Nick and I are working on some things with our house to get it market ready, nothing too crazy, just basic repairs, like fixing that little chip of stone Sawyer managed to remove from the hearth and giving the walls a fresh coat of paint. We don't have it up for sale yet or even have a solid line on a house to buy, but we are praying that, if it's God's will, He will put us in a bigger place.
Back when we bought the house as first time home buyers and brand new parents (Taylor was 6 months old when we moved in), the 1200ish square feet it came with was an abundance. The home was a foreclosure, and it needed a few things, like all the light fixtures, an upstairs toilet and sink, and a door between the kitchen and the garage. Someone had stolen everything they could cart away, the carpet was a mess, and the garage door was busted. The paint on the walls was atrocious, and the kitchen needed new linoleum. Because it had been empty for over a year, the power was off, so when we went to view it on Labor Day evening of 2001, we explored it with flashlights.
Even with all the surface chaos, we could see the features that had long been on our wish list: a fireplace with a stone hearth, a two car garage, two bathrooms, a dishwasher, a front porch, a huge fenced-in back yard. We decided standing right there in that dark, lavender painted living room to put in an offer. We heard back within a couple of days that we had won the bidding. Closing happened within a few weeks, and we and both our families got to work.
Nick's grandfather Charles, who passed away a couple of years ago, was the greatest handyman I ever knew. He bought us a door for the kitchen and fashioned a gorgeous cover for our exposed doorbell chime from a brass kick plate and one of Nick's grandmother's earrings. He painted and installed tile and light fixtures and anything else we needed done. Working right alongside Charles was Nick's dad Mike, who inherited all his dad's talent for carpentry and construction. He helped install the new garage door and lighting, and helped Nick and my parents paint and lay the flooring in the living room and kitchen. My mother-in-law Brenda worked just as hard, helping with everything she could get her hand in. My dad took care of the toilet and sink installation, and my mom and Nick's grandmother scrubbed the house from top to bottom.
I rocked and nursed Taylor in my mom's antique bentwood rocker in the barren living room, singing Amazing Grace to my baby girl to the background of the hammering and drilling going on in the rest of the house. We painted the living room a rich tomato red and the kitchen and hallway a mossy green. Our big master bedroom was white and airy, and the master bath, the gem of the house, was finished out with bright white beadboard and foresty green ceramic tiles. Taylor's room was pale blue with bright yellow stars and fluffy white clouds, and that lovely 3rd bedroom was a luxury we turned into an earth toned family room with a big green sectional couch and our tiny 13 inch TV. We had brand new carpet laid in all three bedrooms, and we couldn't get enough of walking on it barefoot.
We moved in on Halloween, tickled pink by all the neighborhood kids who oohed and aahed over the inviting living room beyond the front door. It was such a perfect first real home for our newly expanded family, and coming from a two bedroom single wide we rented from my Papaw for ridiculously low rent, it felt like a mansion.
For many years it was plenty of room. Then when Taylor was 8, Lily joined our family. Pragmatically, we gave up the den and turned it into a new bedroom for Taylor, and painted her old one pink with big chocolate hued polka dots for the new baby.
I became a full time stay at home mom 3 weeks before Lily was born when my doctor put me on bed rest. When my maternity leave was up, after much prayer and conversation, I went in and quit the bank job I'd had for the last 10 years. Going from two full time paychecks to one was an adjustment and a lesson in faith to be sure, and when Christmas started getting close, I started trying my hand at making some of our gifts. I found that I was my mother's daughter indeed when I fell head over heels in love with creating.
The problem with that was that now that all of our bedrooms were, well, bedrooms, there was no place to put all the supplies that went along with my new-found career as a crafter. Then when Sawyer came along when Lily was two, it got even more cramped.
Now it's a juggling act between keeping my craft and sewing supplies put away and inaccessible (rarely) and having access to them at the cost of having our kitchen table relatively buried (usually).
We hope and pray to sometime in the relatively near future be able to buy a house with a bedroom for everybody, and a craft room too. And if/when we do, I've got a few things planned for that craft room!
It's going to be bright, bright, BRIGHT!
Yellows and pinks and oranges and turquoises, greens and purples and polka dots and adorable printables up on the walls and a nice long table where my sewing machine and my serger and my Silhouette machine can live in harmony.
And of course a cheery corkboard to pin up inspiration, and a big chalkboard to make lists on, and a nice spot to take photos of my projects.
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Of course that's probably all wishful thinking, but it's sure fun to dream isn't it? For now I'm off to continue organizing all my buttons and brads, just in case...
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