Day 4: I (Almost) Bought a Zoo

I recently bought a house. My grandmother's house, specifically, which was my great-grandfather's before her. It came complete with a family of groundhogs, innumerable squirrels, a regular "committee" meeting of turkey vultures in a tree in my backyard, a stray mouse or two who made their way into my bedroom (who have since been evicted), and I swear a long-tailed weasel (who did not make it into my bedroom, thankfully). My dad thinks I've lost my mind, but I would bet money it was a weasel. I'm crazy, but not completely crazy. It was a weasel.

The original house, circa I don't know when. 
It has since had a complete second story
added on.

This house is nothing fancy. But it's mine. And it was my father's. And my grandmother's. And my great-grandfather's. My oldest brother and his girls lived here at various points in time, too, which also means a total of five generations of my family have lived in this house since my great-grandfather built it in 1949. It's never going to make the cover of Architectural Digest, but this nearly 75-year old, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house has brought me to tears on more than one occasion. 

I never had dreams of being a homeowner. It wasn't something I felt particularly strong about and so I spent years renting. I didn't want the burden of a mortgage and the responsibility of maintaining a home. I bounced around from one apartment to the next, living in various parts of the city. I loved each of those spaces for very different reasons. The first apartment I ever rented was a whopping 350 sq. ft. My parents thought I was one step above living in a shoebox. After that one, I had a slight detour back to my parents' basement, but then ended up in a 1,200 sq. ft. condo. I felt like I was living in a mansion. What does one do with 1,200 sq. ft. of space?! Coming from the tiny 350 sq. ft. studio, I had basically no furniture, so it took me awhile to slowly buy up a table, chairs, couch, etc. In between the condo and my next apartment, I briefly looked at buying a home, the first time I had ever warmed up to the idea, but the process was incredibly stressful and nothing seemed right. I threw in the towel after two months of searching and decided to rent again. In my last apartment I could hear my neighbor's conversations through the walls verbatim. I felt like I had to take a vow of silence to live there because I didn't want anybody to hear my own conversations. 

That's finally what pushed me over the edge.

The opportunity to move into my grandmother's house first came about because she had significant health needs and was in assisted living. My father had always said he wouldn't ever sell it so long as she was alive. They asked if I wanted to rent it so that the house didn't sit empty. My apartment lease was ending and I reluctantly agreed to rent the house. Reluctantly because the location of it was in the complete opposite direction of where most of my life occurred - farther from work, farther from church, farther from the gym, farther from where several friends lived. 

But for the first time ever in my life, I wasn't going to be sharing walls with another human being.

Sign.me.up. 

I moved in about a year ago and two weeks later my grandmother passed. So, now the question became - did I want to buy the house? I clearly remember telling my parents a year prior, when the topic first came up of me renting, that I wouldn't ever be interested in buying the house. 

As they say, never say never.

Once I moved in and had a chance to get settled, I had time to warm up to the notion of owning a home. And quite frankly, the thought of moving again (I had moved four out of the previous five years) and possibly sharing walls with people again was so horrifying that my days of not wanting to own a home were rapidly vanishing into the distance. 

So, I bought the house. And it's menagerie of resident animals.

I've lost count of the number of times I've been on the verge of tears, reflecting on God's faithfulness in the timing of it all. How many years had I wandered from one apartment to the next, never ready to settle down? And when I was finally ready to consider buying a home, how many houses had I looked it, none of them seeming like they were the right fit for me? I was finally sick of carting my life around in boxes, feeling like I could never quite fully claim a space. 

But now - now the timing was right. The circumstances were right. The financing was right. All of it, came together at just the right time in my life.

And I am ever so grateful for these four walls. 

That are shared with no one else. 

"Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land...When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down...then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God...You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives..." (Deuteronomy 8:6-7, 10-12, 14, 17-18).