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Hope isn’t about knowing how things will come about.

Hope is about envisioning the future and choosing to enjoy that now. Hope is really about rest. Resting in the imperfections of today because you believe that tomorrow there is possibility.

Sometimes the hope isn’t for the change as much is it is for the change in me.

I have great hope for this property that we purchased this summer. We bought it because we have a dream for our future.

Because it has great potential.

Because it is a fantastic mess.

And I like to torture myself by adopting messes and trying to bring out their beauty. It’s my favorite and simultaneously, it’s the worst…

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kitchen remodel

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Ten years ago, when we bought our last house I had one condition: NO SPRAYED ON CEILINGS.

Of course the house that I fell in love with had sprayed on ceilings. I all but guaranteed it by announcing my dislike of them.

This time around I had one main condition as we were looking for land. ABSOLUTELY NO POWER LINES. NEVER. NO WAY.

When will I ever learn? Here’s where that declaration got me…

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I tried to make them look magical in this picture. Don’t you want phone lines too? I admit, they almost look pretty here.

wires But not here.

This is what you see when you stand on our little side porch that leads from the laundry room to our driveway. Yes, when our guests arrive our power lines are right there ready to meet them! This pole is my nemesis currently. It depressed me for weeks (months?) but I’m starting to get over it. Maybe? Of course it’s perfectly positioned to be the main thing you see as you pull up our driveway. Why? Even the dog is confused. Usually when I snap photos I just leave the power lines out.

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The wires carry themselves proudly on down to the pole down by our pond…

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That one is showing off with two huge buckety things at the top. “Look at MEEE everyone!”

power line city

You wouldn’t believe me if I didn’t show you a photo but it’s almost like someone LOVED wires so much that they wrapped them around 3/4 of our house. They come from the street and instead of going straight back to the pond they actually come around the FAR side of our house THEN go back to the pond. Our house is surrounded by wires.

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It pains me to show you this one. However, no one ever sees our house from this area unless they walk deep into our front yard, the driveway is way over to the right… By the phone pole.

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porch view

Here’s the view from our front porch. Really the only time you see the power lines is when you first get out of your car and come into our house, or when you walk outside the house. We have 12 full acres that are mostly power line free, we have a huge side porch with a view to the pond that is power line-less and lots of pretty tress to look at.

Do I have hope that one day the power lines will be gone? A little. Maybe we can have them buried? But mostly my hope is that one day the beauty of the property will be so great, that the wires will fade away and I won’t notice them as much. Beauty comes two ways, remember how we talked about arrows?

“Decorating is like placing arrows around. “Look here. And now here.” And anything you don’t want to see you either don’t put an arrow pointing to it, or you simply put an arrow in front of it. And anything you want to accentuate, you make sure it has a big arrow.”

*from the post Good Enough Christmas Decorating for When Life isn’t Perfect Because isn’t that Always?

Sometimes sweet little closeups on instagram and online can make it seem like our little place is pure charm I want to make sure you see what I try to choose to over look on a daily basis.

Daily I tell you.

Here’s our land and home in all of it’s imperfect glory. If this place would have been perfect it would have been out of our price range. Thank God for imperfections, right?!

So here’s what we are working with over the next few years to create a place for you to come to… Can you see the possibilities?

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At times it’s debilitating.

We bought a house on 12 acres that happened to be an old sawmill. There are piles of metal and plastic trash that we keep finding. There are 10ish falling apart wood buildings. Tractor tires, broken things, power lines we won’t need. We need an army.

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But there are also beautiful trees, cleared pastures and lots and LOTS of cut wood to use however we want. So this year my word is SLOW.

Because it’s the exact opposite of how I’ve felt. Normally in our circle of friends and in our family our house has always been the one where people gather. And with it now being the fixer-uppper I’ve had to learn that yes, I can still have people over, but large gatherings are still difficult.

It’s awkward to use a bathroom with cardboard walls and we still have outlets without covers and such, a toddler’s worst nightmare. I had a dream of already having gatherings and a big sale and fun stuff on our land and I’ve had to accept the fact that things are moving slower.

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We are paying cash for updates as we go and naturally every project takes longer than you hope. So mostly here when I show you our monthly progress, I naturally focus on the positive changes we’ve made. But this time I wanted you to see the extent of work that is here because y’all it can be overwhelming if I let it. Inside, outside, pool, buildings, wires...so I show all the pretty on instagram and usually here because it encourages me.

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I hope as you sit in your imperfect house and can’t help but notice the imperfections that at times seem hopeless, that you can still have hope. Maybe not that everything will change. But maybe that enough will change that you’ll forget about those things that seem daunting today.

smithus & the pole

Also, if you or your husband our your best friend happens to be a power line worker whose job is moving power lines in the greater Charlotte NC area, feel free to contact me so we can be BFFs.

hope. on a wire