I noticed it creeping up on Thursday afternoon. That heavy chest feeling I tried really hard to ignore. While I ignored it, I ripped the wall down between the "middle room" and the livingroom. Friday was worse, but I managed to finish tearing down my wall and I even got some of that wall paper down in the diningroom. My mom stopped by for lunch and decided she should teach me how to use the wall paper steamer. It is probably a good thing she did... I may never have started that very intimidating process without her. And we discovered that there were actually 4 layers of wall paper to peel off. The steamer really did make it a lot easier though.
Friday night I broke down and took some nighttime cold medicine. I slept for about 15 hours and then convinced myself that the way I felt Saturday morning was simply a "cold medicine hangover". Saturday afternoon our work crew came over and helped us install the rough-cut pine beams where the wall had been. It looked beautiful! But it was about all I could do to make it until the work was finished up. I picked up the kids, went home and put us all to bed.
Sunday morning I had to face the music... I was sick. I knew church was out of the question, so I drove my sorry self down to Prompt Care instead. The verdict wasn't pretty. I managed to get Influenza A...The real flu. And that had apparently turned into a sinus infection and bronchitis and I was working toward pneumonia. Yuck. Armed with a prescription for a Z-pack and the doctor's order to go find somewhere to hide for a few days, I came to the realization that I would be enduring a very real type of torture, possibly worse than how I currently felt... I wasn't going to be able to go work on the house to finish up the beams with our work crew today. The only thing worse than feeling this miserable, is feeling this miserable and missing out on fun while attempting to get better.
When I got home Matt headed off to the farmhouse with a reminder that I needed to get better, "this is a marathon, not a sprint" and I tried really hard not to hate him for feeling well enough to work when I couldn't.
It sounds like they got a ton of work done today. The beams are up, the cabinets where we will be moving the refrigerator are gone, the carpet in the kitchen is pulled up and it sounds like they have plans for more beams on the kitchen side of the livingroom. I can't wait to see all the work. I will take pictures to share as soon as I am allowed back out there. I am hoping to drive over tomorrow, but since I can't even climb the stairs at our house without having to stop for air, I won't be holding my breath...
Our Home
We purchased this 1920's-ish farmhouse on March 16th, 2012 and began our DIY makeover
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
My Treasure Hunt Finds
Remember the treasure hunt I went on Friday while I waited for official word our purchase had recorded? Well, yesterday I took a friend around to show her a few of my finds and took some pictures along the way to share with you. I know it is all dirty and in need of some TLC, but I have big plans for each of these items. I'll have to share pics as I finish each little project, but for now they will remain as they are... I have bigger fish to fry first!
Old tin wash basin.
Old door with glass panes and crystal knob still intact.
Sorry for the blurry photo... I took these with my iPhone...
Dresser needs to be refinished, but in great condition structurally.
Nice cabinet found in mobile home bathroom.
There ar probably 20 of these old oil cans that have been cut to create storage bins. What a cool idea...and I am sure I can use them somewhere...
Shelves in garage filled with hardware, junk and treasures.
This old woodstove is hooked up and complete with chimney to heat garage. It just needs a little TLC and some backing to protect the wall and my new shop has a heat source!
This old stove is in desperate need of TLC as well, but image it cleaned up. To sell or use somewhere???
I don't know exact terms for this find, but it is an old tin (I think) pot with a porcelin (I think) coating.
No, I'm not planning on adding birds to our list of pets (pretty short so far, just 2 dogs), but imagine this with a plant inside...
Close up of the birdcage.
Wall of old tools. It has been a long family tradition to find old tools and bring them to my Grandfather when we couldn't figure out what they were used for. I don't think any of us ever actually found one he didn't have an answer for.... So wish he was still with us today to solve a few mystery finds from this location!
This is an old stereo cabinet with the record turn table still in it. I'm not sure what exactly to do with it yet, but it is pretty cool.
I have no idea what this was originally, but I am relatively confident that I can make a nice candle lantern out of it.
Ignore the junk on top...Check out this awesome metal wagon!
On the right is a hand planer and on the left is what I am thinking was one of the first rotary (skill saw type) saw designs. There is a spot to attach a drill which will then spin the blade. How cool is that!
A not-quite-finished or slightly broken birdhouse.
Okay, on top may be the world's oldest air conditioner, but you can see the old wooden wagon it is sitting on.... Oh the possiblities with that beauty!
