This week I decided to vlog a site visit to the house we’ve been constructing for five years. It’s something I’ve never felt the need to share with my readers and viewers before. But now that it’s almost done, I wanted to give you all a peek into my hopes and dreams and the future I’m building for myself and my family.
I guess it’s also relevant in these times. COVID-19 has affected nearly every part of how we live our lives. In part it’s what delayed this building project also, but that delay has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Check out the site visit below, then scroll down for a bit of background and the choices we ended up making.
In 2017 we started to build our new house in the same lot of the house I grew up in. We were all in great anticipation that we’d be finished by 2018 or 2019, but we had a few delays and ended up with the house still only 20% done by the beginning of 2020. Then the pandemic hit.
Private construction ground to a halt in the early months of that year because no one knew how to safely continue building things and house construction workers without them all falling sick. But that pause gave us a chance to reassess who we had entrusted our money and construction to.
It turns out, he had scammed us and then gone into hiding.
We were distraught. I don’t even remember how we got things started again. But by God’s grace, we found a new contractor, secured a home loan (despite banks being reluctant to grant loans), and began building again last year.
Construction was delayed again due to this current surge because the village put into place some other regulations for how many workers could stay on-site overnight. We should have already started moving in this month… but the move will happen inevitably anyway.
When we started building again, we went over our old plans to make sure they were pandemic-proof. I’m thankful that our house design already incorporated a lot of air flow, since many of the most contagious diseases (including the one that caused the pandemic) are airborne. We also have enough rooms with adjoining bathrooms if some of us need to quarantine or isolate. And lastly we prize access to the outdoors even more these days, so it’s good to have our own back yard.
(Not to mention, the runner in me is excited about all the village roads I can run in place of the 500-meter path I’ve been jogging on for the past two years!)
What this experience has taught me is that delays can serve a purpose and we need to be open to finding what they are instead of grumbling and being impatient. In the end, God’s plans and timing prevailed, and now we have a house that is built well and will serve my family for generations. With that, I’m taking optimism into the year ahead.
