Time Travel Tuesday

This week we will travel back to our first home... was it your very own apartment, or a home with your new spouse? What memories do you have from that first home? How did you make that first house (or apartment) a home?

I really don't consider my first apartment in college my first home although once I moved out of my parent's home, I rarely slept there again. And I've already spoke of my first apartment here in another Time Travel Tuesday.

So, I will begin with our first apartment. We lived in a nice gated apartment complex when Beef and I first got married. It was two bedrooms on the ground floor shared by Beef's brother, who helped pay the rent. Six months later, we bought a house and moved along with brother Josh.

We found a great deal on a HUD (repossessed) home -- two-stories and 2000 plus square feet at a 1200 square foot home price. God really blessed us. We had to relay carpet and linoleum and paint the entire house in a month's time, the time limit set to have the home reappraised.

Beef and I travelled down to Dalton, Georgia, carpet-heaven city of the South. Side-note: I have to tell this story. Beef was afraid the 15-foot trailer would break our hitch, so we drove the 3-hour commute with my dad's 8-foot trailer in tow. I chose a nice tan and off-white bargain-priced Berber carpet. We decided on the 15-foot roll since our two-car garage had been remodeled into a den. This size roll seemed to make the most sense.

The carpet guys hoisted the carpet up onto (remember 15-foot roll, 8-foot trailer) our trailer, but the roll hung off the front and back of it. The carpet was so heavy (we needed it for the entire house), we barely had to strap it on there. It wasn't going anywhere. Being in such a hurry, we decided to chance the awkward fit on the trailer and drive back.

We entered Interstate 24 going west toward home, but upon our Jeep Cherokee hitting 40 mph, the whole vehicle started to rock. The heavy end of the carpet hanging off the back caused the trailer to sway back and forth and jerk the entire vehicle with it. We didn't know what to do. I thought it best to travel Hwy 41 the rest of the way. "It's a straight shot from here to home," I told Beef. Wrong!! Unbeknownst to me, the highway leafs and crisscrosses repeatedly. And it's really hard to navigate without a map!

Not only were we subject to constant swaying and jolting at a maximum speed of 35 mph, we had no idea where we were going. We ended up missing our turn outside of Chattanooga. The road we were travelling actually transformed into a one-way dirt road detouring up the mountain. Our two options were, A. Turn around and drive an hour to our missed exit, or B. Take the interstate up Mont Eagle Mountain, a dangerously steep stretch of road without the risk of a rocking trailer careening into a semi.

We hadn't spoken in a few hours (Can you say cut the tension with a knife?) and weren't about to add another couple of hours to our drive. We said a hearty prayer and entered the interstate cautiously. We gradually gained speed, hitting 30, 40, 50 mph, and thank the Lord, there was no rocking!! Goosebumps formed on my arms as I told Beef, "Honey, there has to be angels back there holding that trailer in place." The trailer had not NOT swayed since we left Dalton.

As soon as those words left my mouth, we hit a bump in the road and the wobbling began again. But, we had made it most the way up the mountain, and there was our exit in sight. We managed to arrive at my parent's home nine hours later from our departure, worn and bitter.

Today, the carpet is laid, and we still have a hard time laughing about the incident. We won't make that mistake again! At the end of the month, our home appraised about $25,000 dollars more than what we paid for it. We are still here and are slowly replacing our hand-me-down furniture. Our favorite room is our movie room where the garage used to be. We play movies and video games on the wall through a mounted projector, and we love having company over to share in the fun.

Join in at Annie's.