A House for the Hamricks: Part 2

Yesterday I shared the first post on last Tuesday’s exciting events.  Today’s post will have a few mores stories and a bunch of pictures.  Welcome to our home.  (I can’t wait to have our own stuff in it!)  So, to continue the story…

After we got the keys and soaked up the reality of our new house, I took my peeps back home (to the apartment) and drove to Sherwin-Williams.  I bought two gallons of the approved paint (that I won’t have to paint over when we leave), borrowed a couple of ladders from a friend, and got to work.  By 1 a.m. I had completely painted the front two rooms.  I was exhausted but so completely happy.

Here are the four approved colors that Fort Hood Housing tenants can paint their interiors without having to repaint before they PCS. I was happy with the blue/gray one.

That night I painted using the standard “tape and edge” technique.  It was mildly successful.

I’m standing in the living room facing the office (they intended this to be the dining room, I think, judging by the chandelier). Front door is to my left. Kitchen is through the hallway to the right.

Same view, after painting, just before I drove back to the apartment to my sleeping family.

As I was painting I remembered that the previous night, just before Matt fell asleep I asked him to pray one more time for us to get a house by August first.   I wasn’t miserable in the apartment, but I really wanted to be in our home.  I wanted to have my kids settled into their beds and I wanted to be cooking in my kitchen.  He prayed and eight hours later we got the call.  It doesn’t always happen this quickly.  It doesn’t always happen so perfectly.  This time it couldn’t have gotten any better.

I contacted our movers and the absolute earliest they could deliver our HHGs is the 16th. I would love to have our stuff delivered sooner, but honestly, I’m just grateful for the fact that we have a place.  When we decided to wait for a house on the east-side of post we knew it could take a while.  We expected to be waiting quite some time and are completely thrilled that God answered this prayer so soon.  We drove through the neighborhood on the west-side that we could have gotten into earlier and then drove to Matt’s office… 20 minutes with no traffic.  And that’s with never leaving post!  Where our house is we can almost see his offices.  It’s literally about a mile away.  We’re also only about a mile from the chapel we will be attending.

A couple of days later I went back to the house while Matt took the boys to a movie and I painted the kitchen and dining room.  I had picked up a new tool from Wal-Mart {WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!?} and officially gave up taping for the rest of my life.  It did the edging perfectly.

Standing near the microwave facing the room we’re going to use as a dining room.

Standing with my back to the sink, the microwave is just out of sight to my right, and you can see into the living room (where the stairs are). This gives a good idea of what all I painted.  Panoramic distorts the image… sorry.

Parker says daily, “I want to go to the painted house.”  We spent some time there Monday while we had errands to run on that side of post and when we left, Parker cried. When we got back to our apartment and I started cooking, I thought to myself, “I’m not miserable here, in this kitchen.  I’m content and happy, but still, my heart is in the ‘painted house.'” I’m eager to be there.  To not have to leave it.

We’ve been in transition since November.  While we unpacked and lived while we were in South Carolina, the whole time we were there we knew we were facing a PCS just around the corner.  This time, we’re going to be settled for a while.  And we’re all excited to have made good friends already, to have a chapel we enjoy attending, and a house.  A house that already feels like a home even though it has none of our stuff in it yet.

For those of you who don’t suffer from motion sickness, you can watch this three-minute video of me giving a tour of the house.  For those prone to getting sick while watching videos, consider yourselves warned.