Learning to appreciate...

My husband and I have lived in project-houses for the last 5 years.... slow-flips I like to call them. We've done this because it's been a huge part of our income, to be able to buy a house in extreme disrepair, and work on it to repair it (and make it pretty) is IMO a great way to change your finances. I love the process of it, the designing and picking all of the details.... the drawing it out, sketching, erasing, redrawing... trips to the paint store, the hardware stores.... hours on Pinterest.... and eventually, after much sweat, likely some blood and bruises, some itching when you install insulation *wink,* we finish the house and it looks nothing like what it did before. It's really pretty special. Most certainly its not for everyone, it is truly exhausting, sometimes mentally, certainly physically, and at moments emotionally (particularly when the home is in its worst state and you're exhausted getting it to a livable place as soon as possible).

I've noticed that as we're nearing completion on this current project that I still see it as the tear-down of a house it was, and the blackberry overgrown land..... so I've really tried recently to notice how far we've come.... even though its not perfect, it is incredibly beautiful, and we've done so much on this little homestead. I think we might be here to stay, maybe the next project we won't live in, we will do from a distance and save ourselves the stress/challenges... maybe not.