July 19, 2007 | Mama Smith

the new home

Even though an amazingly large amount of you all found them all ready, for the rest of you, I’ll officially announce that the pictures of our new home – yes, you read that correctly – can be found on my flickr site, linked to in the Photos section above.

So the Smith family is buying a house. It still feels pretty surreal. After praying and searching and obsessing over realtor.com for over a year in a futile attempt to find a home we could buy here in Mt. Airy, the hopes of ever being homeowners seemed pretty unobtainable.

Then came Greenville. Once the decision to move was officially made we began dreaming of the homes we’d wistfully wandered through while visiting Greenville a month ago. One in particular.

I don’t know if it happens like this for everyone, but from the moment we stepped inside, we were in love. The floors were dusty, the walls were stripped, and air reeked of years of neglect. But the charm and character of this old 1920’s cottage still hovered under the surface. Old telephone chairs still pulled down from the wall with ease. The curved front door had it’s own matching curved screen door. Exploring each nook and cranny, we never would have thought this house would possibly be ours a few months later. But now it just might be.

We signed the papers, put in an offer, and recently found out that, baring any unforseen disaster, we will be moving in to our new home in the next month or so after all the renovations are complete. Unreal.

Some times I have a really hard time believing Christ is lavish in his love towards us. A house is one thing. Our dream house is a whole different story.

The decision to move was very painful and hard. But to us it was so clear, it couldn’t not be taken. There was nothing about it that seemed easy or void of sadness and struggle. We are bound to face culture-shock. We are bound to be lonely. We are bound to miss our community more than we feel we can bear at times. But this is the next phase in the journey that we’ve been ushered in to.

To have a home in the midst of that. A place we can rest as we feel the weight of change. This is a sweet, sweet respite and gift.

The simple story behind our house is that it was recently purchased by a contractor who lives in the area and is hoping to restore and maintain many of the 1920 bungalows that make up the historic district there. This one was never on the market. It was a “fluke” that we were able to see it. Therefore when we made an offer a few weeks later, our offer was unrivalled and therefore accepted. It is currently being renovated – now with our own specifications and choices – and will be restored to it’s original beauty sometime in the next month or so. Check it out.

As for the crazy mothering days going on around here, thank you all for the encouragment and willingness to laugh with me. Yesterday I put our electric kettle on the stove, lit the gas, and stood there staring for a second before I was shocked out of my daze and grabbed it off the stove before I melted it to a ball of plastic. Some day I’ll be a fully fuctioning, reliable human being again. Until then, it’s simply survival mode.