As a child growing up in Franklin, Indiana, Stacie Grissom was always curious about who lived in the "coolest house in town" — a former schoolhouse, turned barn, and then quirky residence.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I think that someday it could be our house," Grissom tells CNBC Make It.

In early 2020, Grissom worked on the marketing team for BarkBox and her husband, Sean Wilson, was an orthopedic surgeon in hospitals across New York City. After a decade in the city, which included living through the covid-19 pandemic while pregnant, the couple realized they were ready to move back to Franklin.

"We had a reevaluation that it's the people who matter the most, so we wanted to move back to our hometown to be by our families," Grissom says. "We got our chosen family in New York, and it's the best city in the world, but we had to go where our family was."

To help find the family a new home in Indiana, Grissom contacted a local realtor friend and told him to start looking for "weird old houses" that might need some work.

"We decided to look for an old and unique home because we both love historic stuff," she says. "Finding old things and fixing them up and making them better. Whether that's a piece of furniture that we found on the street in New York or an old school like this."

The realtor's dad knew the schoolhouse was up for sale and told him to send it to Grissom, who got an email from her friend with the subject line "Don't Judge Me." She called Wilson immediately to tell him about the listing.

"I remembered the school. I couldn't believe that it was for sale," she says.

The couple were still in New York, so Grissom's parents went to check out the property that same weekend. Her dad has years of experience in commercial real estate, so Grissom says she knew he would give an honest and expert opinion on the state of the schoolhouse.

The 9,000-square-foot building was a school for local children in the early 1900s. After it closed in the 1930s, it was used as a barn. Eventually, it was converted into a residence and split into two apartments.

After a tour of the schoolhouse, Grissom's parents gave their stamp of approval and in August 2021, the couple made an offer on the house having not seen it for themselves. Their offer of $175,000 was accepted within 24 hours.

"We wouldn't have bought it if my parents hadn't agreed because we knew with this kind of project we were going to need the entire village," she says. "My dad looked around and he was like 'It's crazy, but I think you can figure it out.'"

Grissom was the third employee hired on at Barkbox and had some funds from when the company went public in 2021. They used it to pay for the schoolhouse in full.

The couple saw the school for the first time a week after they closed. They started renovations almost immediately. By the fall of 2021, the building was down to its bare bones, but the work they thought would take two years ended up taking three.

"We knew going into this that this was going to be a lifelong project," Grissom says. "The project will never end and the problems will constantly pop up. That is daunting and also like it was part of the appeal, weirdly."

The renovation included installing a roof, fresh floors and building a kitchen, which alone cost the couple about $26,000. "[We were basically rebuilding] a new house within the shell of this 100-year-old building," Grissom says.

While some areas of the house needed a complete overhaul, they were able to salvage the floors in one of the original classrooms, refinish some of the old doors and keep a water fountain that they are still trying to restore.

Grissom declined to comment on exactly how much they've spent total on all of the renovations so far, but said they offset some of the cost with social media partnerships.

"In terms of the renovation being fully complete, I don't know if it will ever be," she says. "There's nothing that makes me happier than waking up on a Saturday and being like 'I have a project to do.'"

The family officially moved into the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom schoolhouse in September 2024. They pay $340 a month for utilities, including electricity, water, and Wi-Fi. About $4,200 a year goes to property taxes and refilling their propane tank.

The old classrooms were all converted into the primary bedroom, kid's bedrooms, living room, and kitchen. Grissom has added turkey décor throughout the living room to honor the schoolhouse's history as a barn and made mosaics for the entrances, one with the school's name and the other with its date of creation.

The family has been in the home for a little while now and are thinking about what to do with their unfinished basement. It currently serves as a workshop, storage for the contractors' materials, and a play area for the kids.

Grissom says that, ideally, the basement will be a space where they could host their big family.

"I never thought this incredible building would be our home," she says. "I still wake up some days and I'm like 'I can't believe we get to live here.'"

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