Christmas in Our First Home 2006

Whether it ever existed I do not recall, but there seems to be no Christmas letter for 2006. However, I cannot let that year just pass by without a review. It was a significant year - the year we built our first home.

Our First Home

The Seely family has a large farm in Greenwood, and Adrian and I were blessed with a piece of land to build a home. We decided on a beautiful ranch design with a finished bonus room and 2-car garage. At the time, we thought this might be the only home we'd ever build and where we'd raise our family...we wanted to do it right the first time.

The home we built in Greenwood, Delaware. Photo taken in 2009 with landscaping.

Construction started on our home in early January, just weeks before my 24th birthday. Truth be told, I knew little about what to expect for the cost and monthly payment; real estate was quite foreign to me at the time.

History now shows us that early 2006 was just about the height of the housing market (if not slightly past) and home loans were easily obtained with no money down. We locked in at a 6.6% interest rate for 30 years.
Side note: mortgage rates hit an all-time low late 2012 with fixed rates less than 4%; that equates to savings of at least $400 a month on a home this size!

That year Adrian devoted countless hours to our home. He assisted with the framing, installed the plumbing, laid the tile in the kitchens and bathrooms, hung the siding, painted the walls and much more. He is very handy, especially when it comes to construction! I usually left for work in Wilmington by 6:30 a.m. and didn't get home until close to 7:00 p.m., so I did not get to see much progress until the weekends.

By June, the home was complete and we were ready to move in! However, right around that time, a frightening incident occurred.

The Washing Machine Incident

Adrian was working on installing the new washing machine when he let out a deafening yell. I ran in the laundry room to find him lying on the ground with a massive cut in his right forearm (I could see inches of his muscle...gags). He had tied into a 220 volt and the electric shock had actually cut his skin. Immediately, we went to the car and I started driving to the hospital about 20 minutes away.

The problem is, I don't handle blood and pain well at all. About halfway there his arm starting bleeding heavily and I couldn't take it any more. I pulled over just in time to put the car in park before I fainted! That's right, hard core passed out in the driver's seat leaving my husband to call his parents to come rescue us and take us to the ER. What a day!

It's really a miracle that Adrian lived through that. The doctor told us that if both his hands had been on the washer and that current passed through his heart, he would not be here...That wasn't Adrian's first close call and it certainly wouldn't be his last.

Two Wonderful Women

Once we moved into our new home, we welcomed two housemates. Women from out-of-state who were dating local friends of ours and wanted to be closer as their relationships blossomed. We jokingly called it the halfway house because within a year both women were engaged and soon married.

Three engaged couples and us! Ruth and Beth are on the left with their fiancés Brad and Ken.

Brad and Amanda are to our right. If we took this picture again today, there would be 8 children in it :)

 



We loved being able to share our home with Ruth and Beth, and the special opportunity to get to know these amazing women! Little did we know that four years later we would move to Indianapolis near Beth and Ken.

Youth Group

Our home also became a fun hang-out for the youth group we continued to lead. As youth pastor, Adrian was an exceptional speaker and leader; he was able to challenge and encourage many of the youth to recognize and use their talents for God's glory. That year, our church of about 100 members had a youth group that grew to over 40 teens attending our weekly youth gathering. I loved seeing God use Adrian in this capacity, but dealing with teen drama was no piece of cake.

Marketing Fun

Though I had a long commute, I did enjoy my marketing position with Nason Construction. That year they completed a $30+ million expansion to Christiana Hospital, Delaware's #1 medical complex. I worked tirelessly to put together an award submission that resulted in Nason being the first Delaware firm to receive a First Place Construction Excellence Award from Associated Builders and Contractors! Unfortunately, I did not get to attend the award ceremony in Las Vegas.

I never would have imagined that two years later, I would be having surgery in one of those new state-of-the-art Operating Rooms that Nason Construction built. Christiana was the only hospital in Delaware that has the expertise deliver a baby with spina bifida.

New Baby Boy

One more big event that year was the birth of my first nephew. For the first time, I got to really imagine what it would be like to have a baby as I experienced pregnancy and birth through the eyes of my dear sister. I was able to join her in Vermont when Gabriel was born, and I fell totally in love with this little guy!

Holding my precious nephew Gabriel (this was taken the summer of 2007)

We finished the year celebrating Christmas with Adrian's family in our new home. It was truly a blessed year in our lives.