The Beginning

This will be a way to record the story of our house. After months of looking, then months of waiting, Vickery is now a reality. I remember the first day we drove by it. We stopped outside, windows rolled down, Nabil asked me what I thought about it. I said that "it could be a charmer." It certainly needs a lot of love to get it there though. And here we are, five months later. The journey has only begun.

So let me tell you a little bit about our charmer. The previous owner had five large dogs. Those dogs ate parts of the house and the blinds, their hair was everywhere, and the house still smells like them. When Nabil got the keys, he immediately went over to board up a window in the back, we are sure there was someone living in it, and it wasn't the owner. This charmer had been vacant for nearly six months. The weeds in the back yard were four feet tall, and hidden in them was so much trash. A torn up hula hoop was hanging on the light just outside the back door, I wish I had a picture of that, it was something out of a horror movie. Squirrels live in the attic, we found a dried up dead one on the front porch the first day we walked through with the realtor.

Nabil has been working so hard. Now that I am out of school for the summer, I intend to be there with him. He cleaned up the yard, ripped out a hideous tree that was blocking half of the front of the house. Just yesterday, I was his assistant as he finished tearing out the deck in the back yard. All of that wood has been saved so that it can eventually be turned into a chicken coop and a compost bin. (Yes, a chicken coop that will house actual chickens, that will lay actual eggs, that I will one day use to bake you an actual cake.)

I will post some pictures soon. You surely won't see what we do when we walk through it, at least not yet. But you will one of these days, one room at a time. We have big hopes for this messy little house. It has a large yard, where we can't wait to dig our fingers into the dirt and create a beautiful garden. It has lots of windows that will one day let so much light in. I'm dreaming of the day when we sit on that large front porch with a glass of wine. Dinner parties around the table in an actual dining room, cooking together in the kitchen, and mud room, can you believe it!? A mud room!

So that's it for now. Pictures to come soon, and regular reports on our journey to reveal the charm that is the Vickery House.