Welcome Home!
I love taking Sunday afternoon drives and dreaming about what it would be like to live in an oceanside manor or a log home in the mountains or a beautiful Victorian mansion downtown. But searching for a house where my family can actually live is another story.
When we found out we would be moving to Portland, we spent the first few weeks of December skimming through listings online, picking out our favorites, and then almost three weeks ago, we flew to Oregon and began visiting all the houses on our list. One by one we deleted our possibilities with swift, mental notes. Overpriced. Scary neighborhood. Too far from Jon’s work. Falling apart. Backs up to major intersection. Growing mold. Steep hill. Living room window overlooks neighbor (not that we don’t want to get to know our neighbors but the front row view into their house is too much for us).
And so we prayed yet again for help as I lost sleep over what we were going to do without a house. We had to move out of L.A. on the 27th, and if we didn’t have a place to live, we’d have to put everything back in storage and live out of our suitcases again…indefinitely. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the perks of living in a hotel, but after three years of constant traveling and moving, we were all ready to settle into something more permanent.
O ye of little faith…
A week ago on Saturday, we pulled up some new listings and began the search again. Our first stop was a house that was not only over our budget, but it needed major renovations and a truckload of bleach. Our shoulders slumped as we trekked out to our car yet again and drove to the next place.
Nothing could have prepared us for what we found.
When I walked into this house, Jon was up in the loft, grinning ear-to-ear as he gave me a giant two-thumbs-up. I breathed a deep sigh of relief before I even looked in the first room. It felt like home.
The house had a loft for the kids to play. A den that I could make my “library". Flat space out back for a trampoline. Multiple fireplaces. A giant kitchen (and bathtub). Gorgeous wrought-iron accents. And it was beside a wildlife refuge so the views out the side of the house were all treed. To top it off, the house was less expensive than almost every house we’d already looked at—right in our budget. Amazing. Thanks, God!!
We put in an offer. They accepted. And a week later (yesterday) we moved our furniture into our “dream home". The timing is incredible, and my shaky faith has been stretched yet again. I can almost hear God shouting from above (for all of you Extreme Home Makeover fans):
“Dobson Family…Welcome Home!”
When we found out we would be moving to Portland, we spent the first few weeks of December skimming through listings online, picking out our favorites, and then almost three weeks ago, we flew to Oregon and began visiting all the houses on our list. One by one we deleted our possibilities with swift, mental notes. Overpriced. Scary neighborhood. Too far from Jon’s work. Falling apart. Backs up to major intersection. Growing mold. Steep hill. Living room window overlooks neighbor (not that we don’t want to get to know our neighbors but the front row view into their house is too much for us).
And so we prayed yet again for help as I lost sleep over what we were going to do without a house. We had to move out of L.A. on the 27th, and if we didn’t have a place to live, we’d have to put everything back in storage and live out of our suitcases again…indefinitely. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the perks of living in a hotel, but after three years of constant traveling and moving, we were all ready to settle into something more permanent.
O ye of little faith…
A week ago on Saturday, we pulled up some new listings and began the search again. Our first stop was a house that was not only over our budget, but it needed major renovations and a truckload of bleach. Our shoulders slumped as we trekked out to our car yet again and drove to the next place.
Nothing could have prepared us for what we found.
When I walked into this house, Jon was up in the loft, grinning ear-to-ear as he gave me a giant two-thumbs-up. I breathed a deep sigh of relief before I even looked in the first room. It felt like home.
The house had a loft for the kids to play. A den that I could make my “library". Flat space out back for a trampoline. Multiple fireplaces. A giant kitchen (and bathtub). Gorgeous wrought-iron accents. And it was beside a wildlife refuge so the views out the side of the house were all treed. To top it off, the house was less expensive than almost every house we’d already looked at—right in our budget. Amazing. Thanks, God!!
We put in an offer. They accepted. And a week later (yesterday) we moved our furniture into our “dream home". The timing is incredible, and my shaky faith has been stretched yet again. I can almost hear God shouting from above (for all of you Extreme Home Makeover fans):
“Dobson Family…Welcome Home!”
posted by Melanie Dobson | 6:06 PM
5 Comments:
yipppeee!! It is one gorgeous house! Can't wait to see it ;)
Oh girlfriend! So glad to hear you're settling into your new home. We moved in officially to our home last week. I can't tell you how amazing it is to be settled. I needed it. God is good to bless us both with homes, after much world traveling!
Mary
Yay! I'm so glad you found a home that felt like "home" right from the start. :-)
Now, where is my suitcase. I feel like visiting. ;-)
Hey Jon and Melanie,
here is Benny from Berlin writing.
Would like to get in touch with you guys again.
Just write me to:
benny.kunde@gmail.com
God bless
Benny and Miriam
Bummed and extremely resentful you guys up and left us down here in Cali by ourselves, but very happy you're in a home again, so I'm getting over it.
Sounds like the way it happens for us, God's timing can be a trip sometimes. Tell Jon hello for me, and I'll be reading. Drop by my blog when you have time to kill.
Hug them kiddos!
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