…and then we were homeless

wait…am I supposed to say “unhoused”…hmmm…definitely come to me for all your questions on political correctness…on that note, welcome to another “Story Time with Eva.”

It was June 12…of 2025…the year of the FALL…If you’ve been following the year of doom saga, you’ll remember that I was recovering from 2 broken legs, Zane was recovering from breaking his left ankle, and this old lady had been struuuuggling through PT, knee pain and intense ankle pain…and a whole HEAP of difficult emotional and mental gymnastics…mostly, I was trying to simply adjust to my new normal…wondering if I’d ever be able to walk without pain and live without despair.

SO…June 12th…let me paint the picture for you…in 3rd person obvs…but this is legit how it went down…

Eva says she’d like to get a new dining room table that would be big enough for the adults in our growing family so we wouldn’t have to eat in shifts for the holidays. (Kid tables are a thing…don’t judge me. Because I’m not getting a table that would cover ALL the possibilities…just the most adults conceivable!)

But in order to do that, we’d need to “just bust out this wall in the dining room”…

…and then…

”for that matter, we might as well bust out the living room wall too to make more room for more people there too!”

Chris Carr…the man to whom I’ve pledged my love…the Right Reverend Galen Carr…had the audacity to give me that look…you know the one…and simply respond with 2 words: “We’re moving.”

The. End. Excuse me…what?!?

Don’t forget the timeline! This was BONKERS! But obvs he’d already been thinking that we needed to live in a “world with no stairs as much as possible.” Fair. But it seemed crazy to even think about moving in the midst of all our current chaos.

Nevertheless…they started looking at houses 2 days later!

…and they looked…and looked….and looked some more…

…all the while doing odds and ends things around the Carr Castle in order to get it listed.

SIDE NOTE: don’t even think about saying Eva is not the epitome of the submissive wife since I basically said, “Yes, dear” and went back to making his supper. Drat. I probably had you until that cooking-dinner part. But I DID in fact agree to the move quickly…right AFTER I said how insane my dear husband was for even considering it. Insert halo here.

As I mentioned, the process began 2 days later on June 14th. We lost out on the perfect place by just a couple hours…because we were doing the RESPONSIBLE thing by getting all our ducks in a row. Let’s be honest…I might have squirrels…and they never listen to reason anyway, let alone line up in a row. BUT we lost that house, and then we actually put in a couple offers back-to-back weeks…on homes across the street from one another. On paper, we should have gotten both of those, but the Lord obviously had other plans.

AT THE SAME TIME, we listed our house on September 11th…wrapping up the painting and projects literally as the buyers were on their way. I showed the farmhouse 8 times in a week…3 of which were 2nd showings…and we got an offer on September 18th. We accepted. But they wanted to close mid-October. :/ Remember, those 2 neighboring houses that didn’t accept our offers? We made the first offer on Sept. 7th, and the 2nd offer on Sept. 14th. Can’t make this up.

We were able to push the closing back to October 30th, but we literally had no place to go at that point. A super-sweet friend offered for us to move in with her until we found something, but we felt that wasn’t the best option for us or her! Chris can be quite the handful.

SO…over the course of 2 weekends, we put the majority of our belongings in 2 large storage units and moved into a 3 bedroom apartment downtown Burlington…right by our Harmony Burlington campus. Living in the big city, we’ve learned that trains are loud…as the track is roughly 12 feet from my bedroom window…and they do their best business between 1-4 AM! Also…these cool old buildings are just PACKED with character, but they are NOT packed with insulation. Lots and LOOOOOOTS of noise from upstairs neighbors….yea…that’s all I’m going to say about that…except don’t judge us for the volume of our sound machines.

We were settled in the apartment just in time for my dear friend, Natalie, to help me take everything down and decorate for Christmas WAY too early on Nov. 13th. I’ve taken a distinct pride in holding the “not until after Thanksgiving” stance on Christmas decor…a pride which comes second only to the lesser-known “squeeze it in before your 3rd ankle surgery or it won’t happen at all” stance. Compelling stuff, these stances and the research backing them. On a related note, it’s a miracle we didn’t end up in counseling when I sent Chris back to the storage units to get Christmas bins, only a couple weeks after they were put there!! No, but for real…the bins I’d so carefully packed and set up front with Natalie in October, had somehow found their way to the rear…and the bottom, come November. Counseling, I tell you.