I know it is hard to see, but up in the rafters is some type of seat. I think it may have been a wagon seat at some point. So, will it become a shelf, or a porch swing??? I'll keep you posted...
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Outside Pics
Matt says I need to post some pictures of the land, for people to really get the feel of our new home. I have to agree, it's just that I get so caught up in the project at hand, I forget. So here they are... And since we got snow over the weekend you get to see a few with snow still on the ground. One of the wonderful things about where we live, let's call it "God's Country" is that it snows, and then it melts. You see, I love snow... For a couple days. And then I love for it to go. A few inches to a couple of feet and gone in a few days before the world turns into a brown slush. It doesn't get any better than that!
Monday afternoon
View from the back porch.
Our back yard.
Literally the next day...Tuesday afternoon. House looking from the garden.
The garden.
More garden.
Property west of the house and garden. (Had to check the direction with my hubby. I'm directionally challenged.)
East side of the house.
Back yard from the porch.
More back yard.
I hope these pictures give a better feel for the beautiful home the Lord has provided for us. Can you believe the beautiful blue sky and all that grass just 2 days after the biggest snowstorm we have had yet this year!
Moving Forward
Well, I finally got to get back to working on the house. I went there Saturday and my cousin even offered to watch the kids for me, so I was ready to get some serious work done on the place. With the help of my sweet husband we got all the carpet out of the livingroom and all the top layer of wall paper off the walls... Yes, only the top layer. It looks like the diningroom had been papered over paper about 3 times (at least that is all I found so far), so I will be using a steamer to get the next layer(s) off. Top layer was pretty easy, but I am afraid the next ones will be much more difficult...
As we finished up the living area, Matt headed off to work in our only 4 wheel drive vehicle and then it started to snow...really hard. Although it was tempting to risk getting snowed into the house with no kids around and get tons of work done, leaving my wonderful cousin with extra kids to look after and the thought of a night in an old farmhouse with no heat drove me home. Then it snowed even more Sunday (and one of those sweet babies was throwing up), so we stayed home again. I worked Monday at my real job, but I mananged to get half of Tuesday off, so I was out to the farm as fast as my mini van would take me. (Yes, I actually drive a mini van...How else can I cart around 4 kids with reasonable gas mileage?)
I got all the carpet in the pink room up and prepped the walls for paper removal... More of the difficult to remove stuff. Thank God for steamers! That's 2 rooms carpet free! Then I made some calls... This is going to shed a little light into my personality, so be prepared... It might get ugly...
My first call was to the propane companies. We decided to go with a different company than L, mostly because we got a better rate, but also because her company was a pain to deal with. First I called the new company to find out when they could set the new tanks. Monday! That means next time I have the opportunity to get snowed in, guilt over my kids will be my only motivation to leave, because I will have heat! Then I called the company with the current tanks on our property and asked them to come pull the tanks. I also asked when it could be done. I was informed that it would be done when their truck was somewhere near my location which may take up to 3 weeks. This didn't really work for me since I wanted the new tanks in the exact same location as the current ones. I told the attendant this and she said the new company would just put their tanks beside the current ones until they could be picked up. I informed her this wouldn't work for me as I wanted the tanks in the EXACT same location, not next to the current ones. She basically told me that it wasn't her problem, and that was the deal they had with the new company. ***WARNING*** This is where it gets a little ugly... My response was something along the lines of: "Let me tell you my deal. Either you get the tanks out by Monday, or I get the tanks out by Monday. Your tanks are now on my property without my consent. I'm just letting you know because my guess is, it would work out better for you guys if you did that process and not me." (I told you this would shed some light on my personality.) I then hung up the phone and called my dad. Let's be real, there is no way I can move 2 huge propane tanks over the weekend without help. I confessed that I lost my temper and threatened something I couldn't really carry out without help. He immediately said, "They will be gone by Monday." Sigh...My hero!
Then I made some more calls to find out where to get some old looking pine beams. We have decided to take out the wall between the living area and the "middle room" and since this is an old house, when we (let's be real, my dad) checked out what the structure of the house looked like in the attic we (he) discovered that the trusses were site built and it looks like some type of support comes down at that wall. This means we need to come up with a support system to replace the wall. We thought it would look beautiful and completely appropriate to use rough hewn pine beams. 4x6 for the vertical beams and 4x8 for the header. I got a number of a local mill and when I called the gentleman said I could come up right then. So, off I went.
