A little house on a large property in California cultivates the perfect farmhouse lifestyle for this family of six.
When you spend most of your time outside, it’s ok if your house is small—even if you have a large family. That’s the case for blogger and shop owner Rendi Trent of The Vintage Bucket. She and her husband Andrew live with their four children in an 840-square-foot house, on a 2-acre property in Northern California.
Deciding to Stay
840 square feet may seem too small for a family with 4 children, but the property has a lot more going on than just the main house. And it was the entire family that made a conscious decision to stay. “[Our four kids] chose to stay here,” Rendi says. “We looked at a huge 2 story house downtown with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. We told them, we can stay in the house we’re in and remodel, and you’ll all share a room, but we’ll have all that property. Or we can buy the bigger home with no outdoor space. And they unanimously chose to stay with the outdoor space.”
The well house stores the property’s well, and it has an outdoor pump. Rendi added a stone basin on a rustic table to add farm cottage charm to the spot.
The main house isn’t the only building on the property. The Trents have also built or remodeled their numerous other outbuildings, including the carriage house (a guest house they rent out); the chapel (a storage shed); the chicken coop; the well house (which houses the property’s well); the garden shed; the barn; and the gift shop.
The property is also home to more than just the Trent family; it’s a working hobby farm. “My children all participate in 4H and FFA,” Rendi says. Their current animal residents include nine chickens and one dog. “The animal landscape rotates,” Rendi says. “We’ve had horses and steers, goats and rabbits.” Besides the animals, Rendi also tends the property’s orchard, which they open seasonally for visitors to come pick their own fruits and even pecans. “There was all this stuff we couldn’t do in town that we could do here,” Rendi says. So they stayed.
Main House Remodel
Knowing they were going to be on the property long-term, Rendi and Andrew did a full remodel to the main house in 2019. The tiny home had been built in 1954, and it needed a lot of updates. “We took it down to the studs,” Rendi says. “The only thing still existing is the metal roof, most of the studs and the floor joists. Everything else we redid.” Rendi’s husband, Andrew, is an electrician, and Rendi’s family growing up was in the construction industry. “We were able to do 90 percent of the work,” she says. “Andrew, with the help of two of my cousins, did all the structural work. We did have a plumber come in, and an HVAC guy.”
The living room is part of the home’s great room, which includes the dining room and kitchen as well. The open floor plan makes the space feel larger, which is ideal in a small home. “We spend 90 percent of our indoor time in that room,” Rendi says.
Rendi also did the interior design herself. “I used to be a project manager for an architectural firm, so I knew what I liked,” she says. “I grew up in a small home, so I knew how important space planning was for small places.” She planned the home with lots of storage options, closed cabinets and a subtle color palette to keep things open and airy. “[My style is] a combination between traditional cottage and a European farmhouse,” Rendi says.
Just inside the front door is a tiny mudroom area that houses the family’s shoes. “There was this little tiny side porch, 4 x 8 feet,” Rendi says. “Our shoes were always falling off. So I enclosed the walls and made it into a mini mudroom. That bench opens up for shoes, and now our shoes don’t get rained on.”
Between the expert planning and organization and a love of the outdoors, the home is everything Rendi wants for her family. “I love living small,” she says. “You get to spend so much time together.”
Serving as wall décor in the living room are guitars the family uses on a regular basis. “Music is very important to our family,” Rendi says. “Three of our four children play the piano, and two of our children play the guitar. My husband plays the guitar and the piano.” The piece is a hand-me-down from Rendi’s sister, which Rendi repaints on a regular basis. “It’s been four different colors,” she says.Instead of mounting the kitchen sink inside the lower cabinets like most people do, Rendi got creative. “I always wanted an apron front sink, and I love the way sinks look on a table,” she says. “I salvaged those legs and we built that table for the sink.” A small curtain hides practical kitchen supplies.The kitchen is open to the dining area for a family-friendly feel. Rendi maximized the space with a cabinet-to-ceiling pantry, but kept the open feel by having no upper cabinets. “I took them all out and did counter to ceiling cabinets or pantries,” she says. “I only have one open shelf. For small spaces, you have to utilize the floor to the ceiling.”The only main footprint change Rendi and Andrew made to the small house was to add a big front porch. “I always wanted a porch that went across the house,” Rendi says. “My husband entirely built the porch himself, it took him months because he didn’t have any help. On the day he finished, I got home and he had written in Sharpie across the rafters a love note to me.”The garden shed was already on the property when the family bought it, but it was a mess. “It was a dark, horrible pit when we first bought it,” Rendi says. “We all hated going in there. I wanted to ‘Rendi-fy’ it. The floor was concrete and there wasn’t anything I could do without spending too much money, so I painted it with garage epoxy paint.” Rendi also made charming décor out of garden tool storage with a peg rail. “We need so many tools for the orchard, so all of them are working tools.”Inside the gift shop, Rendi designed a farmhouse-friendly space that shows off her style as well as being practical for the center of her business. “We bought stock cabinets from Home Depot, and a stock butcherblock countertop,” she says. “Those were all bare walls, and I installed [and painted] the shiplap.”In Rendi and Andrew’s bedroom is plenty of functional storage space, as well as the washer and dryer. “Everything I’ve done is to maximize space,” Rendi says. “We have lots and lots of built-ins. I designed the cabinets around the furniture so I knew the furniture would fit in between.”The bedroom where Rendi and Andrew sleep is not the primary bedroom—they gave that to their four kids. In this bedroom, Rendi maximized the space by adding floor-to-ceiling miniature closets on either side of the bed. “They’re only two feet wide,” she says. “I don’t keep a lot of clothes because trends change, life changes. We have very small closets for all of us. Laundry is a lot easier.”Rendi’s four kids (ages 19, 16, 12 and 9) share the primary bedroom. “They share well,” she says. “It’s a very organic communication. When you grow up that way, you just know how to rotate and take turns, and you always knock before you come in. I love it for my kids because they all know how to share, to be patient and wait.” Rendi hung colorful balls and skateboards as décor that’s also functional.The home has one bathroom, so Rendi designed it with farm cottage charm as well as functionality. “The ceiling is tongue and groove cedar,” she says. “It was left over from a construction job, and my friend knew me, so he brought it to me and I kept it for several months until we did this remodel project.”One of the outdoor areas the Trent family uses regularly is this courtyard between the main house and the garden shed. “We built this whole area to host people,” Rendi says. “We always host outside, because our house can’t fit anyone. When we have smaller parties, we host there.” She and Andrew made the table from a tree they took down on the property, and it can seat 16 people. For any larger events the family hosts (like weddings), they move to the property’s pasture.The chicken coop is a new outbuilding Rendi and Andrew built since moving onto the property. “We built it out of the fence we took down when we moved here,” Rendi says. “It’s made of 100% recycled products.” Rendi keeps chickens year-round.The Vintage Bucket is the name of the Trents’ “you pick” orchard business. Rendi opened a gift shop to go along with it. “I open it for markets or when the produce is ripe for picking,” she says. “We have over 30 different types of produce, and we sell décor in there. The kids love the picking, but the moms love the shopping.”
