Mark and Tia Rademaker refurbish Jones Heritage Farm and Market, develop event venue and home in reimagined Rusted Route Farms

Mark and Tia Rademaker may not have built their event venue Rusted Route Farms from the ground up, but they’ve certainly refurbished it.

Originally from Cape Girardeau, the couple met downtown, fell in love, got married and moved to California, where Mark was stationed for work.

“Mark and I both grew up in this area, and we have multiple businesses here, but we had wanted to run off to California for his job and kind of have an adventure,” Tia says.

“Which we did for six years,” Mark adds.

“And we had both of our babies out there, and we kind of got sick of not having wide-open spaces,” Tia continues.

Cutline:Tia and Mark Rademaker pose for a portrait at Rusted Route Farms.Laura Simon

During their time in California the couple became obsessed with the show “Fixer Upper,” featuring renovation experts Chip and Joanna Gaines, and decided they wanted to start working on renovation projects of their own.

One property in particular soon stood out, the Jones Heritage Farm and Market homestead on Highway W in Jackson.

“We loved seeing that kind of environment and [the owners’] kids and how they raise their kids, and we thought that would be great for us and our kids,” Mark says.

After driving by the old homestead on a trip to Cape Girardeau, Mark felt a flash of curiosity about whether the owner would be willing to sell. He looked down and saw a fallen for sale sign in the weeds and took it as an indicator he should pursue the property.

Although they had a number of options for renovation projects, Mark and Tia say the purchase and creation of Rusted Route Farms was serendipitous.

“This was the property, I mean, the more we look at it the more we realize that it was just meant to be,” Mark says.

“This originally was a homestead, so you could live on this property as a family and do absolutely everything that you needed to survive,” Tia says.

“We tried to kind of make it that again but with a little newer twist to it,” Mark says.

So even though Tia had yet to see the property before purchasing, she and Mark signed on the dotted line, and she came to Missouri to have her first look.

“I was supposed to fly back home with the kids for a few months, and we never left,” she says.

The couple made the market building livable, and Tia and the couples’ two children, Cleveland and Jagger, began living on the property.

“And the work began,” Tia says.

“And the work began,” Mark echoes.

In just a year and a half following, the Rademakers renovated the market and built in a commercial kitchen, added on to the property’s 110-year-old farm house, built bathrooms, created a parking lot, moved a more than 160-year-old cabin onto their property and more.

In that process, the Rademakers reused as much of the materials from the property’s original buildings as possible.

“We have really utilized everything that was currently here,” Tia says. “Not only is it an environmentally friendly thing to do, but again it just creates that feel of authenticity and just an aesthetic that you can’t always recreate from new.”

From using the siding from the market and the roof from the farm house to create the bathrooms to using the barn’s loft wood to create the flooring in the farm house, the couple wanted to preserve the rich history of the property while also giving it a new feel.

“You can’t remake the history, we know. That old barn, this old house, it’s just not going to be the same, and I think people feel that when they walk in and they see it,” Mark says.

Along with rental of the property comes the use of the Rademakers’ exclusive caterers, Terre and Christo Chriss of Gatherings Catering, and florists Wendy Durham of Magnolia Market and Bella Agoro. This way, the couples says they are able to have quality control and produce a level of consistency they can be proud of and will reflect well on their business.

“We want the bridal experience to be as stress free as possible,” Tia says.

“That’s really our whole goal, is to make it as stress free as possible, and we don’t want to control everything, but we wanted to control the things that I think really show for our business,” Mark adds.

Tia says the best part about the renovation and moving back to Missouri was being able to see her children be involved with the process and have them see all the work being done.

“It’s one thing to go off to work and come home and tell your kids about doing something, but it’s another thing for them to see it firsthand and for them to grow up in an environment that they have no idea is completely different from a lot of people,” Tia says. The Rademakers are constantly working to evolve and improve their facility, and have plans to rebuild and renovate a log cabin from 1854, starting in 2018. The cabin eventually will serve as groom’s quarters and a place where a bride and groom can stay on their wedding night.

They also have plans to highlight the overflow from the spring-fed pond and have a waterfall feature.

“There’s still so much we want to do. We have very exciting plans for this property going forward,” Mark says.

Through their experiences, the Rademakers have come to realize some things are simply meant to happen.

“We tried in the past to sometimes make things happen, like in California, and when things aren’t right, they don’t happen, and it’s like beating your head against a wall,” Tia says. “And as soon as Mark started to pursue this property, it was like everything fell into place. ... Whenever you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, it falls into place.”

“... It’s not easy,” Mark adds, “but it just comes together.”

More about Rusted Route Farms can be found on Facebook and at http://rustedroutefarms.com/.