Our latest completed project: Upstairs bathroom

I am so excited that our bathroom was finished a couple of months ago. This project is what afforded us the ability to invite others to live with us. Before, the only other working bathroom was on the first floor, right inside our bedroom.

I used to "affectionately" refer to our upstairs bathroom as 1950's barbie decor. It cam complete with a laminate floor, pressed wood sink vanity, and a tub that used to have a fern growing in it. The walls were two toned with plastic sheets of fake white tile with black grout on the bottom and salmon colored plastic on the top. The salmon plastic sheets extended to cover the ceiling and they had begun to sag. Oh, and lets not forget the radiator painted bright green.

I thought the bathroom was so awful that I submitted it to HGTV, sure it would get some attention. I think they thought it was so awful they didn't even know what to do with it, because I didn't hear from them at all.

Here are the pictures of the hideousness:

Pretty hideous huh?

However, I am proud to say that after much watching of HGTV, looking online, and thumbing through REAL SIMPLE and Pottery Barn magazines, our bathroom is quite lovely and modern.

This will be the Carriers bathroom, minus all the glass becuase they have two little kidlets...

What do you think?

People rather than stuff.

I spent pretty much my whole Christmas break cleaning and purging the contents of our house. Why? Well- here is the story (the short version):

John and I have been looking for a house for about a year now, that we thought would be a good investment property, to fix up and let someone live in for cheap, where they otherwise might not be able to have a home.

In November we found a house that fit the bill. It was 37,000 dollars and it was a foreclosure in downtown Newport News. We started praying about the house and if we should pursue it. We went three days later to look at the house in the daylight (since the utilities were off) and looked at the home.

The home was in remarkable shape for being 37,000 dollars. It was brick and had 3 bedrooms and 1 bath (1350 square feet in all.) Plenty big enough for the two of us, and an opportunity to move into downtown Newport News. We put on the house and won the bid by 5 dollars. It seemed as if God was really wanting us to make this move, so we asked some friends of ours if they wanted to rent our home from us. They agreed and also asked another family (another set of our friends) if they wanted to move in as well. They also agreed.

Then we found out that HUD had forgotten to attach the correction notes on the home that needed to be fixed before moving in. This changed the financing. We then needed to spend another 6500 on the house and get a 203 k loan. It seemed like no big deal, but it was. They wouldn't let us finance the house with that kind of a loan (or any loan for that matter)as a primary residence, even though we were going to live in it. We needed to finance as an investment property because they saw us as shady and trying to get around the larger down payment (25% vs. 3.5%). We didn't have that much, so with the Lord's guidance we walked away.

Yet we had 2 families planning on moving into our home in 6 weeks....

So John and I again prayed, and then told the families the situation and asked them both to still move in. They both agreed.

This meant that we needed to purge 3 rooms worth of stuff in our home. Hence my break being spent cleaning and purging.

Most people call us crazy.

I say that we are blessed and able to give Glory to God for this decision.

A couple of things we have in our favor:
We all have gone to church together.
We all like each other and have hung out with each other over the past couple of years by choice.
We all have lived in the same building before, in community : LivingStone Monastery
We know how to set boundaries.
We all believe in the One and only God and he directs our paths.

Please pray for us through out our transition process. There will be some kinks and quirks to figure out in the beginning, but God's grace is sufficient.

Far better for our home to be filled with people rather than stuff.

905- our little pembroke haven.

John and I bought our first house in June of 2007, just 6 months after we were told that there was little to no chance that we would be able to get approved for a loan. And that was when it was "easy" to get a loan". But, God, in his grace and mercy, gave me and John both jobs that allowed us the affordability of a home, and the only money we brought to the table was the money for our home inspection..

Haven't the times changed? We have not stopped spending money on it since. So much more work, love, sweat, and money than we ever anticipated we have put into this house.

Just recently, our home has taken a turn in direction and purpose, While we are getting dangerously close to finishing the projects, we still have a lot to do before:

Two families move into our home with us. See the story of how that happened here.

So, this blog is going to dedicated to the ways in which God has blessed us with the ability to turn a house into a home, and extend hospitality to our neighbors; our sisters and brothers in Christ; and our families. This will document our journey...