Two Years Ago on This Very Day...

These two people...

(Dave and Mel, circa 2008)

saw this house through vines, and bushes, and trash...

...and decided that there was no where more perfect in the whole world for them to live.

The house was not for sale yet, but it was going to be. They knew it.

They hoped it.

So they would come by, each day, and check on the house.

They would make sure no one else was looking through its grimy windows.
THEIR grimy windows.

They would go here...

and get coffee after work and come sit on the yucky striped cushion in the swing on the front porch of the house.

They would talk about furniture arrangements and paint colors.

They would wave to the neighbors and pull a few weeds from the yard, like they already lived there.
As far as they know, no one alerted the authorities.

The way these two waltzed in with such claim and care for the house, the neighbors probably assumed they were the new owners.

They hoped.

Dear Sweet House,
I loved you from the moment I set eyes on you.
You are the only one for me.
Love,
Mel

Today, we sat on our newly scrubbed and bleached porch.

We drank coffee and surfed the web with 8 paws underfoot.

I am happy for every day we get to live here.- for every wall I get to paint, for every hole we get to patch, and for every creak in the floor- we love this place.

There's no place like home.

Melissa