First House: History 1

The Building Brows

Remember the Square Shooter machine we used to put up the roof trusses last weekend and how it would cost us the fabulous price of about $200 for all that time? Well, since the owner already had to bring it back from another location and it stopped at our place on the way, it only cost us $110 instead. Nice, huh? Praise God.

Now, it's time for a little history to this house building bit. I can just hear you saying that it's impossible to build this house on no money. And you're right. But I never said we had no overhead. to start out with.

The story really starts several years ago when we were living in my father's house with two kids after not being able to pay rent on our apartment. We had been there two years, very thankful for the roof over our heads but getting weary of not having our own space, when a friend of ours asked us to house sit for a year with an option to it. We agreed and moved in.

Jim wanted to buy the house and told our friend so, but I was unsure. I had a bad feeling something was terribly wrong with it. I prayed and prayed, but couldn't shake the feeling. One day, Jim tossed the phone in my lap and said, "You don't want to buy the house? Fine. You call our friend, then, and tell him why I have to break my word. But you have to pray first before you call."

Nothing like being put on the spot. In tears, I prayed, not knowing what to do. As I did, words came to mind; words I didn't will for what they said I didn't want to hear. "Go along with Jim and buy it. I will transform this house the way I transform a person when he gives himself to me. In the end you will like living here."

With year-old stinking carpets from dog urination and mice running unhindered in mesh-lined cabinets, I doubted I would ever like living there. But I knew God's voice and believed Him, for He had always proven Himself faithful. There was nothing else to do. I picked up the phone and dialed knowing I was heading down a path that I didn't choose. But as long as God was with me, I knew I would be okay.

Shortly afterward, our friend and his dear grandmother sold us the house which stood on a secluded, corner town lot bordered by two brooks; 1,400 square feet assessed at $56,000 for a ten-year mortgage of $39,000. Nearly unbelieveable. People have paid more for cars. A small mortgage amount on a ten-year loan was the only way we ever would have been able to get out of my father's house, but had we gone looking for a deal like that, we never would have found it. As it turns out, God placed it in our laps for a much larger purpose than we knew at the time. It was the beginning of a string of miracles that followed.

Stay tuned. . .