I know we’ve already talked about the physical issues of 2025 in previous posts, but recovering from the 3rd surgery while living in the apartment definitely added a significant and deeper layer to the whole process. We even had the whole family here for several days to celebrate Christmas, and it was just fine…cozy, but fine! In truth, it probably has given me some incentive to simplify even more once we get our things out of storage! How ‘bout we just baby step our way forward on that though…won’t want things to get carried away!!!

Back to the “homeless” issue…we felt that we had exhausted all the options available by that point. While new homes were always popping up almost daily, we were at a point where we didn’t have the liberty to just keep waiting. SO…we bought a few acres from some friends at church who decided to buy some land to create a mini-sub-division, and started to build a home…a RANCH with a basement, to be clear. While there are no guarantees, they’re hoping we will be in early summer. The apartment owners allowed us to do a 6 month lease and then month-to-month. We are really hoping to make the final move late May or early June, but we will just wait and see.

Brief FAQ:

*No, we did not plan to build.

*No, we had absolutely zero desire to build a home.

*No, I had zero ideas of what I’d want to include if I ever built a home…refer back to answers 1 and 2.

Once things started rolling, the floor plan was laid out, the foundation was dug, and the concrete was poured…among other things…all in a week’s time…just before the first frost mid-November. Then mid-January, our new Amish friends began to just CRANK out the exterior and interior framing, the siding, the roof, and SO much more! OH there was also a big ravine through the property that has been dug out and will one day be a big ol’ pond! The hubs just gave me that look again when I said we probably need to build a dock…and buy a paddleboat…and…oh wait…I’m sensing a pattern here. I then just acted like he was hearing things. This is 30 years of marriage.

We’ve been picking out flooring and cabinetry…100% in agreement at all times, of course…no dramatics here…including our full agreement on the floor plan and the exposed beams…all. the. things. Easy peasy. :/ But every decision feels like a decision that 90 year olds, Eva and Chris, would choose because y’all know good and well that once it’s in, it’s staying for all time. Amen and amen.

Looking ahead…they’re hoping to do the wrap-around porch…and maybe the back patio…once we have several days of warm weather again. We are enjoying frequent drop-by’s to check out the ongoing progress, and I’m deciding when to schedule that 4th surgery of the ankle replacement based on when we actually make this final move.

The most difficult thing in this whole process has been leaving that farmhouse that we loved WELL for 14 years…and not just the farmhouse, but the big party barn, the giant yard with the fire pit and volleyball and whiffle ball field and playground, the “woodpile” outbuilding, even the taxidermy shop (IYKYK), and of course, Zoe’s garden. The season of life our family lived on those almost 3 acres was substantial. The HUNDREDS of guests and the MANY hours of ministry and the laughter that FILLED that home could not be overstated. It was the place our kids had lived the longest ever. It was the only home Zane had ever known. It was the only home in which Zoe would ever live. In hindsight, I should have been listening to music…or taken up knitting…just something to distract myself at our closing, because when I thought of all of these things, I started silently crying. As much as I was trying to hold it together, I was fighting a losing battle. And then when they asked if we had any requests, I just said if they were ever wanting to get rid of the Magnolia tree in Zoe’s garden to please let us know…we’d come get it…and then, it was water works time. Our realtor, Tammy, got up to get me some kleenex…then she gets choked up…then the buyers realtor gets choked up…and there we sat…trying to dab away the heartache of a life that was gone too soon. Incidentally, the poor mortgage guy did NOT know what to do with this “first” during a closing…where even the realtors were sobbing. Trend-setters all around.

Thus wraps up the 2025 updates from Eva. You’re probably as tired as I am hearing about it. Bleh. How ‘bout we don’t repeat that one, am I right? I do appreciate all the little ways that the Lord met me though, in the midst of all that turmoil of ‘25. Even when I struggled against and amidst those difficult times, I recognize that nothing was a surprise to God, and that he is most definitely not done with me yet. I’m so so grateful to not only trust that to be true…but also feel and experience the goodness of God as he sat in the pit with me…and continues to do so. Both things can be true. The Lord is able to do far more than we could ever ask or think or even imagine. I’m counting on it. To him be all glory! All the amens.