Two of my sisters came over to watch Lil’ J and Big T as my husband and I set out for the events of Closing Day. I’m capitalizing it like a holiday because it really was a day-long process.

It seemed fitting that Lee Lee was the one to stick by us all day since she’s the one that really brought this whole thing on. Third child. Bigger home. But since we were going for the bigger house it felt right to go for the whole shebang. To stop suppressing a dream I’d shoved aside for years. A dream to have land to learn, live and play on. To run around and get dirty in. And space for our kids to grow and have all their friends over.

It wasn’t until I decided that for sure, this was going to happen that things started to fall into place. Then it just grew and grew from there.

We wanted a home with about an acre of land, we got two.

We wanted to save and put 50% down and we put 51% (this doesn’t seem like much but trust me, it is).

We have everything we love about our current home but an office for me to work in. A real playroom space for the kids. And a media room where I’m certain a majority of our time will be spent crammed in there together.

Walking through the home one final time and seeing the finishing touches going up gave me chills.

I could barely contain my excitement as I walked through the finished kitchen. And when I looked outside in the backyard and saw the huge boulders that I was tripping over earlier this year, moved and lined around the beautiful oak trees I almost cried.

My dream house. We did it.

On the way to closing my husband delicately handed me the cashiers check that is literally our life savings and we joked about our reactions if it were to fly out the car window.  

At the title office we signed loads and loads of paperwork and accepted many congratulatory handshakes. But it wasn’t until I was handed the keys and a bottle of champaign (ha!) that it began to sink in.

We did it.

My husband and I drove to our new house and dropped off a couple of TVs and security cameras to be installed tomorrow. And after seeing a few spiders scurrying by I scheduled pest control. The rest of our things get moved tomorrow.

Before then we will bring the kids by with a couple of items of their choosing to begin our lives here. But we have one more night at this beloved home of ours before we start our new adventure.

Every single day I wake up and say a prayer of gratitude for another day of life. Waking up in our new home will be a daily reminder of the incredible power of setting goals, visualizing and working hard and making things happen.

You’d better believe I’ll be reminding my kids of our story. How their parents got married as young college students, donated blood plasma for savings and saved and saved for 14 years then built the house of our dreams.

As we drove away, keys in hand it hit us. Wow. I looked over at my husband wondering what wise words of wisdom he may add to the moment. He looked at me and said “We started at the bottom, now we’re here.” Only he would quote Drake in a moment like this.

We are. We did it.

This isn’t the end of our story. Though the house has the bones of our dreams with just the right amount of rooms and yard, we didn’t spend much on builder upgrades. We got basic flooring, lighting and paint. We don’t own a kitchen table anymore (ours broke and I haven’t found the right one to replace it) so we are using a $39 folding table for now.

Our well worn loved family room furniture is going to have a new place in our media room, which means no living room furniture for now.

We’ve never really done much changing or improvements after moving into a place but I hope this time will be different. Maybe I’ll learn some handy skills, or get brave and dabble in some DIY. We own the place so we can do what we want!

I have visions of built in cabinets, hard floors downstairs, a new refrigerator and beautiful painted walls. Some fruit trees and a garden in the backyard. And a playscape that’s not falling to pieces. One our baby can swing on and the big kids will still enjoy. My husband wants a basketball hoop to teach the kids to shoot on, and eventually a sports court in our backyard.

Maybe this will be the home I finally learn to cook in… Or maybe let’s not get carried away.

We got the keys to our dream house, and it’s going to be a long road to making it a home. But what’s the rush? We are going to take it slow and enjoy the journey and for now, celebrate the fact that we did it!

Tags: homebuilding, moving