On August 31st, 2017,  Chad and I (along with his dad and a moving truck) moved from the heart of Knoxville to Harriman, TN. I was so torn on leaving our Knoxville home. It was in the perfect location (five minutes from both of our jobs), we had remodeled it until it was perfect (the master bath was spa like, yall) and most of all-it was comfortable (as in “our comfort zone”).

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Through the entire move, it was stressful but even on the first night, I felt God’s peace. For the first time in a long time, I felt like we had heard exactly what God had wanted us to do-and we actually did it!

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We moved with the intention of making the property an event venue, so of course I wanted to start working immediately. Careful what you wish for, it just might come true. The entire house was covered in 40-year-old vinyl siding; so we started to take it off to reveal the beautiful wood that had been hiding under it for so long.

Next came fixing old boards and then having to pressure wash it all…

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I have to stop right here and say that I have the best in-laws a girl could ask for! During this time, Chad’s dad, Chad’s brother, Chad and myself all took off work for an entire week to knock out this project. Without my father-in-law and brother-in-law, there is no way we could have ever done the work.

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By the start of October, we were ready to paint. After talking house colors over with a few experts (Lugh and Keith from Ambience), we decided on a grey and white color scheme, with dark grey trim. Even with four to five people painting, it still took over a week to paint the house. If you ever want to really bond with people, see if they will volunteer their time to come paint your home-FOR FREE!

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By the end of it, everyone was sunburnt (note Chad’s legs), dehydrated, exhausted and absolutely tired of painting; but this is when their volunteer hours really started to change their mindset (and ours) about this crazy adventure. Not only did these individuals verbally say that they believed in us, they were working with us to accomplish this dream.

Through this process, I had kinda felt like we were biting off more than we could chew (and we still might be), but nothing makes you feel better than when your parents or siblings talk about what a good idea this is and then they turn around and begin to invest in you.

xxx