Work In Progress

Our beautiful old home is a work in progress.  We are constantly attempting to find that balance where our repairs coincide well with restoration and updating.  We are not however, the first owners to tackle this task.  The previous owners lived with her for 35 years and when they acquired it, there was no electricity upstairs.  They pulled off the walls, added electrical, insulation and closets….not exactly ‘fun’ fixes, but how we do appreciate their hard work.

We still have quite the list of restoration, repair and dreams for Glory Farm.  However, we so appreciate those people who know the work we have done, they boost us up.  It was a sweet and unlikely visit we had yesterday with a daughter of the previous owners.  She stopped by to pick up a piece of tractor equipment we had been holding for her.  I am aware that revisiting a beloved family home can be difficult.  (When I still lived in California, I for one ceased to drive down the road where house we all grew up in stood.)  However, the more we visited, the more we understood all the work her family had put into this home we love and the more we visited, the more I think she knew how much we love this home and how blessed we feel to be the current ‘caretakers’ of her.

We learned that when her family first bought the place the floors were so bad (old linoleum and lots of it), that her mother went into town to Sears and bought blue carpet to cover the kitchen and the bathroom purely as a short term, temporary measure, planning on pulling it up in a year.  This blue carpet was there until we pulled it up (along with the two layers of linoleum) 35 years later!!  All I can say, is that I am sure glad I didn’t fall for My Loving Spouse saying… ‘we can move in and pull it up in a little while’…it might still be there!

I invited her to come in to the house and see a bit of what we’d done.

As she walked across the porch (that I haven’t gotten to painting yet), she said, “Oh, the number of times I’ve painted this porch!  Oh, I might get teary eyed”.

“That’s okay, we’ve got tissues”.

I am so grateful she came inside for us both.  She loved the old fir floors, the lightness of the living room and the French doors…  I felt her blessing on what is now our home.  She said, “Oh, I am not crying…I see you love this place.”

…oh, and we do…we really, really do.