Several months ago, Bradley and I decided that we were ready for a new home. We first debated on the build/buy issue. After lots of thoughtful consideration, we decided that we would buy now, have more babies, save more money, end poverty, save the world, adopt homeless animals, find a house plan that we could agree on, and then we would build our forever dream house. Honestly, I just wasn't sure that our marriage could stand the true test that is building a home together. Then again, maybe I just wasn't sure Bradley would survive.
I was happy that we decided to buy. Choosing floor plans and light fixtures and toilet seats (oh my!) is just not my jam. Through a Luckey family friend, we met our absolutely incredible realtor. (If you'd like his name, I will happily share it, but I think I'll leave him out of my rant...er, blog.) This poor man had his work cut out for him from Day 1. To say that my husband is high maintenance when it comes to certain things would not do it justice. Buying a house, as it turns out, really brings out the diva in Mr. Luckey. He was constantly on the phone with our realtor or sending emails with lists of multiple houses that we'd like to see ASAP. This man took us to at least 20 houses over the course of a few short weeks. Like two weeks, poor guy. He made our schedule work, he dealt with our never-ending tardiness and he even held Emma when we had to take her along to see houses.
We had all but given up hope. I would love a house that Bradley would hate, and vice versa. It just wasn't working out. We had decided that we would continue living in The Shack at Beard Avenue, which is what I decided to start calling it, and we would go back to the search for a house plan so that we could build. I like to think that I possess quite a few highly-favored virtues, but patience has never been one of them. The thought of searching for a house plan and then getting bids from builders and then waiting for the house to be built was just not appealing to me at all.
Obviously, my God knows that I am not a patient woman. Just when we'd given up hope, someone posted a link on Facebook to a home for sale in Trinity. There was even a video tour. I looked at it several times. It was old. Like, really old. But it was charming. It had land. It was in the school district that we wanted to be in. Reluctantly, I showed the listing to Bradley. He didn't hate it either. Quite the contrary, he loved it. He was ready to make an offer before even seeing the house. We called our realtor right away and made an appointment to see the house on Saturday. As I've come to find out now, we almost didn't get to see the house because there were so many showings already scheduled.
Another virtue that I am not necessarily ready to write a book on is optimism. My proverbial glass is perpetually half-empty. In two days time, I allowed myself to list all of the negatives about this house before I even laid eyes on it. It was old. It wasn't brick. It was old. It would be a money pit. It was old. It was too far from civilization. It was old. You get the idea. I had my mind made up that I was going to hate this house. Bradley was already in love with it. This was going to be bad.
Saturday arrived. We saw the house. I really saw the house. I didn't see it for everything that it was, but everything that it could be....would be, if we made it our home. So we did. We made an offer that night, and by Monday morning we were officially under contract. We closed on March 31st and were officially the proud owners of the Farmhouse at Evergreen and The Shack at Beard Avenue.
We, meaning Bradley, immediately left the closing attorney's office and went to start pulling up carpet. We found beautiful heart pine floors underneath dirty carpet. Thank you, Jesus! The day we closed, our "floor guy" came and started his initial estimate of repairs/replacements of the flooring. He gave us an estimate, we paid a deposit, replacement floor was ordered and life at Evergreen seemed imminent. We hired a painter to paint over the rainbow of colors in the Evergreen house. Y'all know I love rainbows, but this house needed to be painted. She started and finished in a week and half. It looks like a new house, beautifully painted in perfect colors just waiting for a family to get there and love it....
Which (finally) leads me to the s*!@ hitting the fan. Apparently, flooring doesn't just manifest itself when needed. There are steps. Seeking out the right wood, sending it to be milled, delivering said milled wood, and then allowing it to sit in the home for 3 weeks to, get this....acclimate to the environment. If there were a pile of wood sitting on the floor at our new home, I wouldn't be writing this blog. We are nearing the 2 month mark since closing and there is no pile of wood at my house. We have been assured it will be there Monday. We shall see.
One of the (virtues?) I do happen to possess is eagerness. Maybe over-eagerness? Once we went under contract, I started packing. I packed up things that I knew we wouldn't need. (We have had to open approximately 12 boxes to retrieve things that I knew we wouldn't need). The Shack at Beard Avenue is tiny for 3 people. Add boxes everywhere and two useless dogs and things get hectic. Needless to say, my over-eagerness has caused a lot of overstressed people in our house to be thrusted to their wits end.
I whine about all of these things to get to my point. We will have our house at Evergreen...eventually. It will be everything we dreamed of and more...eventually. We will sell The Shack at Beard Avenue...eventually. Eventually, this little house that was Emma's first home will be someone else's. Eventually, these boxes will be unpacked, a house will be made a home, and we will find new things to stress about, because that's what we do. Eventually, we will be making new memories and forget all about the time in between; the dot, dot, dots... (The ... is actually called an ellipsis, which I have had to explain to my husband/blog editor multiple times.)
When my stress seems like it will boil over at any moment, I promise to read this blog and remind myself that God is our provision at all times. He provides us with a home to keep us safe through our dot, dot, dots. He provides us with family to love us through our dot, dot, dots. He provides us with sunshine and Nana's swimming pool to survive our dot, dot, dots. He provides us with promise of something that we never dreamed of, but something that He knew all along. He is the start. He is the finish. He is everything that doesn't need to be said. He is our dot, dot, dots.
"The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride." Ecclesiastes 7:8
This is CAT. She came with the house :)
Thanks for this, my sweet Kelly!
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