328. House Build Reflections: What Worked, What Didn’t, and What We’d Change | Ash of Turner Farm

Simple Farmhouse Life

Lisa Bass

Home & Garden, Leisure

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2026

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Building a home is an opportunity to slow down and make thoughtful choices that will shape your family’s everyday life for years to come. In this conversation, I’m joined by Ash of Turner Farm to talk through what it really looks like to build an unconventional home in a world of cookie cutter houses. We discuss choosing a smaller footprint, sourcing reclaimed materials, navigating healthy home considerations, and making peace with tradeoffs along the way. This episode offers perspective for anyone building, renovating, or dreaming of a home that feels like YOU.

In this episode, we cover:

How Ash’s custom house build unfolded slowly over many years and why patience was the key in achieving her ideal vision
Choosing a smaller home footprint to prioritize materials, craftsmanship, and long-term livability
What sourcing reclaimed and salvaged materials really looks like in terms of time, cost, and flexibility
Why self-contracting and hands-on involvement are often necessary for non-traditional builds
The realities of building with wood, including movement, drying time, and embracing imperfection
Weighing “healthy home” ideals against climate, budget, and everyday comfort
Structural choices that support airflow, moisture control, and long-term durability
Where antique or vintage-inspired elements work well — and where they create complications
How simpler rooflines and layouts can prevent future moisture and maintenance issues
Decisions Ash would repeat, and ones she’d rethink, when it comes to spending and saving
The importance of trusting your vision and advocating for it throughout the build
Accepting the inevitable “later list” and letting the home evolve over time

View full show notes on the blog + watch this episode on YouTube.

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RESOURCES MENTIONED

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Shop BlockBlueLight for low-blue light bulbs that protect your circadian rhythm

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Explore Ash’s sourdough classes

Master the rhythm of sourdough with confidence in my Simple Sourdough course

Gain the sewing knowledge and skills every homemaker needs in my Simple Sewing series

Keep all my favorite sourdough recipes at your fingertips in my Daily Sourdough cookbook

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You have to also consider like your your own comfort in your house too, because I think that there's a health perspective to that too, like if we're freezing ball. Absolutely. Well, and what I've noticed with house building is there's just always give and take. Budget aside, any house aside, you want one thing, but it contradicts another thing. And it just, that happens constantly. Like, I can just think of so many things
0:21.6	like that. And so there's way more factors to consider than just, is this bad, is this good?
0:26.7	It's like, is this necessary? Yeah. And that's kind of where we were at with the insulation.
0:31.2	I really went back and forth a lot with that. My name is Lisa, mother of nine and creator of the
0:37.0	blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse-on-Boon.
0:39.1	On this podcast, I like to talk about simplifying your life so you can live out your priorities.
0:43.8	I help you learn how to cook from scratch and decorate on a budget through this podcast and my course's Simple Sourdough in the Simple Sowing series.
0:51.3	I will leave links to these resources in the show notes and description box below. Now let's get into the show. Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life
1:03.6	podcast. Today we're having a fun discussion with Ashley Turner from Turner Farm. Now, last time she was on, we talked about
1:12.4	sourdough. She offers tons of great resources over on her Instagram. She has classes and a
1:18.4	membership. So lots of great info there. But today we're going to be chatting about her home
1:23.1	build. Of course, I am interested in this because we are right in the middle of one, but a lot of
1:27.8	you are either thinking about building or just entertained by unconventional home building, which
1:33.6	I personally find very fun to observe, to dig into like how this came to be, the design,
1:40.3	all of the materials. So we're going to be talking about that. They built a home that has the most
1:47.3	beautiful character. It definitely does not look like a cookie cutter new build. And all of that
1:53.9	was very intentional. And she has a lot to share on that as well as how they made their home
1:58.8	healthy. So they took a lot of steps to make their home a healthy home.
2:04.8	So she has a lot to share about that as well. Let's dive into the interview.
2:08.2	Ashley, I am so excited to have you back on and talk about something a little different than we did last time.
2:12.9	I think last time we chatted about sourdough, which if you want to find out more what Ashley has to offer on
2:18.9	Sourdough, just go over to her Instagram, Turner Farm. There's so much of that. But today we're
	...

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