One Year Ago…

One year ago, we moved into a “new to us” house here in Tumbler Ridge. Technically, it’s more than a year, since we moved on September 1, 2022, but who’s being technical? (Not me…)

I believe that God’s timing is always perfect. Always. Even when I might not “feel” like it in the moment…

It took nine years for us to get to the point where we could move into this house. We bought it for a really good deal when the market was “hot”, thinking it was our ticket to retirement bliss. The plan: quickly renovate the house, sell the house we were living in for top dollar, pay off all our debts… Voila! Happily ever after!

Needless to say, things didn’t quite turn out that way. Renovating takes time. Duh. We knew that, but somehow my husband convinced me he could do it quickly. Then the real estate market tanked. There would be no selling either home for profit, let alone “top dollar.”

So, for about nine years, I looked at that house across the street. (Yes, it was directly across the street!) Sometimes I felt deep discouragement, even bordering on anger and frustration. Sometimes I was excited, inspired by interior finishes and what “could be”. Mostly I wondered if we would ever actually finish the house. It seemed like an impossible endeavor that might never be.

And then…

Last summer everything changed. We had the opportunity to sell the house we were in but had about two and a half months to make the “new” house liveable. Just to put things in context, we had previously gutted the ENTIRE house (all four floors) and my brother-in-law had done most of the framing and put in the new windows. There was a new roof and siding and most of the rough electrical was done. But, that’s about it.

No plumbing. No drywall. No plug-ins… (Never mind something so unnecessary as flooring.)

SOMEHOW with the help of contractors, friends, and family, we moved into the house at the end of August 2022. We had a bathroom, but no other plumbing in the house. I didn’t get my kitchen sink until Christmas! The kitchen flooring went in this past March. It has definitely been a work in progress and quite frankly, I DON’T recommend it to anyone. Living in a renovation zone is not for the faint of heart. I am still trying to find things and shuffling yet-unpacked boxes from room to room as we tackle the next project.

But I’m grateful, too. We’ve come a LONG WAY in one year. The yard is still a wreck, but my husband finally has an outside shop so we can move all his tools from the basement and I can finally get to the boxes that got buried beneath them.

I still don’t have my office the way I want. (I’m working on a folding table.) But it beats the first few days of school last year when I was perched on a chair amongst the ruins using my phone as a hotspot!

Here are a few pictures highlighting the changes.

A temporary desk beats working in the chaos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We celebrated the day we got a real fridge instead of the mini-fridge! Plus, yay for a real kitchen instead of this temporary coffee station!

How about flooring? Good-bye, plywood! (Except for the stairs… we’re still working on that detail!)

I am very grateful for where we are compared to a year ago. Things aren’t perfect, but it’s good to stop and look at the progress rather than what ISN’T done.