A Never-Ending Saga

It seems hard to believe it sometimes, but we bought our present house in Hendersonville almost two years ago and moved here permanently about 11 months ago. Some people have salt water in their veins--certainly my husband does having been born and raised in Charleston--but my veins seem to be filled with components of mountain vistas, lilacs and bluegrass. It really hurt when I had to leave here 8 years ago and I felt blessed that I could return.

But back to the house. We chose this house because it was close to doctors, stores and other things that make life a little easier. After the fact, we discovered that we have wonderful neighbors, too. However, we debated long and hard whether to stay here or not. In fact, we were so discouraged that we stayed away for long months at a time.

Why? Because we discovered quite soon after we bought it that we had purchased a flipped house with many dangerous hidden issues. We were just sick with regret and a feeling of not being smart enough to have realized what was going on. Hindsight is so often far better than what we can see in the moment in which we actually live.

Well, we decided to get over it and get on with making this house a home. It has been--and continues to be--a long and bumpy road. We have just finished the kitchen (which was posted w/pictures a while back) and are now in the middle of putting down new hardwood floors in the living and dining rooms. The house was carpeted throughout when we purchased it and we soon pulled up all of the carpet--to find a disaster. The first disaster was in the guest room where we found that carpet covered a floor that had been eaten by termites in a long section by the outside wall. So . . .we pulled up the flooring and put down new oak boards.

About that time, Smokey had to have more heart surgery so everything was put on hold. BUT--we are now back to putting in new flooring. Smokey found this wonderful MANLY tool to take up old flooring and ripped through a huge section in one morning. Then, all the subflooring had to be renailed to eliminate the squeeking (that occured with EVERY step). And here he is today, using the special nail gun to nail the boards down. What doesn't show up in the photo is the LARGE hammer he is using to hit the gun and release the nails. My job in all of this was to keep the boards flowing. It's a little more complicated than it sounds because you have to make sure that the boards on neighboring rows don't end at the same place (He gave me a gold star for a job well done!).

And here on the right is the flooring that we have put down so far. It's the area that's set apart. You can see the black felt paper inbetween the old floor and the new floor. The old floor in the living room was so stained that it really couldn't be refinished. And when we're finished, it will be great. But for now, we're back in the Waiting Mode as we have to wait for our next order at Home Depot to come in.

If you've gotten this far in this non-quilt related saga, congratulations. But here is what I really wanted to say and why I have written this. First of all, Smokey and I have always really enjoyed doing home projects (we even built a log cabin many years ago) so although this is hard work we weren't counting on, the sense of accomplishment is something that is beyond a price. But the part of this story that is quilt-related is that it--like quilting--is dipping into that well of creativity that gives our lives purpose and meaning. In this case, to take something that was ugly and to turn it into another facet of our slowly evolving home is beyond simple measuring. And, when we finally finish, we will have created another section in the quilt of our life in this house. It's not ready to win a ribbon (not even honorable mention) but it's growing on us just like a quilt attains enhanced meaning and beauty as each new section is finished. Someday we'll be there and there will be a huge celebration.