Acquisition

Today at 2:00 or so, we acquire the rights to a new house.

In many ways, it doesn't feel quite real.  We had a long final walkthrough of the house yesterday and saw it empty for the first time.  Empty houses never feel ready to live in.  They're cold and often feel a little dingy around the edges because no matter how clean the previous occupants, there's a always a little scuffing on the paint and other little details that need to be cared for before new people move in.  But even empty and cold and a little scuffed around the edges, the house is beautiful.  The gift of it is beautiful.  

It still doesn't quite feel yet like a place where Ben and Grandma and I are going to live.  My head might know it, but there's a feeling in you whenever you walk in the door of your home and that feeling isn't there yet.  It's weird how we bond with our homes, but we do it; there's even a little sensor inside that goes off when you're driving and you're almost home, a sort of settling-in like your sub-conscious says, "Ah, here we are!"  I'm looking forward to developing that for this house, but it's not there yet and I think that's why the whole thing seems a bit unreal still.

Ben says that because the layout of the house and the furnishings are so similar to the house he grew up in, it feels like he's going back in time to the house he lived in as a little boy.  It feels a little funny to him and Jenny to go through the house because it's so close to theirs but yet not the same place.  We even call the bedrooms by the names they go by next door - "Ben's room" "Jenny's room", etc.

We brought Grandma Lila to see the house for the first time yesterday afternoon.  Ben and I were a little worried that it would seemly very uninviting to her empty and not ready for her to live in yet, but she's got imagination and she looked at it and said, "My, what beautiful floors" and "I'm glad I'll be living next door to Mary Allison."  She also said, "It's a cute little dollhouse!"

She used to live in a big farmhouse on a big farm in Pennsylvania, so it's no wonder the new house feels like a dollhouse.  In some ways, that's probably going to feel pretty good to her, though, because right now she has to walk a long way to get to her meals and she's ready to be in a home where she can move around in a more condensed space.  We definitely have to get rid of the step in the dining room and widen the doorways, though.

I was really glad she came.  She got to be present while we had all the closing documents explained to us and we gave all the papers into her care.  Then we went next door and ate dinner and talked about what we need to do over the next few weeks and then over the next month and then over the next year.  It's all a big project, but it's exciting to really be able to get started on it instead of waiting for things to get processed.

This evening we're probably going to have a lot of company at the new house; Elizabeth is even making plans to bring hot dogs and all the stuff we need to make dinner over.  We have a stove to cook on, at any rate, even if the kitchen isn't set up yet!  Ben and I bought paint samples to test out on the walls and we'll be putting those up right away so we can get painting.  Mom Turner says that we should open up the Turner's garage and have everyone who visits bring one item of Ben's from their garage over to the new house.  It's not a bad idea.  We might just do that.  Which means today isn't just House Acquisition Day: it's also Moving Day!

Our good friend who's also our real estate agent sent us a wonderful note this morning saying that today was a day to rejoice and be glad in; and he also reminded us what Jesus said about blessing a home when entering.  When a man of peace places the blessing of his peace on a home, if there's a man of peace in that home the blessing will be received.  Our friend blessed our home with his peace by describing to us how to have the same peace in our home and marriage that he has in his.  That was a special email.  Ben says we have to save it and add it to our blessing book. which seems a very appropriate place to put it!