Putting Down Roots With a Small Shovel

In my home I have a sign that says Home Is Where The Army Sends You.  It is a cut out of a cute little country house with several heart shaped wood pieces that hang beneath it with eye hooks.   On each of the hearts we wrote the name of the duty stations where we were assigned.   After 26 years and 20 moves, I had lost heart.   My little house was as high up on the wall as it could go, and I had run out of hearts!  I had even left off the duty stations where we were assigned twice.   

One day we are going to fix those hearts to reflect every one of those homes where we made so many memories as a family.  But for now, we are focused on putting down roots, one little shovel at a time.   

My husband retired two years ago.  We had bought a house during his last deployment and we got a great deal on it, but it was definitely a fixer upper.   I worked on it as much as I could while he was deployed, and then all through his last assignment we would make weekend trips back to work on the house.   It takes time to put down roots! With every tree that we plant, every piece of flooring that we replace, every wall that we paint, or tear down, we are making this house our home.  We are investing a piece of ourselves in this place. 

We do one project at a time as cheaply as possible, and then save for a while and start the next project.   My husband is amazing!   He has learned to do all kinds of handyman tricks on our quest to have the home of our dreams.  Join us on our journey to fix up our home, by ourselves, on a tight budget.  

   

This is the picture of our home when we bought it in 2009
sight unseen from Germany.