Proud Of The House We Built

(The chicken house that resided where our house now is located.)

(Bye bye chicken house! October 2007)
Oh, look at us together
Oh, we've come such a long long way

I'm proud of the house we built
It stronger than sticks, stones and steel
It's not a big place sittin up high on some hill
Lot of things will come and go
But love never will
I'm proud
Yeah I'm proud of the house we built

Everytime of I think back to the process of our house becoming our home, I think of the above Brooks & Dunn song. It was actually 3 years ago, this past October, that we broke ground. Ryan amazed me daily by building our entire house from start to finish. He would work a full day at his day job and then come here and work until he couldn't keep his eyes open. His weekends were completely devoted to this house just so we could be in by the time our wedding came (April, 2008). And we were! With a few weeks to spare even.

Now when I sit in my home or I pull in to the driveway or I am out in the yard I can't help but feel overwhelmed with happiness. I love our home. I really love our home. If we had a full basement and possibly a garage then I think we would stay in this home forever. We haven't added any kids to our crew so storage hasn't been a huge problem but I foresee it being a huge issue on down the road. That stinks! Why? Because did I mention I love this place? I love that this was our first home. I love that Ryan put his blood, sweat and tears into this home. I love that Ryan carried me across the threshold of this home at 2am in the morning with my parents, Ben and Priscilla all watching, haha. I love where this home is located. I smile knowing Hokie loves the freedom of roaming the yard here with her buddy, Henry. I love that my brother and his wife are our next door neighbors and by next door, I mean 20 steps away! I love so, so many things about this home.

(Nothing better than a painting party! We had more people than paint brushes!)
Even though there are days when I wish we hadn't chosen such dark hardwood floors or that we would have started with our bigger living room (instead of adding on 2 years later) I still feel that the pros FAR outweigh the cons. We are blessed. Even more so, I am blessed with such a talented husband. I hope he knows how much I appreciate everything he did to make our first house, our home.

(April, 2008)