Just enough, just in time
How our house found us
Seth and I have been dreaming of a house since we got married. And about two years ago, we started actively looking into buying or building one. We’ve looked into everything. I mean it. Tiny houses. RV Living. Van life. Earthships. Yurts. Cob houses.
I didn’t think we’d end up in a “conventional” house. I guess moving a house isn’t very conventional. But this isn’t how I expected our living situation to pan out. Seth and I didn’t think we could afford this kind of house, and according to several banks, we were right.
Which is one of the reasons we were so interested in alternative housing (besides how cool some of the structures are!) But to fit my ecological bent, I’m excited we’re breathing new life into an existing structure instead of building entirely from new lumber. We’ve already amassed a collection of windows, cabinets, and flooring second-hand, ready to be installed in our new-to-us house.
Our house, pre-move.
Honestly, when we came across this house we thought we were done looking. We had found a 16’ by 24’ cabin to move. We had figured out how the move and build (it was really a shell) were going to go. Seth had configured the house in a software my dad had and we had our material list and everything. It was at that point this farmhouse dropped into our laps. We can’t claim any of the credit for finding it other than saying yes emphatically and immediately.
My father-in-law was running errands one night and asked who lived there. He was answered with the question, “Do you want it?” I think he got a tour of the house that night. Seth and I were excited to hear about it, but we didn’t know how we were going to afford to get our land set up for it and then move a house. It seemed too good to be true, and we’d been down that road before.
The family was going to demolish the house, but we had a professional mover and a contractor look at the house and they both said it was solid. The house itself was offered to us for free, if we moved it. We still needed a bank loan, but we jumped on the opportunity right away. I think it helped that this was the first housing situation that both sets of parents were completely on-board with. (I know you’re just as floored as I am that they didn’t jump on the yurt suggestion.)
Sneak peak of the “Before” pictures! There’s a tour of the house pre-renovation post coming soon!
Just Enough
We’ve been praying for a house and home base for a while now. After looking at our finances, I told Seth the only way we could afford a house house was if someone gave one too us. For me, that was the end of looking into conventional housing. I guess for Seth, that meant a lot of prayer for someone to actually give us a house. Which might seem more out of place if we weren’t so firmly relying on God in every other aspect of our lives.
Because over and over again in our lives, I can see God providing for us every step of the way. After deciding to go into full-time domestic missionary work right out of school, we had enough support raised within a month to start traveling. After stepping out in faith and starting Engage Outreach Ministries, we had at least one event booked through Fall of the following year. I took that as God’s promise to continue providing for us.
So when we started praying that God would provide us a house, I don’t know why I was stressing about how it would work out. We had a pretty small list of needs:
Could handle a MN winter
And that was pretty much it. The bonus of this house, is that it will allow us to pursue some wants as well. Seth and I each wanted our own office space. Right now, Seth is using a storage room at a local church as his office. And he’s loving having an office. We’d both like to be able to leave work projects set up and be able to walk away without worrying about our littles messing them up. Or having to pick them up and then not remember where we left off, or wasting time tearing down and setting up when we only have a spare hour or two here or there to work on them. Because oh my goodness it has been hard to have two work from home parents in under 200 square feet.
And now there is plenty of room to let us each have a designated work space. And that’s a huge deal.
Just in Time
Seth and I sat down and talked about what it would take to move this house this summer. Because our summers are crazy. We directed New Life Bible Camp, Seth is currently speaking at a camp in Bemidji, MN and we’re off to CO for two weeks mid-July, we have an almost three year old and a very mobile six month old, and I’ve got my writing that we are trying to build into a career.
Ideally, we would be moving the house before we go to CO, and beginning renovations mid-August if we wanted to be in the house for Christmas, which is my goal. MN winters are rough, and I just want to be in my own space. Because the camper is not MN winter worthy, the last four winters we’ve spent a significant amount of time in other people’s houses and while I am so grateful for family allowing us to stay with them, I just want to be in my own house this year.
Our slab. I think the swirl pattern is from how hot it has been while curing, making the moisture come out unevenly. But I know nothing about cement, so I’m probably wrong on that.
That tight deadline meant that our driveway had to be done early June, and our cement soon after that. Even with a few delays due to bad weather and us being in Lake Bronson so much, somehow everything is still working out in the right time. Even if it isn’t my timing.
Like our cat. Father’s Day was a super busy day. We woke up in Warroad and needed to get to the camp by mid-morning to get set up for our second overnight camp starting the next day, and then head to Fargo to pick up our speaker from the airport. Seth was moving the carseats over and heard a meow. I had been asking for a cat, as had Nettie. Seth agreed we would get one, when we had a house. He meant when it was finished and we moved in, but we technically have a house now. After asking around, we couldn’t find its owner so we kept the cat. It derailed our whole day, but we still accomplished what we needed to get done and now we have Freyja.
We are working on teaching Nettie to let Freyja play on her own, and we’re all enjoying her sweet, snugly personality.
Over and over again throughout scripture I see God working just enough, just in time. Just enough manna for the day. A ram, just in time. Jesus teaching his disciples the Lord’s Prayer.
God is in this, as we would not be able to orchestrate the weather to suit our needs. I know the farmers (and even us—for the sake of our garden) are praying for rain, but we didn’t realize how much the dryness of this year was helping us get the house onto our land. I don’t think we’d be able to do the cement work on a regular year, our ground would be too wet. Certainly too wet last year, when we were planning on building. We were devastated last fall when building was one more thing that didn’t go as planned (by us), but God was protecting us through that.
Now that the loan is finalized, we can get some major work done. It also means that this is the week! Our house is getting put on our land this week! I’ve been taking pictures of our process and progress so just as soon as I get a new SD to USB adapter there will be some more photos for you!
Let me know in the comments what part of our project you are most excited to read about and see (demo, finished tour, etc). And enjoy this first week of July!