Couple learns 'dream' home is a 'snake habitat' after getting the keys, often find the reptiles slithering up exterior walls (exclusive)

“I’m glad that we’ve been able to clear things out without resorting to unnecessarily drastic measures,” Tyler Bouldin tells PEOPLE

NEED TO KNOW

• In late 2020, Tyler and Lauren Bouldin discovered that their abandoned 1830s home came with a major unexpected challenge: a property filled with snakes
• Over the course of five years, the couple restored the house and grounds and worked to make the land safer without harming the wildlife
• Today, their once-overgrown property has become the family home they always envisioned

For Tyler Bouldin and his wife, Lauren, buying an abandoned 1830s stone home in Pine Grove, Penn., in late 2020 was never going to be an easy undertaking.

They expected years of restoration, endless projects and plenty of surprises as they transformed the neglected property into the family home they had always dreamed of. What they didn’t anticipate, however, was sharing the land with what Bouldin jokingly says felt like “1,000” slithering neighbors.

“I’m naturally terrified of snakes,” Tyler tells PEOPLE exclusively. “So it was genuinely unsettling for the first year or so while I got used to life out in the woods.”

When the couple bought the home at an auction over five years ago, they were immediately drawn to its historic features, including centuries-old trees, a beautiful creek, and the surrounding protected forest – despite the massive amount of work they would have to put in to make it livable.

“The house had been abandoned for years, and the condition showed it,” Tyler admits. “The main level had no floors, the grand staircase was falling down and the kitchen was gone entirely.”

And although the home’s condition was daunting, it wasn’t the only challenge waiting for them.

Years of neglect had allowed wildlife to flourish throughout the property, from the woods and pond to the overgrown landscape surrounding the house, making it the perfect environment for wildlife like mice, rabbits and frogs to thrive.

“This made an excellent hunting ground for black snakes, water snakes and copperheads, and we saw our first black snake climbing up the side of one of our massive sycamore trees — hunting for wood duck eggs — the day we took ownership of the property.”

During the first six months of renovations, the family lived in a caretaker’s apartment inside the property’s barn while the house slowly became habitable. With his wife expecting their second child and their oldest son still a toddler, safety became part of their daily routine.

“We were extremely careful any time we went outside, and kept a close eye on him and our dog to make sure that they weren’t wandering into the more overgrown parts of the property,” Bouldin recalls.

Initially, the couple tried to coexist with the snakes after hearing that black snakes were beneficial because they helped control rodents and discouraged copperheads from settling nearby. For a while, they embraced a live-and-let-live approach, even as sightings became increasingly common around the property.

“Every time we post a snake video, people say, ‘Oh, don’t worry about the black snakes. Don’t do anything with them.’ And that’s been our policy,” Tyler said in a June 2023 video posted to TikTok. “Black snakes are here to stay. But the thing is, the black snakes are getting kind of big. Like, one of these is about seven feet long.”

It wasn’t long until their perspective shifted after Tyler spotted black snakes sharing the same hiding places as copperheads near their abandoned pool and even beneath a rock by the front door.

“That quickly turned into a feeling that I’d best describe as betrayal for not doing their ‘job’ and we started more actively trying to shoo them away,” he admits.

Still, rather than trying to eliminate the snakes, the couple focused on changing the property itself so it would be less inviting. Every renovation project became another opportunity to remove hiding places, reduce rodents and make the grounds safer for their growing family.

“We spent whatever free time we had clearing the lawn, stone walls, gardens and woodland of debris, garbage piles, and overgrowth,” Tyler explains. “We removed our dangerous in-ground pool, restored the pond and installed filters and fountains, and closed up all of the holes in the house and barn, which created homes for mice, etc. We even planted mint around the structures, which naturally deters snakes.”

Among the biggest transformations was removing the “dangerous” abandoned pool, which the couple eventually replaced with a beautiful garden as they continued restoring the property’s landscape. At the same time, they repaired stonework, reclaimed overgrown areas and steadily turned the once-forgotten grounds into a place where their family could safely spend time outdoors.

When snakes still appeared around the house, Tyler found a way to relocate them rather than harm them. In a September 2023 video, he shared his admittedly nerve-racking routine.

“Every time I see one of these big snakes, I get my six-foot snake grabber, and then heroically pick up the snake and put it into a bag or a bucket,” he says. “I recorded this from far away, so you can’t see my tears. Very, very scary. But once it’s captured, we just release it back into the wild, somewhere far away from the house.”

Luckily, over time, their efforts to eliminate the conditions that attracted snakes, while continuing to respect the wildlife around their home, began to pay off.

“While it’s not exciting, it has worked well,” Tyler shares. “We don’t want to harm any wildlife, snakes included, and I’m glad that we’ve been able to clear things out without resorting to unnecessarily drastic measures.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Now, over five years since purchasing the property, the couple says the difference is impossible to ignore. Although snakes are still part of life in the Pennsylvania woods, the encounters are far less frequent than they once were.

“I’m glad to say that every summer we see less and less snakes, and that our efforts seem to have had the impact that we hoped they would,” Bouldin says. “We probably won’t go a month without seeing a snake somewhere on the property, but that’s a dramatic improvement from an almost daily occurrence!”

Looking back, the couple says restoring a centuries-old property has been every bit as unpredictable as they expected, but the experience has taught them to embrace the unexpected while staying focused on the home they always envisioned.

“If you’re considering buying a big, old, run-down property, you’re going to face challenges related to wildlife, renovations, money and time that you can’t possibly predict or prepare yourself for,” Tyler tells PEOPLE. “Your budget will be wrong, your timeline will be wrong, but if you hang in there and don’t overextend yourself, you just might end up doing an interview with PEOPLE magazine from the comfort of your dream house!”

Read the original article on People