You Make My Dreams Come True

Oil on board, 18x18, Oak floater frame
 
 
We bought our first house the year after we were married.
 
It was an adorable Cape Cod on a corner lot, right down the street from my grandparents’.
 
It was built in the 1920’s and the outside was painted avocado green.
 
As soon as I saw it, I said to my husband, “let’s paint it tan, and the shutters deep forest green, and make window boxes, and put up a white picket fence.”
 
And we did!
 
We barely had enough to cover the monthly bills at 24 and 26 years old.
 
But my husband was a weekend warrior.  He can figure stuff out!
 
One weekend he enlisted the help of his brothers, and we painted the outside of the house. 
 
Another weekend, window boxes were carefully crafted in our driveway.  
 
And on another weekend he and my brother rented a post hold digger, built, and installed the picket fence by hand.
 
“You make my dreams come true.”
 
It was our starter house and after four years, we started talking about moving or adding on.  
 
We decided to make some kitchen updates and investigate adding to the second floor.
 
Then one day I was out with my dad, and he mentioned a new neighborhood going up in Phoenixville.  There had been an article in the Inquirer about people camping out to get a new building lot.
 
So we checked it out.  
 
When my dad and I walked through the front door of the model house, he said, “If you don’t buy one I will.”
 
I went home that day with the brochure.
 
Mike was ripping out the counter tops and sink when I walked in.
 
He saw my face and my hand holding the folder.  He said, “did you find a house?”
 
He laughed and calmly put down his tools.
 
That night we drove out to the neighborhood.  We drove in and saw the model house lit up from the road.
 
He looked at me and said, let’s do it.
 
We’ve lived in that house for 24 years now.  We raised our girls there and the neighbors have become family.
 
I can be impulsive.
 
My brain loves to dream.
 
I’ve been so many different versions of myself over our 30- year marriage.
 
He’s steady.
 
He’s kind.
 
He’s been my rock.
 
And he’s an ABSOLUTE Saint for putting up with me!!
 
“You make my dreams come true”
 
 
Music reference: You Make My Dreams Come True, Daryl Hall & John Oats
Photo credit: @macrotake