How exciting and what a beautiful spot…we used to live in North Irvine before they took out most of the orange groves. The blossoms would scent the night during blooming season.
This will be fun following along, congratulations.
Karen
How incredibly exciting! It is a shame to remove all the trees but so happy all the oranges are being put to good use instead of just being thrown out. What a fun adventure!
Loved seeing pics of your current home…can’t wait to see pics from the new one!
Can almost smell the blossoms!
I’m sorry, but is it not possible to find a plot of land without destroying a citrus orchard in the process? I find this so sad.
Thanks Diana! But we are not removing ALL the trees. Only a very small portion. We bought the property because of the trees are are keeping as many as we can. The grove portion we bought would have all been destroyed had a developer bought it.
Hi Samantha…We are not removing ALL of the trees. As I mentioned in my previous comment above, we are only removing a small portion. We are keeping as many trees as we can. The grove would have been entirely destroyed had a developer bought it. We are at least keeping the integrity and heritage of the grove alive with the land we purchased.
Sorry you believe we are destroying an entire orchard in the process but you couldn’t be more wrong. Hope this answer helps to clarify things and we can move onto happy thoughts of a lovely place to call home….orange trees and all.
I know your new place is going to be beautiful as you just have the “touch”. But now it’s going to smell heavenly as well. There’s nothing like it. Maybe you can have a roadside stand with some of your surplus oranges. 😉 Are you staying fairly close to your current home or having to move a distance? I have a friend whose Father lives in the middle of an orange grove. No, I think it’s lemons. He lives in the same area you do currently, I believe. It must be a great citrus area. I’m surrounded by avocados down here.
Congratulations,
Karen
congrats to you on the start of building your new home! it will be so gorgeous with your “stamp” all over it, how exciting for you. hope to see it in the pages of Country Living someday!!
those oranges look wonderful and it’s a great idea to donate the fruit before taking some of the trees down. oh, and your lunch set-up was styled to perfection…you are my styling hero!
Oh how fantastic for you Heather, I can’t wait to see your new home develop. are you staying in Murrieta? It will truely be Country Living at it’s finest. We have a apple tree, an orange tree and a grafted lemon/orange tree, never have I seen anything like it. Love my oranges and lemons…congrats on your purchase.
Very very excited for you and your new adventure! Will be so much fun to tag along too. Love your thoughts on saving the grove!
Well, I guess you can tell by the number of comments that we are all very excited about this new venture of yours. My hat is off to you for recycling everything and donating to the food bank. I just made a mexican white bean soup the other night that had orange citrus in it. Very easy and extremely good. Here is the link…
http://www.recipe.com/mexican-white-bean-soup/. I am not much of an orange eater, but what about soem premade smoothies you could freeze? In any case, I love your sense of adventure!
Best,
Molly
Congratulations! Looks like a beautiful dream come true!!!
i love the orange trees they are lovely. What a wonderful time for you all, I’m sure your home will be just beautiful. I wish I could come and get one of those trees to replant, but I’d have to move myself 🙂 Take care, Susan
I am so excited for you to be embarking on this adventure…truly will be living vicariously threw you!….
Oh, how wonderful….this will be so much fun traveling along with you
as you build your home on this orange grove. We have one orange tree and it is keeping me very busy…..we always give a lot of them away. Our orange tree is a Valencia orange tree…nothing like freshly squeezed
orange juice in the mornings, of course with lots of pulp…yum…
Corinne
I am thrilled for you. I know you’ll savor this journey.
Having grown up with orange trees around our home, I know the heavy perfume you’re enjoying among those beautiful trees! My dad used to make heavenly ice cubes using some of the blossoms, they’re amazing in sparkling mineral water.
Looking forward to updates on your dream home. Just have amazing fun!
xoxo~Tracie
I’m not much of a cook, but do love a orange spiked Chocolate chip cookie from The Joy of Cookie. Using orange zest and juice was listed as an alternative to the classic CCC recipe. (I also add pecans to the cookies)
Also like to use zest/juice in with the egg mixture when making French toast. Could you freeze juice + zest in ice cube trays to pop out as needed?
Oh, and I’m thinking a Grove House series in Country Living ala Frances Schulz’s darling Bee Cottage featured in House Beautiful…
Oops, Joy of Cooking!
Congratulations!!! I can’t wait to follow along on your exciting journey. I bet the scent in the grove is intoxicating. Thanks for sharing the photos, they certainly helped brighten a dreary winter day in MN 🙂
Oh how it must smell! What a great adventure you are in for I wish you all the best! Good for you for donating the excess a lovely gesture. Mimosa’s sound good to me!
Thank you for clarifying about your tree removal plans — these explanations weren’t there when I read your original post, and I’m glad you’re preventing a developer from buying the land. I grew up near a large peach orchard and the land was bought, the trees were cut down to put up an apartment building, and then they named the complex Peachtree Apartments (sic). Joni Mitchell’s song has been ingrained in my head ever since.
So exciting! I’m in California too, and love our citrus trees! ( and our vines of course! *wink ). Where abouts are you? southern Ca?
We also built our dream home, but moved my parents into it for a while since its quite far into the woods. Good luck on your journey, and one piece of advice…make your voice heard if there is something you want in the house. Some things we stayed back out of the way to keep job on schedule, and wish I would’ve stepped up and made certain things happen better! Some things you must have, and some things can wait till later! It’s a wonderful ride!
How very exciting! I can’t wait to see your talent and creativity poured out into your new home!
Congratulations Heather and family on your new adventure. I’m looking forward to reading all about it in the coming months. We are moving to another state (in Australia) to 28 acres and building our dream home in 3 years and the planning with architects has been very enjoyable. Have fun with all those oranges and I hope you find sme good recipes to use!
I seriously could not be more excited for you Heather! I can’t wait to watch it all unfold.
I’ve always wanted to try the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for chocolate chip orange pound cake.
What an absolutely amazing location….I will be looking forward to the process!
Your Grove House’s beginning is such beautiful. When you compleite this it may look wonderful. I am waiting for this. And best wishes to you.
It looks like a gorgeous piece of property and that little Cashew is adorable! Can you keep him?? ;-))
Dear Heather,
Congrats! ON your next chapter! I have always enjoyed your blog and your photos…transporting me to dreamy places. Looking forward to hearing/reading and seeing your ideas which I’m sure you have many for your new digs..Again, please share your ideas for the home. Enjoy the journey as we enjoy watching each project unfold.
The smell of orange blossoms…nothing like it in the whole wide world.
Building a home smack dab in the middle of an orange grove would be pure heaven for me.
Looking forward to following you along on the journey!
xo Lisa
p.s. I’m adding your wonderful Souvenier to my magazine rack at TLPC!
Congratulations, what an exciting journey to begin. I can’t wait to follow and see what creative things you come up with. Best of luck!
Best wishes to a dream come true! The orange grove is just beautiful. I am glad to hear you are saving as much of it as possible. How lucky you are to be in the midst of an orange grove. Heavenly!!!
Comments are closed.