Family Buys Abandoned 1910s Schoolhouse in Their Hometown. After 3 Years of Massive Renovations, They’re Moving In (Exclusive)

• Stacie and Sean returned to their hometown after 10 years in New York City
• The two decided to tackle turning a local schoolhouse from the 1930s into a home for their family of four
• Stacie tells PEOPLE about the highs and lows of the process and what it’s like after having moved in this fall

A couple is documenting their return to their hometown, where they’ve turned a schoolhouse into the perfect home for their family of four.

After both growing up in Franklin, Ind., Stacie and her husband Sean, found across social media @schoolhousehomestead, moved to New York City in 2012, living there for 10 years before coming back home.

“When the pandemic hit, my husband was working in hospitals in The Bronx and it was just like a really intense time. Then we had our son and I was like, ‘You know what? I want to move back to our hometown.’ While we were talking about it, the house came up,” Stacie tells PEOPLE.

“We both remember driving by the school when we were growing up. It was just like something where you look out the window as a kid and just wonder, ‘Who gets to live there?’ It just so happened that it went for sale right when we were serious about looking for houses — that’s kind of how we found it.”

The project would be a big undertaking and, to a degree, a leap of faith. Stacie and Sean were still on the East Coast when they were considering the purchase, relying on the help of her parents to look at the building and assess.

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“We actually didn’t see the school in person before we put in an offer. My parents went and walked through for us. I expected my dad to be like, ‘No, you’re insane, you can’t.’ But he was really like, ‘I think you can figure this out,’ ” she recalls.

Stacie explains that while the building are old and in need of “a ton of work,” the bones are in great shape.

“The foundation and structure of the building are very sturdy. It’s an enormous brick building. A lot of contractors that have come here are like, ‘When the tornadoes come, I’m coming here,’ So I think it was surprising that lot of the real foundation of the building was very solid because of the masonry structure,” she shares.

The building hasn’t operated as a school since the 1930s. It was purchased in the 1950s by a family who had done some preservation work in the decades they maintained it. When Stacie and Sean arrived in Indiana, they were faced with what the project would entail.

“We basically had to bring it down to its bones and build a new house inside. We knew that going in and we were up for that. We both wanted an old, quirky house. We just didn’t know that it was going to be this old and this quirky, but we’re really excited,” she shares.

“Both of our parents are here too so we were able to pick their brains on how to do things. They know a lot about construction and things like that — things that Sean and I didn’t know, We knew that it was an enormous undertaking and still the school has definitely surprised us a few times throughout the process.”

The sale went through in August 2021, but it would take until September 2024 for the family to move in. All the while, the couple has documented their process across YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms.

“We started documenting things just for fun and it definitely took off in ways that surprise me,” says Stacie, who previously worked in content creation for a decade and knew that space.

“It was not unfamiliar to me that you can make a career out of Internet content, but it definitely has surprised me how much it has taken off,” she notes. “I think people love quirky stories, rehab stories where you can see how something has transformed. I’ve noticed online people turning old churches or banks or libraries into houses, but there’s something extra special about a school.”

While even the most enthusiastic home flipper might find the undertaking daunting, Stacie says she’s found the process “surprising and fun.”

“There will be continued work for as long as we’re living,” she notes. “The to-do list is so long and we’re still plugging away at little things every night. I finally just got all the glass in all the original doors that I refinished. There’s still tons of projects going on and I think it’s starting to get into the fun stuff.”

The workload has been immense, with the kitchen being the biggest project thus far. The reason for that, in part, is because the space is central to the family. It’s also because they converted a classroom into a kitchen.

“When I say school, people envision a cafeteria and a gym and I’m like, ‘No, our school was built in 1914. It was in the middle of nowhere.’ It didn’t even have bathrooms indoors. It was four classrooms, and one of the classrooms is now our kitchen,” Stacie explains.

“When we bought it, the previous owners had divided the room with drywall. Half of it they used and half of it they had abandoned, so you could see through the two layers of brick to the outside. The floors you couldn’t step on because you might fall through,” she recalls. “So it was the gnarliest room to tackle. We had to redo some of the floor joists. We actually build the kitchen ourselves — our cabinets and all. It’s the place where we spend the most time, so it was the most satisfying to see it’s full transformation.”

Now that Stacie and Sean’s family has moved in, they’re enjoying imagining the future there with their kids, ages 2 and 3. Stacie’s also enjoyed her parents’ help along the journey, unlocking a new bond that they’d previously not explored.

“I think as a kid growing up, you think you know everything and that your parents don’t know that much. But as we get older, you start to realize your parents really are smart and they know a ton of stuff. I think the fun part, for us, has been working with my dad a ton. He’s been teaching us so much stuff which has been fun,” Stacie says.

“It’s a different aspect of our relationship. I’m like desperate for his knowledge. I feel so dumb for living at home for 18 years and not picking his brain every single day,” she adds.

She continues, “I think the reason we bought it was that we’re both into things with a story. Sean was a history major and we both love the historical aspects of it, uncovering more of the school’s history in the museum and people coming to us to tell stories about it.”

Stacie, Sean and the kids have settled in and are excited about “waking up and getting to go about life and chores and hanging out together” in the special space.

“The thing I’m really excited to pull together in the next few months is the basement. The basement is like an enormous place and it was pretty gross for a long time. But we got new concrete and it’s getting a lot nicer. I want to turn one of the rooms into a little skating rink, put swings in for the kids to be able to have a little indoor playground area.”

The community she has formed is excited to see what’s next, too — and even wants to help!

“I get a lot of people emailing randomly saying, ‘I have this old thing that’s from a school, I feel like it should go in your school.’ It’s an interesting way to meet new people,” Stacie adds. “We’re curious to see what comes next and how the school story unfolds for us as we live in it.”