Introducing Our Fixer Upper

The last month has been one huge confirmation after another that we are supposed to move north.  The day after we got big news in court about L's case we put our house on the market.  After being shown just 5 times we had two offers on it within 48 hours. One was for our asking price, the other for more than our asking price.

For sale sign in the yard on Thursday.  Contract signed on Sunday.  WHAT???

The next week we made our appointment with a realtor to go see a few houses in Columbia.  I wasn't particularly excited about any of them.  The first few houses had choppy lay outs that couldn't be easily reconfigured, only one bathroom on the main level (recall the great stomach virus that invaded our house recently and the general fact that we have three daughters to understand why this is not ideal), no garage, or a steep wooded hill for a backyard. I joked that we would need to tie each of our kids to a tree at the top of the hill when they went out to play so we could pull them back up when they were done.

Earlier in the week Jeff had sent me an email with a link to a house with the subject line, "Want A Pool?"  I thought, "you're hillarious."  When I flipped through the pictures I saw what looked like an in ground hot tub or small fish pond in the back yard.  However, it also had a fenced back yard that is decently flat, potential for hospitality/ministry space and hard wood floors.  I wrote him back and said, "I don't hate it!" How about that for a rave review? 

When we pulled onto the street I already loved how it felt.  It's an older established neighborhood and the street is quiet.  It's only 10 minutes from campus and two minutes from the elementary school.  Most of the houses on our street were built in the sixties and this one is a tri level home.  If I could pick any style, this probably wouldn't be it, but after looking at other houses in our budget and seeing the potential in this one, I fell in love (and thank you, Bri, for helping me see the cool factor in mid century homes...please keep reminding me in the rennovation process).  This house was priced to sell.  It was at the top of our budget, but this is a great investment property because of it's neighborhood. 

Our plan is to knock out that wall in the kitchen to open up this whole area.  We are also taking out the tile and putting hardwood in and refinishing the rest of floors at the same time so it all matches.  We will save up to one day put an L shaped island/bar where that wall is.  Until then, the kitchen will be an adventure!  Lots of hand washing dishes, and temporary storage for kitchen items.  Someday I will love this kitchen, though.

This is the view from the added on family room into the dining room/original family room.

This is the added on family room.  It needs new flooring and paint which we will do before we move in. 

These french doors open up to the patio in the back yard.  Even those doors need TLC.  Almost every square inch of this property needs some TLC, which makes me want to collapse on the floor thinking about the time and energy it will take for years to come, but I still love it.

Welcome to the amazing master suite! Hahaha

Big kids room

L's room

I'm guessing the last time the inside of  those closets were painted was when the house was built.  It reminds me of the Sunday school rooms at my home church when I was little.

Downstairs! The owner had her own one chair salon down here at one point.

There is another full bath with a stand up shower down here which is a huge bonus!  This bathroom also needs a lot of work. We will get to that someday when we reconfigure some things to make another bedroom downstairs.

This is a covered area on the back of the garage that we can enclose to build a shop for Jeff at some point.  His "to build" list is looooooong so I wish we could do that right away.

So, the pool looks McNASTY right now, but all you really need to know is that it isn't big enough for a diving board, but it's a lot bigger than a hot tub....and we will be swimming in it this summer.  Yay!!! We also need to have a fence put around it as soon as possible because all four of the kids were hovering around the edge when we took them to see the house and I almost had a panic attack.

The girls are very excited about this "little house" but Ella looked inside and said, "It doesn't look vewee (very) good."  Hahaha!  It just needs a little TLC like everything else.

I have lots of ideas for that fenced area...a garden would be my pick if we didn't have young kids, but I'm guessing a swing set or trampoline will go there sometime.  Eventually it will be the back yard of their dreams.

