The Online Tour (Pre-Painting).
Jun/090
Check out our digs, with some shots of the townhouse in its original empty state.
Click on the images to view descriptions of each photo.
The New Digs.
Jun/092
Here we are, the happy homeowners! As we lift up Alyosha, he gives a ruffing hip hip hooray!
Some fun facts about our new digs:
-We purchased the home from friends who are moving at the end of the summer. We’re sad to see them go, but it’s also awesome for both of us to have answered prayer requests through this!
-This was the first place we looked at on our house hunt. Over 20 places later, and we just kept coming back to it.
-We can now walk to a grocery, goodwill, my home church, a large park and other shops.
-We painted the house before our closing, thanks to our nice friends giving us the key early.
-Our friends, the former homeowners, were expecting their first and she went into labor the day of our closing. We thought it might get delayed, but they pulled it off thanks to a run to the hospital to get a signed POA.
-A disc golf course is less than 2 miles away.
-We now have a fenced in yard for the dog and some gardening fun.
From day 1 in the new place, Trevor and I were ready and eager to make the place ours. We had lots of home improvement ideas and so we were ready, shovels and hoes in hand, to get to work!
A Year Ago.
Jun/092
A year ago, give or take a week, I was arriving back in America after my 2 years in Belarus. One of my first priorities was to find a place to live, even more than a job to pay for my place to live. I had to have a place by mid June as a dear friend from Belarus, Anya, was coming to live with me for the whole summer. I cannot tell you how excited I was to spend the summer with her. I know, for one, that I needed that summer to help me transition back to life in America… it sure helped. (Even so, I must say that most days I don’t feel as though I’ve transitioned much at all.)
Here is Anya and I, with my little Russian, Alyosha. This was our home, a small one bedroom studio apartment. The picture captures half of the living room area. I had a waterbed in my room, and Anya had the futon to pull out every night to sleep on. It was a fun summer.
Soon August came and Anya got on a plane to go home. I was left in my studio alone. It was a nice space to have, just me and my dog, but I was done with living alone. It was with great joy that I could look forward to being married and having a roommate again. So after about 6 months, Trevor and I were hitched and he moved into my space.
Here was another good day: moving out day! Trevor and I enjoyed our first apartment together for 3 months. But in all honesty, he could never truly move in. All of his belongings were stored away as there was no place to put them in our small apartment, and no place for me to put my stuff already there. So while we treasure our first three months of marriage in that apartment, there was no looking back for us when it came to move! You’ll note the boxes all ready to be loaded onto the UHaul in the background, the futon (formally Anya’s bed) to the left, and hanging on the right wall, a 12 foot wooden rowing oar purchased from my alma mater, St. John’s College.
Welcome!
Jun/092
If you’re reading this page, chances are you visited on purpose, because we gave you this address and encouraged you to check out the site we’re building. This means you probably don’t need an introduction. But, stories are fun, and we love to tell ours, so prepare yourself to either enjoy a brief summary of who we are and why this site exists, or leave quickly and visit later when there might be more interesting content.
The two awesome people in the picture above are Kristi and Trevor Durbin. We got married in February (the 28th to be exact). We’ve got around two years of history together, which includes (in no specific order or list of importance): road trips, mission trips, photography, lots of coffee, lots of emails, lots of laughs, some tears, deep conversation, miles and months of separation, and a few months of indivisibility. There is, of course, a lot more — but we’ll reveal that with time.
For now, here’s the current breakdown: we just purchased our first home, and after spending some time browsing the Internet (looking at sites related to home-ownership) we were inspired to start our own blog — a place where we can digitally journal our life together. We want to share pictures and stories of updating our house, updating our understanding of each other, and updating our life experience. We invite you, through this simple page, to be a part of that.
So, thank you for being here from the beginning. We hope our life together blesses yours.
10K Training
Kristi's Training Mileage:
Trevor's Training Mileage:
Good Reads
Kristi's read shelf:
Trevor's read shelf: