Making a House a Home

BEFORE

AFTER

Delaware has been on my mind lately. I think because fall is around the corner and there is no place more magical than the US east during that time of year. Delaware was the place where my first two babies were born and it was also the place where Axel and I really made a house a home. It will always hold a special place in my heart.

We lived in two rentals before we actually bought our home there. Finding a home to buy was agonizing and stressful. There were so few decent homes on the market (remember when it was a sellers market?). I spent many-a-nights wondering if we would have to live in a van down by the river.

BUT, after another day of depressing home tours, Axel gave me a blessing that said that I would find the home of my dreams. WHAT???? Now, my testimony is pretty rock solid, but this was equivalent to walking on water as far as I was concerned. The possibility of this happening was zero to none.

Not too long after the blessing, I received a phone call from our realtor that said he had a house that was in rough condition, but if we wanted to see it before it went on the market, we were free to do so. Axel and I walked in the house, went through two rooms and asked when we could make an offer.

The funny thing was, the house was ready to fall apart. There wasn't a corner of the home that needed some kind of work. The decor was painful to the eyes and there was a very strange feeling to the house. I can't explain it, nor can Axel, but we knew we had to buy the house immediately because the house itself was crying for us to buy it.

I am not one to give life to inanimate objects, but this house was different. It spoke to us in many ways and we knew we could bring it back to life. Strange, weird, and bizarre, I know...but totally true.

Axel and I always said that the house either had a million dollars in it, or a dead body. It was an ongoing joke the whole two years we lived there. Who knew our off-the-cuff joke would become a reality...(more on this later).

The first week we took possession, Axel worked on refinishing the beautiful hardwood floors. The electricity would often go out. To turn it on, he had to go down into the creepy basement and throw the switch. He would admit that being there--alone in the pitch dark--was somewhat like a horror movie, you know, blind, in a creepy haunted house with a lurking axe murderer ready to make his kill.

The day after the house was ready for use to move in, Axel left for a business trip to several countries in South America for two weeks. There I was, all alone with two babies, one 4 months, one 16 months and in the most hazardous environment for children possible. I would have probably been better off in a landfill than that house. I had no functional kitchen and again, I got used to living without heat, water, or electricity (who knew it was just a proving ground for my life in Nepal?).

Here is the kitchen I had to work with while Axel was gone:

I have never been more in awe of Axel in my entire life during those two years. There was nothing he wouldn't tackle. If it needed to be done, he grabbed a book from the library, spoke with an expert, and gave it a try. That is one of the things I LOVE about my husband he isn't intimidated in the least by any challenge.

During those two years I don't think there was a DIY project that Axel did not do, electrical, plumbing, tiles, framing, drywall, landscaping, flagstone, cabinets, floor refinishing, etc., etc. etc. He would wake up at five, work for two hours, put in a full days work at the office, and then put in another several hours at night. We only paid one man once to help with the electrical, he taught Axel what to do and Axel did the rest on his own. Home Depot became our second home. I remember that one of the first expressions Heavah ever said was "Home Depot? Not again!". The house was our life and we gave it all we had.

When the last flagstone was laid outside, we put the house on the market to go to Dubai. It was an extremely sad moment in my life. Luckily, we sold just before the real estate market nose dive and the house sold in less than 12 hours. We got exactly what we wanted for it, but no price could really compensate for all the amazing memories we had in that house.

Here are some BEFORES and AFTERS:

Kitchen BEFORE

Yep, we lived like this for far too long

Try to find all the safety hazards

Kitchen AFTER

Marble tile countertops

designed tile floor

Dining Room BEFORE

Ahh, wallpaper. I don't care how much people tell me it is back in style, after peeling all of this off, I will never succumb.

Dining Room AFTER

All new windows. Before we got new windows, I used the other ones as Halloween decor for the kids party. The windows had webs, spiders, etc. It was WAY creepier than anything artificial that I could have made.

Main Floor Bathroom BEFORE

There was a great hole in this bathroom floor that conveniently went into the basement.

Main Floor Bathroom AFTER

Laundry Room BEFORE

Laundry Room AFTER

Entryway BEFORE

Entryway AFTER

Living Room BEFORE

Living Room AFTER

Sewing Room BEFORE

Axel slept here that week he redid the the whole house full of hard wood floors. Each square inch three times over. Until of course a church member came over and said 'do it once more'. AGONY! But he was right. The fourth time was the charm.

Sewing Room AFTER

Heavah's Room BEFORE

Heavah's Room AFTER

Xavier's Room BEFORE

Xavier's Room AFTER

Master Bedroom BEFORE

Master Bedroom AFTER

Master Bath BEFORE

Mountain Dew and spackle: The breakfast of champions!

You think that moldy shower roof alone would have sent us running.

Master Bath AFTER

Upstairs Bathroom BEFORE

Upstairs Bathroom AFTER

You can see the broken tile and walls that had to be fixed. So much work, so little reward.

Going Down the stairs

Basement BEFORE pictures are lost. To be truthful, I am not too sure if we took any BEFORE pictures, there are just some visuals of this home we don't care to remember. Just envision the creepiest, freakiest, damp, scary, gross, dark basement you possibly can. Yeah, that was our basement.

Basement AFTER

Front & Back Yard BEFORE:

Front & Back Yard AFTER

There was a big concrete fire pit in the back with stone walls that took about a month to make. No pictures. Apparently we were too busy working on it.

T

Sadly, we have more pictures somewhere to better show Axel's flagstone work. I can't seem to find it amongst the mess.

As a last note (because this blog is not long enough) - The day we finally left this home I was bawling my eyes out. So many memories, so much work. It was difficult. That is when Axel said this:

"I think I can make you feel a bit better. When I went to Acme (grocery store) about 6 months ago a man stopped me and said, 'Hey, aren't you the guy who lives at blank,blank?' He then proceeded to tell me that several years back the man who lived in this home had murdered his wife and buried her in the basement. He then proceeded to describe our basement with eerie precision. They found the body and the man was sent to prison."

Immediately, the previous strange feelings of the home made sense. But that odd feeling was now gone. Instead, the house sang of thanks and happiness. It was now such a pleasant place to be.

Of course we couldn't have found the million dollars, but thankfully, we didn't find the dead body either. However, I felt like we had found a million dollars from the strength it brought our family and the happiness we experienced while living there. I will most likely live in many more homes to come. I am also sure they will be bigger and more comfortable than the home we lived in in Delaware. BUT, most likely, no home will bring me more satisfaction or more joy. It tested us, it strengthened us, and it taught us. What it mainly taught me was to never doubt God. It was, and forever will be, my dream home and of that I can't deny.