New Beginnings

~ Our Buildings ~ 
"Dad & Lad's" and "Weingartens" ~ picture circa 1940's

It had always been a dream of my husband and I to live in an old building in a small town … to run a store below and live above it. We talked about it for years, but it never came to fruition. We put it on the back burner, and made our home in a suburb of Dallas. 

Because of my furniture painting hobby, and our love of all things vintage, we decided at some point I would turn my hobby into a business. With a goal and a plan, we revisited our old dream ... which took us on several months of Sunday drives to check out small town living. We knew we didn't want to venture too far from family and friends. Our drives were limited to the surrounding counties, never more than two hours away from familiarity. Every Sunday we seemed to get discouraged, and on our drive back home we would talk about other towns, and other possibilities. Lake living. Country living. Old home living. Just stay where we are. 

Then one Sunday in November, our drive took us 45 minutes north to Denison, Texas. Pop. 22,000 give or take. It felt right, so we pursued our research further. And in our research we found old buildings for sale here and there around town. We contacted a real estate agent who showed us several. And we chose one. We went up to take a second look, and as luck would have it, he showed us another that was now available. Right.Next.Door. It didn’t take us but one sleepless night of wide awake dreaming to know we were in love. In love with the old character of the buildings. The possibility of what each could/would become. We felt like we were The Rescuers … the Keepers of the Buildings. We had to have one of them. But which one? Both were individually unique. We took a leap of faith, and contracted both!

Now this is where I need to tell you … we are no spring chickens. We are empty nested. My husband is semi-retired. We have grandchildren … and gray hair … and joints that sometimes make strange noises, when we can feel them. We are at that point in our lives where our children were trying to convince us to downsize from our 4000 sq ft home to an over 50 retirement community. A patio home at best. So I don’t have to tell you they thought we had lost what was left of our minds when we purchased not one, but TWO buildings that TOTAL approximately 13,500 sq ft.

Most people have stood beside us and have supported our decision (or so they say). A very few have said we are too old and are crazy for taking on such grandiose ideas. To them I say … so what if we are old? We are not getting any younger, and if we don’t do it now, we will never do it. Better late than never!

The saying comes to my mind … It’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. If you just talk about a dream without taking action, then it will always be nothing more than a dream. One with regrets for letting the time slip away and doing nothing, until you truly are too old. Love and live your dream now!

And so our adventure begins. I hope you follow along with us during our journey. I know it won’t be without it’s ups and downs. But it will be an adventure! And hopefully a lot of fun!

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Born Again Re*Creations 

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