Making this house our home

I never completely understood it when people would differentiate between a house and a home. To me, they were always the same thing- something you lived in and had to clean every day. Now that I've had to opportunity to buy a house I now know what the difference is between a house and a home. I would always say we were looking for a house or we bought a house and that was very true. Now I would say I got my perfect home! For those that think I'm crazing by saying there is a difference, I'll give you my definition of a house and home. House: a place that serves as a building to live in for a time. Home: a place you want your family to grow in, a place of love, a place where you have a desire to go and spend time with the ones you love, and most importantly a home is where the spirit of the Lord will be.

I have a strong desire to continually make this our home because I will always want to come to a place where the spirit will be. There is much more than just changing the cosmetics of a house to change it into a home and that is by doing the things the Lord would have us do. We've had the opportunities to have different challenges and trials in our life that has opened my eyes to the sweet, tender mercies of the Lord. I want to live my life in a way that my family, my husband, my kids, and most of all Jesus Christ will always be proud of me.

Aside from the spiritual aspect... We are done working on the inside of our house for now and are getting ready to start on the yard this week. It's been getting bad out there without sprinklers!

My brother Joe did so much for us! It's a wonderful thing to have a huge and great family. Everything we have done with our house would have been much harder and taken longer if not for our helping family. We tore out the existing yard (much rather weeds and dirt), tore out some trees and bushes, put in a sprinkler system, poured some concrete for a patio, got cement curbing all around the house and some islands, put more rocks in the rv pad, laid some sod, and put bark in our flower beds. Next year we will finish the garden ( we were too late this year to plant one) and plant some trees, bushes, and flowers! I can't wait to say our huge house projects are finally finished! Who knew you could do so much to a house?

Some before pictures: ( I know it looks horrible and you're probably thinking "why would they buy a house if it looked like that?" -especially if you saw what it looked like inside before we remodeled it- don't worry, I thought the same thing.. Levi kept telling me he could see the potential. It's a great house, just not cosmetically. Which he was right! )

yes, those are tumble weeds.. gross huh?

Now it looks much better! Some of the after pictures:

Everything is coming together and I love it! A house is a lot of hard work but I absolutely love having our own place to call home.