We currently are a family of 6 living in a 3 bedroom mobile home. To say that Michael and I are very conservative people, would be the understatement of all time. My husband is a very frugal man that isn't happy if he isn't somehow saving, cutting a corner or getting a deal of some sort. Me? I like nice things but I can't see going broke to have them. I have about 3 or 4 pair of jeans, a couple dresses and a few nice shirts......that's just who I am ( I have a ton of sweat pants and tshirts, though ;). Until a couple weeks ago, it had been three years since my last haircut. I don't get my nails done. I wear shoes until they are unwearable. My kids don't get a toy every time we go in Wal-Mart. They have Garanimals and Children's Place and hand-me-down wardrobes. Michael and I lead a very simple life and we like it that way. We have made it nearly ten years in this old trailer that we bought used and damaged just before our wedding. We made it our home. While we love the memories made here, we have always dreamed of building and growing old in our forever home. The one where we would host sleepovers for our grand kids and watch each other get wrinkles and gray hair. We have watched friends and family members build, buy and remodel and we cheered them on enthusiastically....Patiently awaiting the day we could start on our own abode.
Around March of last year, we met with Josh Johnson and started talking about beginning construction on our home. He is one of the most talented people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting....But more on that later.
We were in very early planning and development stages when a tornado came and sped us up just a bit.
If you look closely you can see into the room we were in during the storm....and the night sky above it.
It seemed like forever until we heard the sounds of chainsaws... Volunteers were out in the wee hours trying to cut us a way out.
Ignoring the warnings until it was too late, we escaped our trailer just in the nick of time with the tornado nipping at our heels. We fled to Michael's parents for sturdier shelter and had just dove into this door when the tornado hit the house and started ripping the roof off. Michael and Mili were the last two in the door and narrowly escaped winds that were strong enough to rip huge trees out of the ground. I know that they were wrapped tight in the arms of our Protector. And I like to think My mom was there too, holding my little Mili's 20 lbs down on the ground when objects 10 times heavier were blowing all over the place. I have many regrets about that night, and what could have happened often keeps me up.
The night of the tornado, is a blog post of it's own that I will some day share with you. For now, I will just say this: if you have ever lived through a tornado, you know all too well that it changes you forever. If you have not, I pray you never do.
Our trailer was damaged to the point of being temporarily unlivable. The roof was blown off one end and it rained in there for a while afterwards. The girls bedroom window blew in and there was glass and debris blown all over their room. The living room wall bowed enough to allow rain to trickle in. We tried to move anything that was salvageable to a dry area immediately. Michael and I tore our bedroom apart that night, trying to get clothes bagged up and anything valuable out of the room which was flooded with over an inch of water. It was painful to see our lil home so devastated and having no idea where we would stay and the uncertainty of what the future held for us. Even so, we knew we were incredibly blessed just to be alive.
My brother didn't hesitate to take us in. We didn't know if we would be able to salvage our trailer or have to pour money into something temporary while the house was being built. I couldn't bring myself to go in the trailer. It was too sad to see it in that condition. I don't know that I set foot in there at all during the next few weeks. After about a month at my brother's house trying to decide what the plan was, Josh and Michael got together and assessed the damages. He was actually able to patch up our trailer just to hold us over until the new house was built. We were so eager to get back in there, we moved in the first day electricity was restored. Moving back in was bittersweet. It was nice to not be depending on someone else for shelter, and my eyes were definitely opened with a new perspective of the important things in life. But there was a mess that I can't even describe to you, nor would you want me to. Weeks of an abandoned house that was open for critters to have a field day in....Gross isn't the word. I cried our first night home because I was so overwhelmed. But, we got it cleaned up and threw away a ton of stuff and shampooed and sanitized and bleached and we have made due just fine.
We already had a good idea of what we wanted in a home, (10 years of dreaming had us a little bit prepared). But we used our time at Ronnie's to research plans and styles and really lock down some ideas. Luckily, we were both on the same page from the get go. We noticed there was a definite pattern in the things we like in a house. We kept going back to the same sites, the same looks, and the same exact pictures.
Here are some of the inspirations Michael and I found online:
We don't love every single thing about every picture. But something in each picture stood out enough that I STILL have these pictures saved in my phone almost a year later.
yes, I have 3,000 pictures in my phone.
The original plan:
a true two story with the girls upstairs and Michael and I on the ground level. We wanted it to be like a country farmhouse and a cabin in the mountains got married in a field of flowers and had a beautiful baby house.
That would be our house.
Of course, plans change.
To be continued....
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