“What fun, to take a 120 year old home and tell the new story of it. We found old photos in the kids’ room, bourbon bottles hidden in the walls from the prohibition era, we uncovered a fireplace. We discovered a lot of little gems.”
Hi folks! Welcome to the first interview of our blog series.
Join us as we get a glimpse into these clients’ lives and the journey that got them to their dream home, working with us, and thriving in the Shoals.
After going to college at the University of North Alabama, meeting, and falling in love in Florence, Tera and Wes Wages did a bit of moving around. While living for stints in a few other cities Tera and Wes always knew this town had a special place in their hearts- special enough to put down family roots. “Florence is affordable, has a lot of creatives, and we just knew it was the right place for us to be to start our business.” Wes adds that “it’s a great place to raise kids, and now we have 4 of them!”
How they came to be in their current home on Poplar Street wasn’t an overnight process. Their first home together was a brick ranch-style home on Baker Drive, just over a mile from downtown. As they began their family they found and fell in love with a 7 acre plot of land on Cypress Creek. They made plans to build there, constantly dreamt of what it would become, and even picked out the perfect homesite. But sometimes our plans change.
The process of actually getting the house was its own challenge. It was in need of full renovation, but that did not stop multiple people (mostly investors) from making offers. After fighting hard for the house, we got it! Tera and Wes took on a HUGE project. The entire process was captured by them and released as an online series, Building Us With Tera and Wes.
“This house is not haunted, I’m confident of that, but I will haunt this house. This is the house I will choose” Tera laughed. “No, but I’ve told Wes, no matter where we go and where we live, this house will always be the one.”
The Wages have done amazing things in this community. They’ll always be Florence locals no matter their mailing address.
Their advice to home buyers: “Don’t be afraid to live small in order to get the space that you want one day. You’re setting yourself up for your future wants.”
It’s been an honor to get them in and out of homes that have made them who they are. Our relationship has only grown over the years, and I’m lucky to be trusted with a small part of their story.
(Full disclosure, we did not intend on releasing this interview as an audio file. The plan was to simply record it so that it could be transcribed into text form. But, then we played it back. Tera and Wes are so expressive and such delightful humans to listen to, that we decided that people needed to hear it! Please excuse the less than professional quality of the recording and understand that you are about to gain some fun wisdom and joy.