So, we went to see it only a few days after it went on the market.  There was someone else waiting in the driveway to look at it when we went in.  We knew it wasn't going to be on the market long so we put an offer on it that day.  Someone else had beat us to it and the seller was giving a counter offer.  We drove home feeling like our chances were slim, but still hopeful.  We got word that she was giving everyone until Sunday at 5 p.m. to make their best offer.  We talked about it and prayed about it and came up with the best offer we could make and stay within our means.  The odds did not feel in our favor.  I was pretty sure this house was at the bottom of another bidder's price range while it was at the top of ours.  I felt pretty sure we would get out bid.

My cousin, Kim, also suggested that I write a letter to go with our offer.   I was super nervous to do that because I didn't want the seller to feel like I was trying to manipulate her, but I also wanted to give it all we had.  Jeff gave me a thumbs up so I decided to do it.  I just wanted her to know a little bit about us, what it means to us as we think about handing our keys to a new family, and why we would be so honored to live in the house that she once called home.  We attached it to our offer and waited...I was so nervous.

It happened to be Easter Sunday and we were meeting with our church and hosting our big Easter cookout and egg hunt for the community.  I was getting something out of a closet when Jeff came in and showed me a text on his phone.  It read, "the seller has accepted your offer." I literally burst into tears.  You see, we tied with someone else for the highest offer and she chose us.  I don't know if it was the letter that helped her decide, but I absolutely believe that God made a way.  It was such a sweet time to get that news because our church celebrated this sweet moment with us, recognizing God's hand of providence in our move.  There could be no doubt now.

When I walked out of the room with tears of relief and excitement my friend, Denise, jumped up and hugged me and celebrated like it was her own good news.  She had no idea what a gift that was to me.  Community is built on living life together in Christ.  That includes two really important things: celebrating and grieving together.  Unbeknownst to her, Denise showed me what it looks like to celebrate with someone that day.  I need to grow by leaps and bounds in that area.

Celebrate with others like it's your own good news. 

Rejoice! Cry happy tears. Throw a party.  Give God thanks together.

Grieve with others like it's your own pain. 

Weep.  Pray with them and for them.  Sit with them in their sorrow.  Serve them.

This is community.

This is really difficult to do.  It really must be the work of God through His spirit in us.  The enemy and our flesh will throw every fiery dart to try and destroy this kind of community.  We have to slay our pride, our jealousy, our comparison, our comfort zone, our selfishness, and our own desires to love one another this way.  The way we see children cry when they don't get the prize or pout at a birthday party when it's not their day to open gifts doesn't go away when we grow up.  We just mask it better. 

It's also easy to focus on our own lives and not engage the messiness of grief.  It's like a minefield that none of us know how to navigate.  We often prefer to pray from a distance and say "let me know if you need anything" instead of offering specific ways that we are willing to help.  Let them choose which of those things would be helpful, instead of always putting the burden on them to ask.  We have to take initiative.  It's hard, intentional, persevering love that goes the distance with someone when they are grieving and hurting.  Of course, we might say something wrong.  We might mess up and give the wrong gift or the right gift on the wrong day...but saying nothing and doing nothing is sure failure in community.  We must try.  We say we're sorry when we get it wrong.  We give and receive grace.  We learn to love each other. 

We have to risk messing up to demonstrate love to each other.

This is oneness.  We don't have to agree about everything to be one.  We don't have to always get it right to be one.  We have to love another deeply from the heart to be one.

I will miss this community more than words can say when we have to go, but I have learned so much by being a part of it.  Thank you, Stonebridege family.  We aren't finished yet and we still need you, but thank you for all you have done for us and mean to us.  Let's press on...

As for this house, let the memories begin...and the cleaning and painting.  We will be accepting volunteers in late May and June!  It's going to be a crazy transition, but God has put His hand print all over it.  On hard days, we will need to remember that.  Remind us of that if this turns into the Tom Hanks movie, The Money Pit.

As a memorial of remembrance when the hard days come I will write these words here...

 By His incredible kindness He has made a way at every turn.  

He has called us to go...and so we will go.