In January 2019, interior designer Claire Zinnecker purchased a 5.3 acre plot of land in Georgetown, Texas, a small town 25 miles from Austin.
Zinnecker, 36, had hoped to eventually build a home on the undeveloped property but said she was intimidated by the scope of the project.
"I was not planning on doing anything with the land for a while because it was completely raw," she told Insider. "There was no power, water, or septic." At the time, the costs associated with developing the land felt too large of a financial commitment, she said.
However, months after the purchase, Zinnecker's outlook changed.
In July 2019, her aunt showed her a Facebook Marketplace listing of a 124-year-old, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on East Sixth Street, about a 9 minute drive from the downtown Austin area.
"One look and I was in love." she said. "My aunt and I have always loved all things old and antique."
Zinnecker wasted no time by making an appointment to tour the house the very next day. By the end of that day, the home was hers for just $15,000 — but under one rather enormous condition: She had to relocate it to her land.
After a team of 5 to 10 people disassembled and prepared the house for its trip, the pieces were hoisted and trucked the 34 miles to the Georgetown site. The cost: $34,000.
Then the labor of love began. Over the course of the next four years, It took her and her partner, Adam Mink, 34, a real estate agent and self-taught construction worker, another $100,000 to completely renovate the home into a livable state.
The restoration of the historic structure has been featured in Country Living Magazine and on the Magnolia Network television show, "In With the Old." Zinnecker also documented the process on her website and on Instagram.
See how the couple transformed the crumbling home and barren land into a country getaway.
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