this old house.

so, in case you were wondering, this is not what happens when you call a chimney sweep:

i'm just trying to save you from sharing the same disappointment i felt when a guy with a tongue ring and ill fitting jeans showed up instead of dick van dyke. 
devastation.

i thought i was being proactive by calling a chimney sweep to check our chimneys since 1) we had never used them before and 2) we had no idea what kind of shape they were in when we moved in.  but really 3) i was scared we were going to set on fire a family of birds or squirrels who had been living there undisturbed for how many years. 
well, let me tell you that i was not thrilled when after four hours and a $250 bill, the chimney sweep handed me a quote for over $10,000 to have the necessary repairs made to our three fireplaces.  when i asked him what the risks were if i didn't choose to have the repairs made, he told me chimney and house fire. 
oh, that's all?

needless to say i went through kind of a wide range of emotions today.  but i had to stop and remind myself to take a deep breath.

billy and i bought this house for less than we would have paid for a townhouse in our area.  and the reason we got it for that price is because it's 300 years old and had been completely neglected by the previous owners for the last FIFTY years.  you may not understand what i mean by completely neglected, but here's a little window into what that looks like : i had to scrape all of the sides of the doors in our house with a razorblade when we first moved in to peel off the fingerprints.  yes, the fingerprints.  because for fifty years, if you put your hand in the same spot to open the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, doors and you never ever clean them, the fingerprints built up into a thick layer of skin deposits.  gray and black skin deposits.  that don't come off with bleach, or sponges, or brillo pads, but have to be scraped off with razor blades.  that's how thick they were.  and that's just a little spotlight into the bazillions of gross things i could tell you about taking over a house that had been virtually forgotten.

this house has come a LONG way, with lots of help from friends and family, and lots of good old fashioned elbow grease.  but it is still easy to get discouraged when it comes to the problems that exist around here.  and we are always reminded of them whenever a contractor comes by.  because i don't think they understand that we got this house for a song, they walk in and all they see are dollar signs.  it's really easy to freak out when you get a crazy roof estimate for your leaky ceiling, or a septic estimate to replace the full cess pool (yes it's so old it's actually called a cess pool), or when the chimney sweep comes to do a jig on your roof but instead hands you a quote for $10,000.  but i have to remember that these guys have companies that are struggling too, they need the work, and it's their jobs to make us feel like we need the job done.

and really, we do need the job done.  our roof is leaky.  our chimneys are rickety.  our septic tank is called a cess pool.  but if this old house is still standing after so many years of owners doing nothing, i think it will keep standing for us.  we have so much love for this old house, and we don't care that it's not perfect.  and maybe one day down the line we'll actually be able to afford to have new windows and new septics and new roofs and new chimneys, but we don't need them all today.  today we are doing just fine, and i know that God is in control! 

so today, i am thankful for this old house.  lefty, the sad old man who lived here before us, liked to say that the house "has good bones".  and despite all of the layers of dust and filth and grime and even more seriously needed repairs, it does.  i'm so thankful that we found this house to love, to love eachother in, and to work on together as a family.  i'm thankful for the cobwebs that creep out no matter how often i clean them, i'm thankful for the drafty windows, i'm thankful for the creaky floors and the poorly patched roof.  because they're our creaky floors. and they're our drafty windows.  and hopefully if we keep on loving this house it'll love us right back.

(our first meal in the new house back in april... we had a picnic on the great room floor)