Third Anniversary

Today is the third anniversary of our owning Wendhurst Castle. I was just telling a friend the other day that as much as I absolutely love our house, and I am beyond thankful for it, I am not sure that we still would have purchased this house knowing how much work it would be. Who would have known that it would take months to remove the cork off of the living room walls, or that a basement renovation would be stretching into the 23rd month on this project? But it has been so worth it. I love how we've slowly been transforming this house into home, and making every inch of it ours.



Some combination of keeping this house, as well as restoring this house, has become my fulltime job. It's a good thing I quit my "day job" three years ago, because we never would have accomplished half of the things we have so far.  We've learned so much, about home renovation, about ourselves, about each other. We make a great team, together we've tackled plumbing, demolition, electrical, drywall, painting, decorating.... the list goes on and on. We're having a blast. :)

When we looked into purchasing a home, we made two resolutions:



1) That we would use our home to be a blessing to others. We weren't buying 1600 square feet to have more space to fill up with stuff, we were buying it so that we had the room to have people over for dinner, to host parties, to have guests... the list goes on and on. God has given us so many opportunities to use the castle for him, whether it be by hosting missionaries, or family, or friends (old and new!), or having someone (or many someones) over for dinner. It's been our view from the beginning that if God saw fit to bless us with this house, then we'll use it for him as much as we can!



2) That our owning a home and restoring it would never be the primary focus of our lives. This is why it has taken us 23 months and counting to remodel our basement, three summers to clear out a concrete planter, and why, three years later, my office ceiling is still falling down. :-) People are so much more important than houses or things, and so that's where our focus is.

So yes, we've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into our home. A lot of time. A lot of money. But we've put many, many more hours into the lives of people around us. And if that means that our basement bathroom still has no walls, even though it has a functioning toilet, then that's how it will be. ;-)