Providence

Dictionary.com has this as one definition for providence:  3.  a manifestation of divine care or direction.

Right now I believe Mr. Math and I are in the big middle of providence. 

I feel like I need to share a little about our journey selling our lake house and buying our new place. Please indulge me as I share a little about our journey.  It has been quite a ride since early spring when we started this trip.

We had not planned on selling Star Hill.

We loved that quirky kit house, warts and all.  It was our weekend home for over eight years.  Star Hill was finally to the point that the work that needed doing was maintenance.  It would need a roof, and it was time for a new central air conditioner but nothing super labor intensive for us.  We would have hired that work out.  The only reason we would have ever considered selling  the place was if a place came up for sale we couldn’t pass up near where our friends retired.  It happened.

Acreage, across the street from our friends, on a creek, with a pond, and s-e-v-e-n out buildings for all of my treasures came up for sale by owner.   My buddy, The Social Planner, let us and several other folks who she thought might be interested know it would be going on the market.  Immediately I started preparing Mr. Math not to get his hopes up.  I begged him not to fall in love with the idea until we had all the facts.

1. Could we afford such beautiful property?
2. Could we sell Star Hill fast enough and for enough to make purchasing the home possible?
3. Was something seriously wrong with the place?  Why were they selling so suddenly?

After meeting with the couple and getting a tour of the place we just knew.  This place was meant to be ours.  I can’t explain it still.  It was nothing like I thought we would buy as we prepare for retirement.  I always thought we would get a historic home in Huntsville, Texas and restore it.  A small lot, near downtown, where we could enjoy living in a college town. We had even looked at some homes, but none of them moved us like this property did.

1. The couple were asking a price that was more than fair.  It appraised well over what we paid for the home.
2. We were able to sell Star Hill rather quickly and were able to get what we needed to make the purchase not only possible, but well within our means.
3. We had the home and property inspected by the toughest inspector we could find.  This guy wore us out at Star Hill.  He went over the home and property with a fine toothed comb and provided us with a pretty lengthy punch list, but nothing unexpected for a home built in the 1980’s. Septic is fine, well is fine, home is solid, roof and central air still has life in them.  I honestly still don’t know why the couple put this place on the market.

I just told you all this not to brag, because we honestly don’t feel we had anything to do with this purchase, but to tell you  that I am 100% positive that it was providence that we were able to purchase this property.  At every turn we have seen God’s hand in our owning this particular home.  We wake up smiling every morning we are there and we drop into bed, exhausted.  At this point we have painted about half the interior, moved in, put up a wall, taken down wallpaper border, installed curtains, and removed carpet.

Don’t be fooled by this post, I am still scared.  The home is far from perfect, and we know we are going to have our work cut out for ourselves.  On top of keeping up with 15 acres, we will have a ton of work on the house and buildings.

As we have been on this journey we have had some amazing things happen.  Here are a few of the things that have just happened this summer.

•  Our brand new suburban neighbors, who we just met, came over to let us know that they were buying a trailer. They didn’t even know we were buying a place.  They wanted to let us know we could use it whenever we needed it. The trailer is awesome.  We have really used it to get all of our stuff moved.
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• The foundation expert we brought in, from the same company who looked at the property eight years ago, did not recommend and foundation work be done.  He feels that the house has stablized and while it will always move on the type soil we have, we need a foundation sprinkler system, not foundation work.  We had set aside a huge chunk of our budget to fix the foundation based on information from the previous homeowners.   We are thrilled to say a foundation sprinkler system is in our future.
• The Social planner needed the carpet we were ripping out and helped us remove it.  Not putting all of that carpet into a landfill made me feel so much better.  
• A family member offered us a huge riding lawn mower, with 16 hours use  on it along with a leaf sweeper.  It needs a little repair but wow, it is going to be awesome.  It is going to save us so much mowing time with two riding mowers running.
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• Another family member is selling their home and gave us a ton of stuff for our home including a like-new king sized mattress, box spring, and frame from their guest room.
• Behr paint went on sale, $10.00 a gallon off, the very week we went to buy paint.  That is the first time it has been marked down so much.  Usually th sale is $5.00 off.

It has seriously felt like everything I start worrying about gets fixed as soon as it comes to my mind.  I am the worrier of the two of us.

We are committed to opening our home to family and friends.  We have been blessed by this home and want it to be a get away for others who are looking for a place of peace, recharging, and refuge.  Our doors will be open often.

So far we have hosted a ton of family and friends and right now, as I write my son has 20 or more college students at the house for a retreat.  Even with raw concrete floors, and walls under construction, we knew we could not say no when asked.

Thank you all for following along on our journey.  Each and every one of you will be welcomed into our home if you ever want to visit.  Oh, and help us name the place.  We are struggling to give it a name.

Here are some recent outside photos of the property.  I am waiting until we are a little further along to show you what the inside is looking like.  

 

We drove up last night to find our wonderful neighbors letting their grandson fish in our pond.  He caught the first fish since our purchase!  I am just sad we missed it.

    
 
We love hearing from you. Come visit us. 

Blessings,

Karen