The House with the Purple Front Door

My husband and I are absolutely swimming in student loan debt. But noticed that I said 'swimming' and not 'drowning'. We're staying afloat, leaning lots of budgeting tricks and money-saving tips, and actually finding ways to enjoy this season of our lives. We have to rely on Jesus and our hearts are learning to love Him more than money.

And then, the Lord provided an amazing (seriously freaking amazing!) opportunity to help relieve our debt... and it came in the form of an adorable house! 

To all my teaching friends, let me introduce you to the Good Neighbor Next Door program. Where the government will help you purchase a foreclosed home in the area where you are teaching, and after three years of residing in said home, the government will then forgive half of your mortgage. That's right-- half of your mortgage! Gone! (Gosh even just writing this feels so surreal, let alone sitting in the house itself!). So if you move and re-sell the home after three years, which Dan and I hope to do, half of what you paid goes straight into the bank. Or in our case, straight into our student loans.

Sometimes, I just stand in the middle of the kitchen while my brain does this: I can't believe it I can't believe it I can't believe it I can't believe it I can't believe it  Holy Stinking Cow A COCKROACH!

Yeah. I mean, it is a foreclosure. There's a ton (a ton) ((no, really, a TON)) of work that needs to be done. But with Dan's knowledge of home repair from his summers doing mission work and me being the daughter of an interior designer, I'd say we make a pretty good team.

What an adventure it will be! We have three years to make this house sell-worthy and I hope you'll follow along with us as we tackle such a feat. I'll be posting all of our projects and DIY attempts under the label House with a Purple Front Door. I would love for you to save yourself future headaches by learning from our inevitable mistakes! Heehee :) 

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So why the title of this post? Well, one of our first projects was painting the gosh-awful green front door. Green door + red brick = looked like a Christmas house. To me, the door was like the summary of the rest of the house, inside and out. So I wanted something with personality. Something bold. Something that matched the brick without eight tiny reindeer in the yard.

PURPLE!!

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I am so in love and feeling so blessed with this house. We've already had bitter cold showers, 'professional' handy men putting holes through our walls, a massive flood in our attic, and have even come home to a bat asleep on our ceiling. :) But hey, that front door looks darn good!

Welcome to the house with the purple front door. Come as you are. Stay as long as you'd like. :):)

Agape,

CC

How to remove foreclosure sticker mess from door?
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Hairdryer!
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What the heck is that third hole even for?
There were a lot of random holes...
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Dan caulking up the randomness!
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This was the moment when I thought,
"Oh crap! I made a Barney door!"
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