After an extensive remodel, my beloved house sold on January 31, 2020. To my surprise, the sale came with a flood of surprising emotions.
My first thought was that the sale would bring me relief. After all, I started the renovation on September 4, 2019, and we didn’t get it on the market until November 11, 2019.
I have to say that November was the worst time of the year to put our home on the market. At this time, everyone is preparing for the holidays, not thinking about buying a home.
Another drawback was that many buyers wanted a house with a first-floor master suite. There was nothing we could do about that, so we had to be patient and wait for the right buyer.
It took over 80 days to sell, and this prevented us from moving forward with our house renovation in Ohio. So while I did feel a sense of relief, it wasn’t the foremost emotion.
The strongest emotion for me was a sense of sadness. I loved that house. It was a major upgrade from our starter home. We had a 2-car garage! We had a master bathroom suite with a garden tub! We had a small, manageable lot with green areas on two sides. It was perfectly situated close to three highways. It was a dream home.
Behind our backyard fence was a canal that fed the city water runoff to the lake, so there were many species of wildlife in our area. Every first week in May we witnessed the hatching of red-eared slider turtles in our front yard.
This house was where we got our first dog, Lucy. Even though she had trouble with stairs, she doggedly climbed them so she could sleep outside our bedroom door.
We hosted many parties, like the one anniversary where we had two dozen people patiently playing Hedbanz, waiting for catering that never came.
We showed hospitality to two couples who came for the International Convention in Arlington, TX. We shared pictures of our life in West Africa and they shared their experiences of living in post-Apartheid South Africa. One couple confided that it was their first time in a white man’s home. Oh dear.
At this time no home is a “forever home” for me. Now I am looking forward to the forever future where we will experience the promise at Isaiah 65:21, 22 which says: “They will build houses and live in them. And they will plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. They will not build for someone else to inhabit, Nor will they plant for others to eat. For the days of my people will be like the days of a tree. And the work of their hands my chosen ones will enjoy to the full.”