The Mennobrarian

He shall set his children under her shelter…

My dear husband and I have only been married a little over six months.

“Saving you money and making your life easier for over six months, now!” I say.

 
He laughs.

 Shortly before our wedding, we purchased a modest one-story home on a small acre of land, conveniently situated close to our church, and not far from access to a major Interstate. The acreage behind our house is owned and farmed by people we know. We were fortunate to find anything at all we could afford in the tight housing market of our densely populated state. The young man from whom we purchased the house had done his best to “renovate” it, and his skills fell woefully short at this task. Even after his attempts at masking things like uneven walls, our home is essentially a tear-down job. We are deep, deep into reconstruction work that we expect to last another five years. We have made our living room into our bedroom/dining area/recreation area, and designated one of the three bedrooms as an office. The other two bedrooms serve as a tool and supply room, and a room filled with housewares and wedding gifts that would be too impractical for use in our cramped quarters at the present time.

 
We have done all of the work on the house on our own, with occasional help from my father-in-law. It is a long…slow…process.

 
Since it is all I can do to look after the inside of the house, make sure we have clean clothes to wear, cook meals, clean, and garden, I am often out of the loop, as they say, when it comes to knowing what is being worked on at any moment. In some ways it provides freedom, since, according to my husband, people really don’t want to hear the details of your electrical wiring and gas line pressure. Still, there are many people who still ask me “how the house is coming along.”

 
“Well…uh…I saw there was some wire thing that was…uh…being pulled under something…and, uh…I don’t know but I’m sure it’s something important and it needs to be done, so, uh, I guess that’s good.”

 
Really, I’m just trying to plan my next casserole and get the dogs to the vet.

 
Also, the house is old. We did not realize how old until we started tearing out walls, but it is about a hundred years old. Nothing done to it has ever been done up to code, and so as soon as we start putting in a new this-or-that, we always have to go back ten steps and redo everything done before. Yes, it can be exhausting and discouraging. It is always so nice when I meet someone who has renovated a house before and seems to understand the long, slow process which is so at odds with our “want it right now” society. They don’t ask when the housewarming party will be- they know it’s far in the future. They know what it’s like to live in a construction zone where there is little in the way of décor, the floor is always dirty, and field mice easily find their way inside. They know what it is like to live with chaos, and simply, to live without minor comforts. It is on the hardest days that I am infinitely grateful for those people.

Untitled Comment

08:22, Wednesday, November 21, 2007 .. Posted by rellamom

I really ought to put you in touch with my Aunt Nancy! She has been going through one construction experience after another for more than twenty years!

Presently, they are just finishing up putting in a second entrance for their son and his wife (who they turned their basement into an apartment for!).

I love to hear her stories! - I'm sure you would too!
;-P

Carrie