"Shauna, you have to look past the tin roof and crumbling chimney," he said as he grabbed my hand and led me up the steps. The excitement on his face concerned me. "Does he really think we could live here?" I wondered as I laughed to myself. As Brandon opened the front door I felt the anxiety of change overcome me. It seemed as if all my insecurities suddenly slapped me in the face. Before entering the rustic and decayed one-hundred year old house, I stopped at the doorstep and took a deep breath. Sensing my concerns, Brandon tugged on my hand with a look of optimism on his face. "Babe, please be open-minded. This little house has so much potential, and it's right up your alley-- a fixer-upper!" Forcing myself to think positive, I smiled. While the anxiety slowly diminished, I felt at ease and thankful that he knew me so well.
As we stepped into the vacant house I could smell it's age lingering in the air. With a raised eyebrow I waved the dust from my face. "Wow, 'fixer-upper' is an understatement," I said with a grin. We explored each room together, taking it all in. A plan slowly developed between the two of us and before we knew it we had the entire shack re-designed.
As reluctant as I may have been in the beginning, my imaginition quickly took over. Anything involving a creative outlet has my name written all over it. Regardlesss of the shack's condition, I knew our current living situation had to change for two reasons: 1) we could no longer afford our mortgage, and 2) we could no longer afford the commutes we were making to work and law school. With the help of family and friends we were able to move into our new "old shack" within a few short months. After adding a bedroom and bathroom to the back of the house, tearing down the wall that separated the kitchen and living room, painting the entire interior and exterior of the house, tiling the bathroom, installing new floors, kitchen cabinets, countertops and a back splash, updating the fireplace and cleaning, (sigh) we finally had the perfect little
Take a look!
While the shack house has been the perfect little abode during this transitional phase of our lives, we are ready to move on to the next chapter. Once we found out that we were expecting baby Jack we knew that a two bedroom house wouldn't be enough space for our growing family. We went back and forth between Newnan (where we're both from) and Atlanta (where Brandon works) for several weeks, finally deciding to do what we thought we'd never do- move back to where we came from. Our newly chosen hometown of Tyrone is just a few minutes from our families and friends, a short commute for Brandon, and the perfect little town to raise our family in.
Once we decided on the location, we started looking online for houses in the area. I tell people all the time that I think God led us straight to the house we ended up buying and I truly think he did. We found our new house the very first day we looked and it wasn't even on our list. After giving up at the end of "House Hunting Day One" we coincidentally drove by the house and saw a homemade "For Sale By Owner" sign in the front yard. Despite Brandon's reluctance because he assumed it was out of our price range, I talked him into turning around so we could call the number listed on the sign. Much to our surprise it was in our price range and the owner lived right next door and was more than eager to show it to us. As we walked from room to room we fell more and more in love with it's potential, just like the shack house! We prayed about it that night and made our offer the following day. The sellers (and our new next door neighbors) are the sweetest couple- we absolutely adore them. The wife keeps teachers' children for a living. Seriously! Like I mentioned before, God sent us to our new house. I'm sure of it! It's not perfect, but we have so many ideas on how to make it ours.
The house is a ranch with a full (unfinished) basement, 3 bedrooms plus an office, 2.5 bath and sits on an acre. It's not in a neighborhood, but nestled on a cute street with a lake behind it. We love it! Currently we are in the demolition/renovation phase. Our plan is to be finished with most of the interior by mid summer so we can move in. We have big plans for our new casa! I plan to share our progress later but for now I'll show you guys the first "before" picture. This is what the house looked like before we touched a thing ;) More to come soon!
(photo taken in March)
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