The House That Faith Built: Waiting For Direction

(This is the third post in a series titled “The House That Faith Built”. To read the first post in the series, click here or the second post, click here.)

Waiting For Direction

At this point in our journey, my husband and I were just plain confused. We did not know which direction we were supposed to go. As we continued working with the contractor, things seemed to look up. Yet, there was always a roadblock.

We knew, though, that God was not the author of confusion (1 Cor 14:33), and that if we would simply lean on Him, He would direct our path (Prov 3:6).

Waiting, But Not Idle

With no clear direction, and a desire to move forward, we did. While we worked with our Real Estate agent looking for acceptable properties, we also keep working on the house. Tirelessly we researched how to do things from painting the exterior to removing chimneys. Nightly we worked on the floorplan as we continued to see this house coming together.

I learned the dimension of an interior wall, how much clearance a toilet needs, and that creating floor plans is not my strong suit. We redesigned the kitchen no less than six times – even after working with a kitchen designer. I started noticing details in houses all around me. And I started looking for ideas and inspiration whether I was driving down the street and looking at an exterior, in families’ homes looking at their kitchen cabinets, or just watching television and observing how their staircase was painted. All of a sudden, ideas and possibilities were everywhere.

While I was eating, sleeping, and living rehab and interior design, my husband was busy on demo. As we weren’t sure if this was the right path for us, we decided to simply step out in faith and start working. He worked on the house every moment he wasn’t at work.

Gutting the house was a project in and of itself. He pulled out dozens, if not hundreds of bags of debris. Horsehair plaster and sprayed insulation still covered the majority of the interior. And as is the case with many older homes, there were multiple layers of it all. Removing one layer simply revealed more mess.

However, all of this demo did do one thing. It helped us to see the house better, and it allowed the contractor to better see the job site. His bid was able to become more accurate and we could discuss things with fewer hypotheticals.

Continuing On

Feeling more and more convinced that this was the right move for our family, my husband decided he was going to start working on the exterior of the house. It was old clapboard, chipped and peeling. The house was originally blue with white trim and red eves.

The blue was a fantastic shade. It was warm and inviting, and a color I really wanted to try and match. The white trim helped the blue to stand out and gave the home a great appeal. The red, however, was awful and just needed to go.

Yet the biggest issue with taking on the exterior of the home wasn’t the size of the project or that fact that neither of us had any idea how to properly paint the exterior. No, the biggest problem was with the roof.

It leaked. And not just a little.

Over the previous eight or so months, my husband was continuously climbing up there to add or secure tarps that he had fastened. And every time we had snow or rain he was over there emptying buckets, moving them, and finding new leaks. The demo phase of the project revealed a plethora of new ways that water was getting into the house. It seemed like a losing battle.

Then, of course, there was the one exterior wall. Roughly 25-feet high from the ground to the roofline, it was wet on the inside and out. And while the boards did not appear to be rotten or in need of being replaced, we certainly did not want to paint the moisture in.

He set out scraping and kept researching. He got to know the folks at our local hardware store really well. And he put every spare second into the project he could. It was gross, hard work, physically and mentally demanding, and he just kept going.

After scraping and letting the building air-out, he set to cover the exterior with a protective layer. While is wasn’t exactly exterior paint, it had to be painted on. It was a mold and mildew protective layer that he has researched extensively. Possibly unnecessary, but done anyway due to the state of the building.

Then one day after the protective coating was on and dry and the building was fully prepped and ready, he brought home a paint sample and said he had found the color. Just the right shade of blue for the house.

And it was perfect.

A Family Affair

With a lot of the truly gross and dangerous parts out of the way, our entire family set out to paint. The kids waited with anticipation to be able to go with him after work. The long days of summer provided several working hours every evening and the job went fairly quickly.

It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to a building. No longer did it look rundown and appear abandoned. Slowly you could see the exterior taking on new life and with it, possibilities. A true labor of love, my family with more than a few friends, painted the exterior of this house. While it certainly wasn’t a professional job, my husband worked to ensure it was done to the best of his ability and as properly as he could.

At this point, the local neighborhood even started to take note. On more than one occasion, someone would drive by and honk approvingly or just holler out “nice job.” A neighborhood we didn’t know started to embrace us even without knowing what our plans were.

A Leap of Faith

And as the summer rolled to an end and the project came to completion we came to the decision that this was what we were supposed to be doing. We came to the conclusion that even with so many unknowns, and more variables than we could count, there was peace about moving forward. Peace about starting the many processes need to not only own this house, but to repair it, and make it a home.

Even without knowing all the details we were certain in the promise that we didn’t need to worry. We had prayed, sought God’s will in this whole endeavor, waited for a clear answer, and now had a peace that could only be from God (Phil 4:6-7). Even without knowing all the details and all the specifics we were confident that we had done the research, asked all the right questions, and were capable.

More importantly, we were convinced that God’s hand was clearly in this and He was just simply waiting for us to simply have the courage to step out in faith. The courage to follow Him and set out on this less than traditional path to owning and living in a home of our own.

To read part four, Moving Forward, click here.