Do You Believe The Universe Sends You Signs?
I do. It’s happened on quite a few occasions.
I’m not one of those “New Age” people who sees signs and believes in crystals and all of that.
There are things I believe, based on different experiences I have had. Like the time I was working on a job out of town and I stayed in a haunted hotel. I felt a presence at one point in my room. When I talked to the front desk about it I was told that indeed the hotel is haunted and what I experienced was not uncommon. I stayed there another few weeks but my experience only happened twice.
Just over a year ago my daughter Fiona, son-in-law Sam, (and granddaughter Luna) decided the only way any of us could afford to purchase a home was if we went in on something together and became a multi-generation household.
We pooled our money and got pre-approved for a mortgage. We sat down with my good friend Alexis Halmy, our realtor. I’ve known Alexis for years. She had us individually write down what we wanted in a house. Then we went over our lists. A duplex was out of the question as we couldn’t afford it. We needed to find alternatives so we’d all have our own space.
Going through our priorities it all seemed doable. Ambitious perhaps but doable. Right at the end I said, “Oh I have one more thing on my list.” Everyone looked at me. “I really want a sunroom. Someplace light and open, so I can have coffee in the morning and a glass of wine at the end of the day.”
I won’t say that Alexis laughed but she did smile and say, “With the mortgage amount you’re approved for that’s probably not going to happen.”
I knew that, but it was on my list and I wanted to put that out there.
We looked at one place that from it’s description seemed promising. It was not.
Alexis had a flyer for a house that was open that weekend. It didn’t look good from the flyer. We decided to check it out just to see other houses in our price range.
It was a 1970’s ranch style house on a quiet dead end street. To say it needed a lot of work would be an understatement. The yard was totally overgrown (“mature landscaping” in realtor speak), but the real surprise was when we walked in. It was disgusting. The carpets were possibly original, worn, a bad color, and filthy. The walls in some rooms were dirty, and there was carpeting in one of the bathrooms, which was really disgusting. There was stuff left behind, including food in the refrigerator.
I saw people walk in and not even get past the living room, they turned and walked out. We were told there was a basement that wasn’t listed because it was unfinished. As I walked through the dining area looking at the 70’s wall paper that had seen better days I was wondering why this place was even “open” as it really needed a good cleaning before I would have allowed anyone to come in and look at it.
Then I saw it. On the other side of the dining area. There were two doors that went out into the overgrown backyard but one of them caught my attention.
You guessed it, there was a Sunroom. It looked beat and filthy. There were water stains on the wood and I was pretty sure there was probably some rotted wood in the walls behind those stains.
But it was a Sunroom!
Miracle On 34th Street
Do you remember the film, Miracle On 34th Street? No one believes Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) is really Santa Claus even though he makes people’s wishes come true. Eventually the little girl, Susan (Natalie Wood) does and at the end she makes her mother and Fred stop the car at a house that’s for sale. The house is just like the one Kris Kringle told her was going to be hers. She goes running in with her Mother and Fred running behind her as she keeps saying it’s our house. Once inside over in the corner we see Kris’ cane. Now we all believe that he is Santa and the house was meant for them.
If you don’t remember the scene, here’s the clip…
Seeing that sunroom was my Natalie Wood moment. I wasn’t sure if I could convince the others that we needed to make an offer. The amount of work needed before we could even move in was a lot and an additional cash outlay.
Fiona and Sam had gone downstairs to see the basement. It had a work area with sinks and running water and shelves which were perfect for Fiona’s yarn dyeing business.
Yep. This house was meant for us.
We moved in January 2023.
The house has great bones and a lot of potential. And the layout turns out to be pretty damn good. We have a decent amount of space and if any of us wants to be left alone we can be. Yes, we have years of work to do on this place to get it to where we want it but after one year we’ve accomplished a lot.
I truly believe by saying to Alexis, and putting it out to the Universe, that I really wanted a sunroom, it was important to me, that the Universe led us to this house.
I do a morning meditation and one of the questions I ask myself is where would I like to wake up in the morning. There was a time when my answer would be, Paris, Spain, the coast, so many ogther places. Six months ago I realized when I was answering that question, the place I want to wake up in is this house. I am happy and relaxed here, and I thank the Universe often for leading us to this place.
I still put things out to the Universe and I listen. Some things happen. Others don’t. And that’s okay. The ones that don’t aren’t supposed to happen. Maybe there’s something better out there and I’m aiming too low? I don’t know.
What I do know and what I tell people is, if you want something you have to work hard for it and just as important as the work is to let the Universe know what you want and why.
I’m going to start working on the Sunroom this winter and spring. Sam has already cut out and replaced some of the rotted wood.
I’ll be photographing our progress on the Sunroom as I turn it into the cool room I envisioned way back when. On occasion I’ll post about how we’re progressing.
Remember, if you don’t put it out there and put in the work, you could miss out on things that are important to you.
Thanks for reading.
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