Today my husband and I reached a life milestone – the last payment of our home mortgage. We are so happy. This is one of those long milestones in your life that you dream about. It means so much to be able to celebrate the achievement of this goal at this stage of our life. We are overjoyed.
When you start your life together as a couple, searching for a house is usually the norm. But our life together did not follow the norm. When I met my husband, he was one week away from buying the house that we now own. The story of how we met is worth telling, but I will do that later at a future post. For now, I want to focus on the fact that we had a very narrow window to meet. When we met, we were both living at an apartment complex. Within a month or so, my husband moved out of the complex to the house that he purchased as a single man, which is the house that we now live in.
Thus, I never experienced the house hunting experience that couples usually go through. We met, we dated, we got married, and the house came up as part of the package of marrying my now husband.
The house needed a lot of work. My husband was looking for his first house. He was single. I was not in the picture when he picked the house. He used to watch home remodeling TV shows and he wanted a fixer upper project. I did not know anything about fixing a house. So after we got serious about our relationship, I realize that he did not intend to move anywhere else or find a different house together. He wanted to stay in the house and work on it.
At first, I was a little upset about this. I was dreaming about a new house – about going house hunting and searching for the house of my dreams. I felt that the right thing to do was to start over. The house my husband picked when he was single was not something that I would have go for. It was an old house. It needed a lot of work. It was not ours, but his. I did not feel any attachment to the house and it was difficult to accept that one of my dreams was not going to be realized. But I love the guy that I married and I went with it. I’m so glad I did!
Before we married – two and a half years after we met – we worked on fixing the house. I did not know anything about working on a house, but I learned very quickly. My husband has been watching remodeling TV shows, like ‘This Old House,’ for years and he could not wait to practice what he learned. I was completely lost, but little by little, I got the hang of it. Working on the house together was the beginning of our story. Slowly, the house started to grow on me. Slowly, I started to discover the gem my husband saw. Slowly, I started falling in love with the house.
The walls began to gently caress my heart and soul. The house embodied our love story. The old character was comforting and symbolic of the strength of our relationship getting stronger every day. I did not want a new house any more. I wanted to live in a place with roots and armor. A place that had defied the passing of time. A place with fortitude and dignity where our own history could develop with confidence and grace. A place where the warmth of the years past would welcome with open arms the new life ahead. A place where a house becomes a home.
The house stands today with pride, as we celebrate our life together in the place that we call home. It is an old house and we love every imperfection. It is like an old friend that welcomes us every day. We know every crevice, every plank of wood that carries our steps, every window that filters our view, every door greeting our arrival. The roof sheltering us from rain and snow. The walls quiet witnesses to our laughter and our sorrows. But more importantly, a home standing tall and strong as a reminder of our love.
My Coqui Soul Project 