I feel like I’ve been preoccupied for the last few weeks. I’m hosting a big party next Saturday and I’ve made that a little deadline to get some projects done. Funny that when you have a blog and you write about your home and the projects and feelings you have about said home, when you spend time working on your home a lot, you don’t have as much time to write about it.
I should write for NASA with my clean cut, concise ways.
We are getting ready to sign another year’s lease here at the Nest. I know to some of you that sentence is meaningless. Others of you may feel sorry for the fact that we are leasing and not owning. For me, I cannot begin to think up the words to express the joy that comes with staying put, in our home for another year, hopefully two.
I don’t know how much of our story you know but, about 4 years ago we sold our home that house right up there. For some reason I can only show that home with both the before and after photos–forgive me. That was our forever home that I loved. It was far from perfect with its old kitchen and sprayed on ceilings, but, it had the perfect yard stocked with plants I had collected and nurtured, perfect location–14 houses from my sister, and I didn’t care to ever move. But, we desperately needed to sell after losing a business. You can read more about it here. We sold the house, sold a paid off car, gave away our family pet– my boys chocolate lab, Siler, and moved into a condo for 6 months while our boys finished school, and my husband frantically tried to figure out a plan. I cried a lot.
Then we moved to a new town and leased a home. A fresh start. After a year, we realized that the area where we needed to be was across town, our church was 20 minutes away so we decided to move yet again, to a small rental house, try to pay off our debt really quickly and be near our church.
After 9 months of faithfully paying our rent, the Sheriff stopped by one morning to hand me papers that told me the house was foreclosing. The owners weren’t paying the mortgage. You can read more about that here–Is your rental in foreclosure? That was 13 months ago. I was angry. That rental was one of the least expensive in our area and we were settled. I didn’t want to move. We were close to our church, my boys were starting to make friends. We had moved 3 times in the past 2.5 years. NO.
My dad mentioned that we should tell everyone about our situation. The housing market was awful, we were great tenants and hey, I even have a blog about our home, the owner could keep tabs on their house every day. The first person I told made a call that very night and connected us with the owner of the home we now live in.
I was shocked that we got to move just one neighborhood over from our old house. Only, this is a much nicer hood, with sidewalks, forth of July parades and a neighborhood pool. The backyard was HUGE with the biggest shade tree and a creek. The house has all wood floors and high ceilings and stainless appliances! It’s too good.
This house feels like home. And a few months ago, we decided to treat it a little more like our home. No knocking down ceilings and painting cabinets but, a fresh coat of paint on the walls and some creative, non permanent changes for small things that are so not our style. I have enjoyed every second of it. I think I get more joy out of home fixing upping than any person on the planet. It’s inexplicable. The thrill of watching a room go from average, generic, to US–personal and home.
So right now, as we are in the midst of about 48 projects, I am basking in the glory of a home in process. Because seeing a wall half painted isn’t depressing, it’s an indicator of change. And it tells me, this is home.
There’s no place like home.
I hope you are remembering to enjoy your process as well.