“Farmhouses are one of a kind,” he said. “They’re not cookie cutter. Some like modern houses; I have always grown up in a house with a lot of character, such as old woodwork.”

It is those types of features that an old house possesses that Newell has worked to keep as original as he could in the home he shares with his wife, Laurel, and their children, Mason, Lillian and Violet.

“I love the character. You can’t get that with a new house,” said Laurel Newell.

Due to the widening of doorways and the expansion of their home with a two-story addition put on in 2012, Newell has been fortunate to utilize woodwork he was able to salvage from other houses to help match the existing trim in their home.

-Submitted photo
This photo dates back to the early 1900s when the home was first built.

“I like to keep the woodwork original,” he said. “I have gone to several houses to take parts out in order to help match it up.”

The Newell’s home is actually two houses that have been put together. When they put on their addition, they worked to make sure it blended in, in order to keep the look of the farm house as original as they could.

The home was built after the Liska family purchased the ground in 1903.

“They lived in a sod house while it was built,” said Newell.

The Newell family purchased the farm in 1976. Newell’s grandparents, Glenn and Ila Mae Newell, lived on the farm for 10 years before his parents, DeWayne and Robin Newell, purchased the farm and moved there.

-Messenger photo by Kriss Nelson
The home of Aaron and Laurel Newell and family was built in the early 1900s and has been a part of the Newell family since the 1970s. There has been several updates made to the home over the years including a two story addition in 2012. Throughout the renovations, the family has worked to keep the house as original as possible.

Aaron and Laurel Newell moved to the farm in 2012. Although Laurel had never lived on a farm, she appreciates country living.

“I prefer the country,” she said. “I love the space. It is beautiful out here and it’s a good place for the kids to grow up.”