We've been watching a lot of Lion King lately, hence the title. We've also been in the throws of a bathroom remodel for a while. I can see it coming together now and I'm getting excited. It's ...interesting....doing home renovation projects when one spouse is a perfectionist and one is a "get-it-done"-ist. I'll let you guess which one is which in our house. To add to the fun, we like to do these projects when up against a hard deadline of having big events at our house. It's an awesome way to live.

A few days ago, as I was texturing the bathroom walls, I was silently cursing the previous owners. Why in the world did they think paneling was a good idea? (Tangent: I'm reading a lot about people putting up bead board, board and batten, and whatnot in their homes right now. I know it can look really good but I'm here begging you NOT to do that unless you're planning to live in your house forever. Because I can guarantee that look is going out of style at some point and the future owners will hate you when they are ripping it down.) I was feeling pretty irritated at the entire situation that I found myself in (the "situation" being covered in joint compound and making a huge mess because someone in the 60's thought paneling was awesome) when I read this post by a dear friend.

Our home had one owner before we moved in. Which might not sound like much till you consider that our house was over 40 years old when we bought it. People don't do that anymore. The average person my age, lives in a house for no more than five years. Why is that? Maybe the internet has made it so much more easy to look. Maybe we're just that much less satisfied and content as a society (I'm NOT saying it's bad to move! I want to move one day! I'm just thinking! If you have/will/are wanting to move I have no beef with it!) Mr. and Mrs. C bought this house (maybe built it) in 1963 and raised their family in it. Mrs. C lived in it for three years after Mr. C passed away. She finally had to move in with her daughter and that's when we bought the house after it had been on the market for two days (and we were the FIFTH offer in two days; true story). We didn't know it at the time, but I was pregnant with Cason when we signed all the paperwork. And now we've brought two babies home to this house and started raising our family in it.

After I read that post by Jess, I started thinking about all our house has given us. Of course shelter and memories but also connections. Connections with a family I'll never meet but feel a kinship toward. I often think, "Oh, what would Mrs. C think about the way that the carpet has been accidentally ripped up in Cason's room?" or "Mrs. C would die if she knew I threw away all of her custom made curtains!" Right after we moved in, I found a jar left in the pantry labeled "Dirt from the Sahara Dessert." How cool is that? This house has, in many ways, become the sixth member of our family (don't forget the dog...). It lives and breathes and has character and little oddities that we're still discovering. Did I hate the floor to ceiling mauve? Yes. Do I hate the back splash in the kitchen? You know it. But even for all that, this house has been very good to us. So I thank the C family for entrusting to us, for picking us out of six offers on the house, to own it.

Will we buy a house again that needs this much updating? NO. But for now, I wouldn't trade it.