When my husband and I first announced that we were building a house, the reaction was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and supportive. "It's the best experience of your life!" - "It's a rollercoaster, but it's great!" - "The house will truly be YOURS!" So far, all these statements have been true. We have thoroughly enjoyed the process of building - obsessively visiting the site to see what progress has been made each day {we live nearby so it's not inconvenient to stop by} and taking TONS of pictures.
Like any woman of the modern era, I took to the internet to see if I could find cute, "original" ideas for ways to make the house feel more like ours during the build process. I saw ideas of writing prayers on the walls/floors or nailing a personal item to the inside frame so it would be built within your walls. Not being particularly religious nor willing to sacrifice meaningful personal items, we struggled to find the perfect way to put our mark on the house.
Finally, we decided we wanted to write a quote on the door frame. We wanted something welcoming, meaningful, deep, and original - and not cliche or cheesy. Hahaha! A VERY tall order for a quote.
I found the usuals:
What I Love Most About My Home is Who I Share It With
There's No Place Like Home
Every Journey Ends With Home
The greatest work you'll ever do will be within the walls of your home.
Having somewhere to go is Home, Having someone to love is Family, Having both is a Blessing.
While all very wise words, none of these statements really spoke to us. Finally, one night, while scrolling through the internet {ahem, Pinterest}, my husband suggested, "Why don't we use a line from our wedding vows?"
{Isn't he the sweetest?!}
Our wedding vows were a mixture of disgustingly sweet and absurdly ridiculous promises we were making to each other. For example, building each other up when the world gets too big and always splitting a bag of gummy bears amicably. But we both ended our vows with the line: "While I cannot promise you that life with me will always be easy, I can promise you it will always be a big adventure."
For fans of J. M. Barrie, this line is very familiar.
{Cheese factor overload yet?}
So the line we decided on was:
To live will be an awfully big adventure.
It is a nod to our past together, the vows we made to each other, and the life we intend to live together - in our new home. Awww...
On a somewhat related sidenote: It appears our house is already a home. A few weeks ago, we noticed a dove nesting in our garage. As progress was made on the house, we worried that when time came for insulation and drywall the workers would be less than kind. However, the workers installed insulation around her nest as the baby birds were born and growing.
When it came time for drywall, the workers carefully relocated the birds - to a ledge they built specifically for the birds outside our front door shaded from the Arizona sun.
