Saturday, July 2, 2011

Home

It took us a while to find this place.
An old house filled with character and charm.
A diamond in the rough, or a money pit, depending on the day.
A place with enough bedrooms for a family, but small enough to feel cozy.
The checklist was long, the search was wide.
"Too small" I would say.
"Too new" he would respond.
"Ah, definitely not!" we agreed.
Our poor realtor, nodding his head as we rushed through another,
and then another,
and then another.
Days turned to weeks,
Weeks turned to months,
and then by chance, we found it.
"We should check this place out" Bry muttered, "after all it's only two houses away from this open house".
It's not even a town we were considering.
I didn't even get to preview it online.
I don't think this could be it.
Walking in, I was ready to count it out, to consider it another "no".
Dingy pink walks met us as we walked in.
"This will be an easy." I thought.
Pocket doors, really?
Functioning?
"Look at the dining room" I blurted out, immediately attempting to quell my voice. "It's huge, and Tiffany blue!"
"Nothing paint couldn't fix" Bry said.
Thanksgiving dinner and birthday parties
The kids could easily sit here at the table doing homework.
"Why didn't they publicize the kitchen?" Bry asked.
Room enough for the six burner stove he always dreamed and an old white porcelain sink.
Don't get ahead of yourself
Photos of our family through the years would look fabulous up the stairs.
Coming to the top of the stairs, doors surrounded us.
Four bedrooms, one full bathroom.
Small enough to fit a crib and dresser, and have a cozy nursery.
Hardwoods and huge windows.
"Be sure to check out the third floor" the realtor instructed.
Up another flight of stairs to the hidden gem, a room the size of the second floor.
While the ceiling is dormered, it still is tall enough for us to walk.
The kids could have a fantastic playroom.
A backyard and front, ivy covered but the size was right.
Back to the front porch, a porch we ignored coming it.
Ceiling fans and lots of room.
We left, but the memory of that house stayed.

More houses came, but nothing compared.
We made an offer, but it didn't work out.
We walked away.

One month.

Two month.

"Are they still interested?" their realtor asked.

We signed and found our house.
We found our Home.

My dad and Mo on the front steps a few hours after we got the keys.

The stairway

The Tiffany Blue walls in the dining room

The third floor playroom on the day we closed
This post was inspired by a prompt from the Lightning and the Lightning Bug. This weekend's Dare to Share Link Up theme is For Love of Country. We'd love for you to share any patriotic posts or simply posts related to your country or home.

6 comments:

  1. oh my goodness. I stopped by to say thank you for leaving a comment and visiting and read this post and fell in LOVE, with your writing AND the amazing house you call home!!!! I am a new follower as of right now!

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  2. It's an amazing feeling when you find your home. We've been in ours for a little over a year, and I still look around and think "ahh...I love our house!" Congrats on finding yours :)

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  3. It's lovely and definitely has a lot of character!

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  4. Oh, my gosh. Have you really just found this place? There is no home like an old home! We renovated a Queen Anne that wasn't fully electrified when we bought it in the late 1980s. Your description of the real estate process really transported me back in time. The first walk through our house ended with the realtor saying, I am sorry I should have previewed while we were simultaneously shouting this is it!

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  5. Oh I'm so glad you posted this, it's beautiful!!! Thank you for sharing your Tiffany blue walls and charm-covered diamond in the rough, it's like a dream! We also found our "soul-mate" house, and we thank the good Lord every day.

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  6. I love your house! I have always wanted an old house but my husband...not so much. We built our house about four years ago and when designing it, I tried to incorporate little touches that would be reminiscent of an old home. It is too big though. I would like something smaller and I can totally relate to this line: "A place with enough bedrooms for a family, but small enough to feel cozy." Exactly!

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Let me know what you think.