Flashback Friday

Philip and I were 18 years old when we got engaged. Obviously you need a place to live when you get married (preferably not with your parents or in-laws since I would know). So after much and careful planning we started building our house in January 2007. This picture is us standing on our front porch the evening that our slab was poured. 

Building our home was the hardest thing we've ever done as a couple--ever. Philip was a carpenter at the time, so of course he built our house himself-by himself. This was often times a struggle since his usual handy helper (me) didn't even have a clue how to correctly hammer a nail or even use a drill. Needless to say I learned a lot about that kind of stuff, although I will admit it wasn't without complaining and crying and yelling sometimes. My husband, however, is a patient man. Thank God.

He is also brilliant and creative, and he did an amazing job in our beautiful well-earned home. A lot of times you can't really say this without meaning all of it, but when I say a lot of sweat, blood, and tears went into the construction of our home, it all totally did. At the time it seemed as if it'd never be done. We worked so hard at whatever hours we could. He was working full time building millionaire's houses all day and then came home to build our tiny little love shack, while I worked full time as a receptionist at Cardiovascular Institute of the South. We often times worked late into the week nights on our home and most certainly all weekend night and day. While our social lives suffered, sometimes our relationship did too.

The romance was often absent in between all of the work. We had adjusted to long hard working hours, and sometimes it seemed like Philip was more of my boss than husband.It was nights like those where a spicy break time with dinner on our unfinished bedroom floor was well needed. Yea, that was pretty fun.

Building our house was challenging to say in the least, especially because we were just a couple of kids in an adult work trying to pretend like we knew what we were doing. Sometimes I lay in my bed and just peel off the layers of the wall in my head and remember every step it took to getting them there.Although I'm not sure that we'd ever do that again, by ourselves anyway--I'm so thankful God blessed us with the opportunity. Many hard lessons were learned, but all of them were well worth the home we made.

That's my flashback, folks. Now head on over to

and link up at her fun

 

I'm also linked up @