Psalms 127:1 Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it

As promised this post will be about something that takes quite a bit of Miguel's and my time....our house. When Miguel and I got engaged one of the things that we agreed on was that we did not want to rent....we wanted to own our own home. That being said we could not afford much because we did not want to be house poor. So we decided we would get a "fixer uper". So we looked.....and looked.....and looked some more. Have you ever, dear readers, been in a house that is listed at less than $10,000? Well, I have and let me tell you it is SCARY!! We were at one of these scary houses when the realtor said, "Hey I have another house that you might be interested in if you have time to look." My mom and dad were with us and we said sure. This house had a lot of things that we wanted...it was out in the country, had a good size yard, and had some growing room. Yes, there were certainly some scary parts, but I asked myself the question that my mom told me to, "Does this feel like home" and it did. My dad was telling Miguel to ask himself, "Do you really want to work 8 hours a day and come home and work on a house?" (Chuckle) Well, we put in an offer and after a VERY long ordeal that would take pages and pages to go into, we were finally home owners. Let's just say that the bank messed up soooo badly with keep delaying things that they ended up paying ALL of the closing costs and cutting us a check for $900. Now the fun begins. Our house is about 100 years old. It has 5 bedrooms, living room, dining room, family room, utility room, and one bathroom. It has 2,200 square feet. It needed A LOT of work. We had 1 year to get a new roof on, siding, new windows, and some of the rooms didn't even have dry wall. The walls just had studs. The front room when you enter the house was actually being supported by floor jacks because the previous owner decided to knock out a supporting wall. But, as anyone knows that has done any remodeling, the work was way more than we orginally thought. The house had the orginial wiring in it from probably when they first wired the house for electricity. So EVERY wall had to be knocked down so we could rewire it. With the deadline looming over us some really awesome family members and friends spent countless hours tearing off the roof, drywalling, painting, or whatever. You know who you are and I still get teary eyed thinking of all of the help that we received. I know God will bless you. Now we have been living in the house for about 3 1/2 years......in adition to all the work that had to be done within a year, Miguel has put in all new doors inside and out, reinsulated every room, new wiring in every room, which means new dry wall in every room, new floors, we have added walls, and knocked out walls, and took out doors. Did you ever noticed that old farm houses have doors every where?!??! For instance, the kitchen originally had 4 doors into it and there was a door from the dining room into the master bedroom. We still have more to go, of course, but we have come a long way. We still have some of the bigger more expensive projects, like the kitchen. Looking back would I gone this route? Being newly married, living in a continual project? Hmmm I'm not sure....but I can tell you this...I have learned A LOT. I always joke that if you want marriage counseling...work on a house together. I have learned when to give my "helpful" suggestions and when to be quiet, I have learned to be more patient, I have learned that there are still awesome people that will drop everything because you need help, I have learned that it's not what you have or how everything looks that people visiting your house notice its the love and peace that fill your home, I have learned to budget my money better, and I am still learning that there will always be projects and things to do, but I will never have this day again to spend with God and my family......so some things can wait. =)
And now I give you some before and after pictures.............................