So much has happen since I last wrote a post.
I think the best way to share this whole story is to begin from the end and work my way backwards.
So here goes….We moved 2.5 hours south east of where we had spent the last 31 years of our lives. But the best news is we are out of debt and I now have a front porch with a swing!
So now the rest of the story…
We sold our house! The house where we raised five amazing children, welcomed 13 grandchildren and celebrated multiple anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, baptisms. There were buckets of tears shed, laughter beyond measure, arguments, apologies, forgiveness, miles walked while holding crying babies, accidents, injuries, boo-boos. I can’t imagine the amount of toilet paper and toilet flushes in 31 years.
Walls were painted, painted, painted and painted…there was demo, remodeling, I’m embarrassed to say some things were demo’d and never remodeled (this is why the word flip is in the title), carpets ripped out, floor laid and sometimes not.
We started several businesses while living in our home of 31 years. Some made it, some didn’t, some are still going strong.
We collected, hoarded, cleaned out and sold, then collected more. It’s was fun, then after awhile all that stuff you once loved becomes a burden. I lost sleep over it. More on that later.
To sum it up….We now live in East Texas, not North Central Texas. We are renting for now because we just don’t know much about this area and to be honest we really don’t know how God will use us in the next year. So for now it’s just best to be not so tied down.
So are you wondering what exactly happened and what did we flip?
Question is…what didn’t we flip? There wasn’t a room that wasn’t touched with either a paint brush or hammer. In a nut shell we pretty much redid the whole inside…updated and brightened.
Our realtor said she wanted people to be wowed when they step through the front door. I think we did well!
I have to say, there were many friends who sweetly said the house no longer looked like my house. That is exactly what we set out to accomplish, because in reality it wasn’t going to be our house any longer.
We met with our realtor in April and set in motion a plan to have the house on the market by May 15th. We had 6 weeks to gitt’r done.
She said, do this….remove that….change this….fix, clean out, finish, redo. My head was spinning, but we regrouped, tackled and rallied. Our house sold in three days with multiple offers. So when I get asked if all that hard work was worth it? yes it was! Would I ever do this again…flip a house? Who can say, but right now the memory of pain and exhaustion is still too fresh.
We also get asked if we miss our old house and to that we reply; not one bit. The Lord truly stood in that gap for us and gave us peace throughout the whole process. Have to give God all that glory because we could not have done any of what we accomplished without Him.
Sadly we had to say goodbye to our sweet Rudy. His age and health issues could not handle the stress. His body gave up and we let him go four days before closing. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him. He was my buddy 24/7 for 14 years.
We have our sites set on finding a little house on the prairie or a cabin in the woods or maybe just something on a nice piece of land. So I guess you can count on us finding a place that we will be working on, just not sure when or where. So for now, this sweet little frame house, in this tiny East Texas town will do.
If you would like to see the full house tour, click here.
peace. love. rust
Rustique Art 