The First Step

Ever since J and I were married, I would turn to him at some random time during the week and shout, “Oh my goodness!  Guess what?!  I almost forgot to tell you… [long, dramatic pause] …I want a farm.” Then he would roll his eyes at me and we would carry on with whatever we were doing.

Well, we just made the first step in what is sure to be a long, bumpy road towards having our very own little homestead. Our new place is a bit of a fixer upper.  Actually, that might be the understatement of the year. In addition to the house and land needing massive amounts of work, the property is also tied up in more red tape than a ticker tape parade.  More on that later.

As some of you know, we did quite a bit of renovating at our first house.  We posted our pictures on FB as we completed projects, but I wanted a more dedicated place to document our progress on this house as the work required to make this our dream home seems somewhat epic in comparison.

At the start of this journey, I want to say thank you to a few people first.  This is the internet so I won’t mention names to protect your privacy…but you know who you are.

Looking back, thank you to all the people who helped us with our last house.  Countless friends and family spent countless hours alongside us demolishing, rebuilding and finishing that house.  We couldn’t have done it, and couldn’t have taken this next step without you.

Thank you to our parents who have provided a tremendous amount of support, elbow grease, labor, advice, love and babysitting.  You are so appreciated and so loved.

Thank you to our awesome friends who are letting our family (2 adults, 2 kids and 2 cats) crash their house while we tackle these renovations. Did I mention they have a toddler and a newborn?  There’s a special place in heaven for these folks.  Payback…

Thank you to our realtor-of-the-year who sold us our first house and 7 years later, led us through one of the most bizarre realty transactions on both ends of the deal.  Your insight and patience were greatly appreciated and we wouldn’t have trusted anyone else to handle this for us.

Thank you to our friends and family who have already thrown themselves into helping us make this new house our home.  Thank you for watching our kids while we packed.  Thank you for helping us move. Thank you for jumping in with the clean up and demo of the new house.  Thank you for suffering alongside us with huge patches of poison ivy! Thank you for lending us your garage to store our massive amount of stuff (it seems to be multiplying of its own accord). We are overwhelmed with your generosity and support.

And thank you God for placing these people in our lives, providing for us every step of the way and showering us with more blessings than we could ever ask for.

“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.”  John 1:16

A look back at our first house at the beginning…

And some “afters.”

Here we go!