The Love Shack People

I still remember the first day I laid eyes on the Love Shack.

A. was 14 months old blissfully asleep in the car seat.

I was given a PILE of print outs from our local real estate site- from Dave- asking me to check these properties out.

This one was my last.

We had been driving for over 4 hours.

A. was a real trooper.

I originally got lost looking for this property- turning the wrong way, and going CLEAR across town...

...and BACK- before I landed on our little dirt road.

I saw the property...

...and I (may or may not have) swore under my breath.

"He's going to love this."

Little did I realize how many people would touch our lives through this little Shack.




First of all, our next door neighbors had a tenant in their basement.

She used to live in the Love Shack 4 years prior to our move in.

She adopted us as her family, and it's been a sweet friendship.

She is a big kid herself, and the boys just love her.


Fast forward a year:


Then....one day we came home, and there's a torn check deposit slip affixed to our front door.

It was from the daughter of the original Love Shack builders.

She had just returned "Home" from California, and wanted to get in touch with her "roots."

(She's a little new-agey...but interesting conversationalist none the less).

This gets us in touch with her parents- who actually live 1 mile down the road.

They stopped by for a visit.

They were the SWEETEST couple....Dave and I loved them right away.

He ws so full of history, and loved the area.

He built the Love Shack with his own two hands (and a little help from his jazz band friends).

They got their son to scan some pictures and send them to us.

You can see those pictures here.


Two years ago:

Dave is working on a customer's kitchen.

They start talking, and the customer asks where Dave and I live.

Dave gives him a general vicinity, and turns out that guy used to live over there too - on a little dirt road, in a little brown cottage of a house.

Wha?

Turns out - this customer lived in OUR house. 

He was the one responsible for the major kitchen overhaul in the 80's.

His nasty floral wallpaper?  It was still on the walls when we tore it down.  :)

Anyway, Dave salvaged his kitchen sink from the job, and it's now in our temporary kitchen today.

Funny, huh?




Yesterday:

We're pulling in from church, and I recognize a car driving slowly past the house

(this happens often- friends drive by for a quick look).

I recognized her right away.

We had been told that her husband passed away in January, and she wasn't ready to watch demolition the day we tore the Love Shack down.

Turns out that day was also his birthday.

We invited her in, and gave her a tour.

She still talked about her husband in the current "we." 

It made my heart both happy and sad.

She loved that we were doing this together, and debt free.

She's lived through a lot the last few years- since we first met.

He declined in health, and eventually passed away.

She had stomach cancer shortly after we met, and heart bypass last year.

Shortly after her husband passed, her only grandson passed at 27 years old as well.

And yet....she's still praising God.

Rejoicing that one day they'll all be together.

She's living her Faith.  I love her.

To top it off, she looks like a million bucks.

Before she left, we were able to give her some of the wood we saved from demo day, and she was so happy to have something tangible to remember the house by.  She's going to give a few pieces to her kids.

In addition, she wants a deck on her house, and asked Dave to come by for an estimate!


So....

As much as I loathed (dispised, even hated) that darn crappy little house....

I'm grateful for everyone it's brought into our lives.

From the original builders to past owners,

from new neighbors to amazing subcontractors,

I'm forever grateful for the people we've met along the way.