Unless the Lord Builds the House

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Almost 20 years ago, my husband and I got married and then started our family.  We did many renovations to the house we lived in and we truly put a lot of work and love into that house but when we found out baby number 2 was on the way  we realized that little house would not be big enough for our growing family.  It certainly didn’t help that our neighborhood was going downhill quickly.

We settled on this cute little brick house in a nice neighborhood that was in serious disrepair.  It had been in foreclosure for 7 years and had recently gone through mold abatement.  It literally was the worst house on the block of a very nice neighborhood.  It reminded me of the story The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton.  Where this sweet little house who once was loved by its family became forgotten and neglected.  Then a young family discovers it and loves it and brings it back to life.

There was so much to work on in this house that we bought it when I was pregnant with baby #2 but it wasn’t livable till I was getting ready to have baby #3 three years later.  Not to mention all the mental breakdowns and manic/depressive episodes that at times would bring our progress to a screeching halt.  In the last couple weeks of the third pregnancy, my baby’s godmother stepped up and called on our dear friends and church family to help us get into the house before our baby Zoe was born.  I’ve never been so overwhelmed with kindness and love.  These people drove an hour out of their way to paint the rooms and trim, to finish the electrical and to do whatever else that needed to be done to get us in there.

I need to add that at this same time that the drains in our first house decide that now is the time that they need to fail, back up and leak sewer gas into the house.  Things were so bad that we had to relocate to my parents house for a week and sleep in the living room on inflatable mattresses until the house is done.  I’ve never felt more like a beached whale than when I would have to get up off that mattress in to morning while 8 1/2 months pregnant LOL.  Once again thanks to Angie and Andy, Zoe’s godparents, we got moved in. We stayed there one night just me and Robert, my husband. Then one night with all of four of us. Then, I went into the hospital the very next day to have Zoe.

That wasn’t the end of our construction and renovation.  We have continued to work on our house over the last 14 years and we have so much more to do.  We’ve replaced everything from the windows to the heating and cooling system.  We’ve created living space where there wasn’t any.  In this series we will go step by step through all the projects that we’ve gone through to bring the house to where it is today.  Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button so you can follow along with our story.