Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Heavenly Housing

so in junior high they gave us this project: design an exterior of you dream home and one room inside. it was supposed to be an exercise in color and design, but i think i took it a little too far. it became the house by which i judge all houses. not that my design was great, but it was a large, old, restored victorian house with a wrap around porch. what's not to love?

so long after the project was over, i found myself over the years longing for dilapidated old mansions with visions of restoring them to their former glory, finding out things about the original owners that made me treasure the house even more, then planing tons of honeysuckle vines to surround the wrap around porch. i saw myself leisurely drinking tea and reading a book in my antique porch swing, while being surrounded by the smell of honeysuckles. sounds pretty good huh? apparently my dream home also included a life where i was extremely wealthy, and had no children.

well...reality check. i'm a stay-at-home, sleep deprived mother of two beautiful girls and i married a missionary. we are not wealthy. nor can i even stay awake long enough to read even a chapter of most books, porch swing and honeysuckles or not.

we have owned two houses since we were married 5 years ago. one had the restoration side of my dream home, but it was a 109 year old craftsman style 4-square. (the architechtural opposite of victorian...lol) turns out, i really loved it. it wasn't dilapidated, but it was uncared for for the previous owners. brad and my mom fixed it up really well and restored the original floors. we also did find out some interesting things about the original owners! alas, no wrap around porch, and when brad bought me a honeysuckle vine, (i was thrilled!) we accidentally planted it in a place that didn't allow it to bloom but for 2-3 weeks. so no intoxicating smell all spring and summer.

we moved to a new home right after christmas 2008 for a place with more space (potential) and a basement for the fun kansas weather. unfortunately i traded cute, quaint, and historical for a 1950's brick ranch with complete original interior. yikes. i suppose that's historical too, but not in a good way. the bones of the house and the neighborhood and neighbors are great, and i love the layout so don't get me wrong. i really like it here. i just don't like to look at it. we have big plans for it, but it won't be what we want it to be for probably another 5 years at least. (in case you don't know me well...i'm impatient.)

are you wondering what the point of all this rambling is yet? here you go...

so we moved here in the winter and the fence were covered with bush-like stuff and we were wondering what it all was. turns out it's honeysuckle...and miles of it! it bloomed a few weeks ago and smells heavenly! it's no victorian mansion with a wrap around porch surrounded by honeysuckle, but God was looking out for me still. He gave me a chainlink fence covered in it. not nearly as dreamy, but even on a budget God gave me another house with at least one aspect of my dream home. isn't it great to serve a God that cares about meeting our every need (no matter how insignificant) and One with a sense of humor to boot?!?

"let me shout God's name with a praising song,
let me tell of His greatness in a prayer of thanks."
Psalm 69:30 The Message

our house

a sampling of fabulous 50's style...

the other bathroom. yes, those are ducks on the wallpaper...jealous?

corinne in front of one of the honeysuckle bushes

honeysuckle galore!

3 comments:

  1. Call me crazy, but I actually love the pink tile in that bathroom. Super cute and retro!

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  2. i hate pink...i'll give you all you want when i bash it out someday! :)

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  3. isn't god so good to us? i just love this post!
    -kristen

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