I had seen a listing in my inbox that seemed that it must have been a mistake... They were asking way to little for two houses on ten acres. And the next day both of our families drove out to what we now know as, The Farm.
As soon as we drove onto the property and unloaded our many small children, we all smiled at one another.
All ten acres were overgrown chest high.
The two houses on the property were soiled in animal urine, mouse poop, and dust two inches thick.
There was an old bench swing rigged with rusty chains, swinging in the wind between two glorious trees. Back then, I was enormously pregnant with The Charmer but I felt brave enough to sit on the old rickety swing with Tara and over all the weeds was the most beautiful view of one of the tallest mountains I had ever seen.
When we left that day, we put in an offer on the Farm and five months later, it was ours.
We knew from day one that we had just bought ourselves a 25 year project. And we also knew that we were committed to fixing only what we could do with cash... no debt.
We've be moving forward one with project at a time.
The Cowboy and his son spent the weekend pulling out the old, and building up the new.
When they tore down the front porch, they found a GIANT hole in the front of our house. (I'm thinking that's probably the reason that we had a snake crawling across our living room a few weeks back. :)
The Cowboy fixed that right up and then with the help of some lovely friends, built us a glorious new deck that spans the whole front of our little farm house.
I love it! Now all we need is a couple of rocking chairs and maybe a porch swing.
And I LOVE the view.
It's nice to have a house to fix up.
But what I love even more than our house, is all the memories were making as we daily turn our house into a home... A place where we can all be our real selves. A place where we might be broken yet gloriously redeemed. A place of belly laughter mixed with elephant size tears. A place of grace and hope and always the growing... growing straight into Him and all His extravagant love. :)
