Couple Had ‘No Intention’ of Buying a Fixer-Upper, Then Accidentally Won an Abandoned 1830s Home

Buying a house at auction is always a gamble, but one family's leap of faith came with a twist nobody saw coming. Their story proves that sometimes the best decisions happen almost by accident.

Tyler and Lauren Bouldin never imagined that the home they would one day settle into would take six years to transform into exactly what they wanted for their family.

The Pennsylvania couple began house hunting in 2020, hoping to find somewhere rural to raise their children.

That same year, Tyler came across an 1830s stone house on five acres that was listed for auction. According to Lauren, her husband spotted the listing while scrolling through Zillow in the fall.

"And let me tell you, it is picturesque during that time of year," she said in a TikTok video. "The sellers definitely knew what they were doing. The house sits directly at the base of a mountain, surrounded by huge trees, changing colors."

Before finding the property, the couple had been living in their first home, located in a suburban neighborhood. As their family began to grow, they wanted more land, but the housing market made that a challenge.

By then, they had lost out on several homes they had made offers on, and they realized they needed to rethink their approach.

"The market was crazy, and we were not able to be competitive on the properties that checked our boxes," the couple told People in a recent interview. "We started to realize that we couldn't afford to buy what we wanted if we didn't start getting creative."

That creativity eventually led them to "The Forge." Having toured the property twice ahead of the auction, Tyler and Lauren viewed it as a rare chance to breathe new life into a home with plenty of potential.

They were aware it would require significant effort, but they admit they "had no intention of buying a complete remodel" at the time and had no idea how big the job ahead would turn out to be.

With Lauren out of town on auction day, Tyler headed there on his own, armed with a firm budget of $440,000. As she explained in the video, the bids kept rising until the auctioneer hit $460,000.

Moments later, "Tyler gave him a smile. The auctioneer took that as a bid," and just like that, The Forge belonged to them, leaving the couple $20,000 "over budget."

"It was a roller coaster of emotion; at first I just was confused, then thrilled, then panicked, and finally, just excited to call Lauren and tell her that I'd done it," Tyler said.

Lauren's reaction to the news was just as emotional. "When she found out that we'd got it, she was so happy that she cried, which made me cry, and we just had a moment of happy tears together while it all sank in," he recalled.

When the initial thrill wore off, the couple was faced with the true scale of their purchase. Left abandoned for some time, the property was in a sorry state, with floors missing, a staircase on the verge of collapse, no kitchen and dense overgrowth teeming with wildlife.

The neglected pool proved particularly intimidating, an exposed, unfenced pit of murky water home to snakes. Despite this, the couple remained convinced they could handle the renovation on their own.

Rather than rushing the process, they chose to take their time with the transformation, and it has paid off. They have since spent more than $300,000 on renovations, bringing followers along for the journey on social media.

"We focus on being productive when we can, while not losing sight of what's important to us," the Bouldins said. "If we rush, overcommit or measure our success by how much progress we've made against 'done' we'd never be able to enjoy the amazing family and home that we've built together!"