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Mary Carmichael | The Formative Home

@mary.carmichael.nc

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Mom of 6 rebuilding our farmhouse in NC
Your house shapes your family. Design it accordingly.
Healthy home • homeschool
✉ [email protected]

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I said yes to six kids without hesitating. I couldn’t say no to building things either. And for years the middle made me feel like I was failing at both.
Now I realize I’d just been handed a ruler built to measure half my life. So I’m embarking on a new journey.
Three years ago we found mold in our house that was making us sick, and we walked out with almost nothing. Because it was my husband’s childhood home on his family’s farm, we didn’t leave — we rebuilt it to the studs. We move back in about a month. And somewhere in the fear I got curious: if a home can invisibly hurt a family, how much could it invisibly help one?
Everybody says pick one. The motherhood or the building. One lane. I’m not going to.
This is episode one of an experiment I’m calling Building From Right Here — not after the kids are older, not when life gets easier. Right here. Six kids, a tiny town, a house we’re moving back into.
If you love being a mom but there’s still something in you that wants to build — a business, a home, an education, a life that looks a little different from the one you were handed — I think you’re my kind of person. Follow along. 🤍
What’s the one thing you keep telling yourself you’ll build “later”? Tell me below — I want to know who’s out there. #mynontechyedits by @mary.carmichael.nc

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a month ago

For centuries, homes said something before you even walked inside.

We’ve mostly lost that.

But that doesn’t mean it’s gone. I want to bring back homes that tell the story of the family who lives there.

What would yours say? #homebuilding #lintel #designideas #architecture taken in Laurinburg, North Carolina by @mary.carmichael.nc

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6 months ago

Your house could be making your kids sick.
We’re rebuilding ours to make sure it doesn’t.
Mineral wool insulation. Vapor-permeable netting. No mold. No compromise.
This is what a healthy home build looks like from the inside.#healthyhome #moldtoxicity #homebuilding #buildingscience #mineralwool taken in Laurinburg, North Carolina by @mary.carmichael.nc

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Our home made us sick, and we didn’t know it for a long time.

Mold we couldn’t see. A homeschooling family of eight, home all day. We gutted it to the studs and rebuilt, and every choice since has been a bet: that a house can invisibly help you instead of invisibly hurting you.

Help you create. Help you gather people without dreading it. Help you remember your faith and your story, instead of burying them under stuff.

We move in this month. I’m calling it the formative home, and I’m going to document whether it works.

Follow along if you’ve ever felt like your house was running your life instead of supporting it.

#theformativehome #homeschoolmom #moldremediation #homedesign #intentionalliving farmhouserebuild buildingfromrighthere by @mary.carmichael.nc

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12 days ago

I’m rebuilding our home with one question in mind: what if your house could make the life you want easier?

Apparently that also means learning to wallpaper.

Six kids, homeschool, business, a farmhouse, lots of experiments.

Follow to see what works. by @mary.carmichael.nc

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12 days ago

I love wallpaper. It creates an envelope that’s redecorated and makes everything else easier about making a beautiful space. #formativehome by @mary.carmichael.nc

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16 days ago

I pulled an all-nighter to get this wallpaper up. LOVE IT. it’s vintage and modern, floral and casual. #homebuilding by @mary.carmichael.nc

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16 days ago

I’m creating a series documenting our journey from discovering severe mold in our home, to remediating and rebuilding that same home. We’re about a month from move in and I’m going to share what design choices we made that are unique, and how my perspective has changed on the ways a home invisibly impacts a family. Follow for the story and drop your questions. 👇#formativehome #healthyhome #homebuilding #motherhood by @mary.carmichael.nc

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23 days ago

Every time I sit down to make content for my own account, I freeze.

Too late. Too old. Six kids under 10. No time. A million reasons never to begin.

So instead of counting what I don’t have, I took inventory of what I do.

A farmer I love. Seventh-generation land. A farmhouse we rebuilt from the studs. A law school I walked away from. A little booth on Main Street. Six kids watching me try.

Constraints are the adventure. You can’t build from right here until you know what’s right here.

Your turn: What’s one thing on YOUR inventory? 👇

Building From Right Here · Episode 2

#momentrepreneur #homeschoolmom #motherhoodandbusiness #smalltownlife #buildingfromrighthere by @mary.carmichael.nc

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23 days ago

People ask me sometimes how I homeschool six kids, run two vintage booths, work on a business, and still have time to drag home $55 Facebook Marketplace hutch tops. 😂

The answer is: I don’t do it all.

I think sometimes social media accidentally hides the people standing just outside the frame—the people who are exceptionally good at something that would take us three times as long.

Case in point: our store designer, who generally prefers NOT to be on this side of the camera. 😂

I brought in our rescued hutch top while I hunt for its permanent base. He took one look at it, realized it fit perfectly on this antique wagon, and styled the entire thing in about 15 minutes…while carrying on a conversation.

So here’s your reminder: when you see someone doing a lot, there’s probably a team you don’t see.

And sometimes they accidentally wander into the reel. 😂

The hutch is now styled in our Vintage Reserve & Design booth at Antiques, Arts & Oddities. @antiquesao by @mary.carmichael.nc

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a month ago

Would you have rescued this sweet hutch top? I love it! @antiquesao #vintage by @mary.carmichael.nc

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a month ago

I didn’t know that tile and grout aren’t waterproof. Now I do. For this rebuild we’re designing a healthy home and our GC @watford_construction came up with this genius waterproofing system for the wet rooms. 🙌 Follow along for our healthy home build and homeschool designs. #formativehome #healthyhome #homebuilding #motherhood by @mary.carmichael.nc

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2 months ago