A perfect little home

In the outskirts of somewhere or the other, there are 50 acres with our name on it… Don’t even try to look for it; it sits away from the road, down a happy little driveway. As you get closer to the house the tree lined driveway brings you to the little fountain we built, Tony says it’s our lucky fountain, I think he built it just so the kids can keep throwing coins in.

The gargoyles play guardian to our door, and the fishes swim in happy circles in the front pond.
The house is immense, I think it has more than 3000 square feet; it has rooms for each one of the kids. A library, a game room, a craft room and also a study, not that anyone studies in it… hahaha!!

The house was built over two hundred years ago and when we bought it, it seemed like it had been two hundred years since anyone had taken care of it.

Like someone who lovingly takes a child into his heart, we took the house into our hearts.

We have fixed other houses to live in, we once moved into this house that was so nasty, I thought I would never be able to sleep in there. But this house was different. It was beautiful; you just had to peel away the layers of dust and life the years had piled up on it.

Everyone grabbed a hammer and ripped up the floor. I called my brother and he told us what we needed to do to install hardwood floor. Little by little, we installed each floor board, we hammered in each nail. We were forced to spend time together and I can’t even begin to tell you how much money we spent on band aids and antibiotic cream. It became a competition, how much could be done in one hour; we were constantly trying to outdo one another.

Victoria worked with us every step of the way, being that she was a teenager, I thought that she would not want to be as involved, but she was there every time, hammer or paintbrush in hand, although we never gave her sharp tools, just as a precautionary measure. She has a bad history with sharp tools.

The house seemed more magnificent from one moment to the next. As we peeled off centuries of paint that had been heaped upon her to make her look better, each layer removed from her walls revealed a little more of us and our love for our work, and she grew in beauty in our eyes.

Some spots of her were too damaged, had been beyond repair and we all ran out and bought new fixtures and made this house fit us and we changed with each renovation in order to fit her.
We sanded and stained and painted each little bit of this house. We built new rooms and took down others and discovered new areas of her that we learnt to love. She had others that loved her, but they were gently reminded (birds) and others not so gently (mice) that she was ours now and we would not be taking other guests.
As we picked the colors for the rooms, we fretted like if we had been choosing a name for our child. We wanted to make sure that she was shown at her best. Sherwin Williams associates started hi-fiving each other as they saw us pull into the parking lot, nothing but the best for our lady.
Door frames were sanded and aligned again, only to discover that termites had claimed them before we did, so as we remove the door frames, we design new doors for our home, we used Damian’s drawings on the doors, a little carving and voila, custom made doors. He was beaming with pride; the house loved her new doors.

New lighting fixtures were bought and installed and the warm glow of the new chandeliers softened her up and gave us a second wind to finish our work.

Sinks and plumbing fixed; you would not believe the work in that, more than I care to comment on. Tubs taken away, we scrubbed and scrubbed and fought mold. Tile was installed and as the final battle for world dominance was fought with the caulking guns…we finished 5 bathrooms, from top to bottom. Then we had to call the plumber to fix our plumbing.

Everything went better after that. At the suggestion of the plumber we did a whole treatment and update on the septic system; I don’t care to discuss that experience. Not at all.

The deck off of the master bedroom was designed and the kids called on a strike. They adamantly stated that they would not work in an area of the house where they would never be allowed in. Tony gently reminded them that he could always take apart the game room. It is amazing how much a little persuasion can get you.

The girls took over the design of the outside. They picked out flowers and patterns for the walk ways; they took to their research and went nuts. They selected flowers that bloomed with each season and drove Tony crazy asking him questions about shade and ph levels in soil, they picked out flowers for beauty and scent and also looked for their natural environment. They wanted flowers and plants native to the area; the tulips, the lilies, the pansies, and all of the other ones will be so beautiful all year-round. Tony put in a beautiful white gazebo, surrounded by flowers and beautiful wind chimes. I heard Victoria tell Gabriela that she was getting married in that gazebo, I heard Gabriela say, me too.

As the living area was being finished, we began thinking of our barn and how we would house the animals. We would need enough space for all of them. Damian wanted goats and I have always wanted mini dexters. I know Tony wants chickens, but I am a little scared of them. I grew up in a house where cock fights was the thing for Sunday afternoons, I know what chickens can do.

We will plant our vegetables and our fruits, I love the seed catalogs, I have already researched the types of vegetable and plants that are native to the area. I cannot wait…

We pickup our dogs in another six weeks. Our Masos will be ready to come home soon and we have had to proof the yard for them. They are beautiful giants who will be a part of the family as well as work with us. Princess Gabriela wants something else, but then again, she will probably pick something little, overtly cute and completely purposeless, but it will make her happy.

Almost all of it was done, we had left the kitchen until the end because our special appliances had not arrived and we were having fun creating designs with the tile that we were installing. When suddenly, I decided that the area we had designed as a pantry area would not be large enough. So in a last minute dash, the massive washer and dryer were taken downstairs to their newly finished game room and installed opposite their WII, I said they could pretend that they were on rocket ships when the washer shook and they played Mario galaxy, four pairs of eyes glaring at me limited the rest of my comments

Finally, the laundry room was built into a walk-in pantry and the regular pantry was specially shelved for spices, yes I do own that many spices, and the appliances finally arrived and were installed.
That was our cue to move in.
The dragons came to rest in our home. (You would call them angels, we have dragons) We drove up our beautiful driveway with our little truck filled with all of the things that had made up our life. We watched with tears how everything that we owned, new and old, fit into our new home.

As we sat in the family room, with the fireplace going and everyone hooked by the hypnotic effect of the flames, we looked at one another and realized that we had not only rebuilt and renovated a home, We had left a part of ourselves within this house and when future generations came, they would know that in every nook, in every painting, in every little detail of this house is etched little bits of us, to live forever in this home.

When we found our house, she was sadly kept and not maintained at all. It takes a special love to see the potential in things. It takes a special dedication to invest so much of yourself in something and give it of your time and of yourself without thinking of a profit margin and the market value of the thing.

We built this home for ourselves, much as we have built everything in our life. A little bit of research, a lot of dedication, a little bit of muscle and whole lot of work. A little bit of finagling and a whole lot of luck. Regardless, as a genius works on a master piece, also we did not create it so much as reveal it.

A house is built with wood, cement and paint. A home is built with laughter and sweat, with stubbed toes and splinters and paint-stained pants. A home has that special corner that dad built all on his own, the flowers we planted together and the special color that made mom smile so.

A home is a little bit of you and little bit of me, it is things we have built together that create a new life and new memories. Our house was now perfect for our perfect little home.