Somewhere between building a farm, raising kids, and trying to create a slower life, we ran into a funny little problem.
What on earth do you call your house?
We have Taeda Farms, which is the name of the farm and the business. The flowers, the events, the land, all of that lives under Taeda.
But our house kept getting called…
“the home place.”
And the more we said it, the more it sounded like the most uninspired name in the world.
“This is the commercial piece, and this is the home place.”
Good grief.
If we are going to go through the trouble of building a life that is slower, a little whimsical, and rooted in something older and steadier, then surely the house deserves a name better than that.
So one night we looked at each other and said, what the hell. Let’s name her. It doesn’t need to be something grand or stately.
Our house is not enormous. She doesn’t need a name that sounds like an English estate or a manor house with 40 servants.
“Downton” would not do. That would be too big. Too prestigious.
This house needed something quieter and definitely more modest.
She needed something that sounded like it had been there a long time. Something with a little pine tree breeze running through it.
Because I do now understand the saying “whispering pines.” When the wind hits, they whisper.
Well, we decided to name her Pinetop.
Pinetop feels right for a house tucked among the trees. It sounds a little old-timey, maybe a little storybook-y. It sounds humble, but cozy—and that’s what we want.
The farm will always be Taeda.
But the place where our family lives...where kids run in muddy boots, where dinners burn occasionally and babies are rocked to sleep, where the porch light stays on late and the coffee is always brewing…
That place is Pinetop.
And honestly, naming the house made the whole thing feel more real.
More like a place with a story. Maybe a little whimsy, and a whole lot more like home.
Now I’m curious.
If you name your house, what would you call it?
Caleb & Maddie's House
Janelle's House