Now, I know I am a complete dork, and I am pretty sure it is because my dad worked at a timber mill most of my early life, but I love wood. I can remember seeing my first blue pine and thinking it was just about the most beautiful thing God ever created. Then I found out it happens from beetle kill, and I figured there was a purpose to bark beetles after all. (I told you I am a dork.) Well, the mill had about a hundred samples of wood and in about 2 minutes I knew exactly what I wanted. The gentelman asked me if I wanted to take samples home to think about it or show someone (I am pretty sure that was code for check with my husband, but I had already asked and he told me I could do the choosing). I assurred him that I didn't need time, I knew what I wanted and by the way, when could he get it done? This weekend!!!! And as much as I love wood, I have no concept of it's cost so I was thrilled when he quoted the price. No thinking required...I had a wall to tear down!
While he printed up the bid, I admired all the samples in the shop and dreamed of how else I could use wood to make our farmhouse home. I think he was pretty sure I had lost my mind as I picked up and touched nearly every piece of wood, but I was busy dreaming, so it didn't really bother me.
After I left, I called my dad. You may be noticing a trend here... Everything I know about handy work I learned from my dad. He can fix just about anything (sometime I'll have to tell you the story of our trip to Mexico when I was a kid and how he saved us with his McGuyver-esk skills.) We planned a work party for Saturday and I promised to get all the prep work (like pulling off the drywall and paneling to expose the frame and wiring) done ahead of times so it would only take my crew a few hours to complete the task. Next I texted my contractor cousin and then begged a friend to borrow her contractor husband for a few hours. With Matt and I there, we had a crew of 5... I thought that should do it for the job and the muscle required to heft up the header. I'll let you know how that goes. In the mean time I am trying to decide what type of support hardware to use and how I will finish the wood. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated...
Did I mention that after we decided to do the pine beams, Matt and I also decided to use low grade pine for the floors? I know it dings, but that will add to the "old farmhouse" look we are going for. Matt spent Monday driving 5 hours to pick up the pine. We found it at 99 cents a square foot, so it was worth the price of gas. And let me tell you, it is beautiful. I love the look of pine and I know I am in the minority, but I could spend hours looking at the knots and grain. I can't wait to see it in layed down... But that will be a while. I have a lot of work ahead of me before installing floors. I snapped a pic of the wood to share while it patiently waits in the garage...
Isn't it beautiful?!? And it was pretty awesome of my husband to go pick it up on his day off. Not exactly how someone wants to spend one of their 2 days off, but he's a trooper and he has the vision.
So, now the plan is back to work on the house tomorrow. I had to go to my real job again today (and I honestly can't complain, that job helps fund our project and I really love what I do), but tomorrow I'm planning to start tearing down a wall!
As we finished up the living area, Matt headed off to work in our only 4 wheel drive vehicle and then it started to snow...really hard. Although it was tempting to risk getting snowed into the house with no kids around and get tons of work done, leaving my wonderful cousin with extra kids to look after and the thought of a night in an old farmhouse with no heat drove me home. Then it snowed even more Sunday (and one of those sweet babies was throwing up), so we stayed home again. I worked Monday at my real job, but I mananged to get half of Tuesday off, so I was out to the farm as fast as my mini van would take me. (Yes, I actually drive a mini van...How else can I cart around 4 kids with reasonable gas mileage?)
I got all the carpet in the pink room up and prepped the walls for paper removal... More of the difficult to remove stuff. Thank God for steamers! That's 2 rooms carpet free! Then I made some calls... This is going to shed a little light into my personality, so be prepared... It might get ugly...
My first call was to the propane companies. We decided to go with a different company than L, mostly because we got a better rate, but also because her company was a pain to deal with. First I called the new company to find out when they could set the new tanks. Monday! That means next time I have the opportunity to get snowed in, guilt over my kids will be my only motivation to leave, because I will have heat! Then I called the company with the current tanks on our property and asked them to come pull the tanks. I also asked when it could be done. I was informed that it would be done when their truck was somewhere near my location which may take up to 3 weeks. This didn't really work for me since I wanted the new tanks in the exact same location as the current ones. I told the attendant this and she said the new company would just put their tanks beside the current ones until they could be picked up. I informed her this wouldn't work for me as I wanted the tanks in the EXACT same location, not next to the current ones. She basically told me that it wasn't her problem, and that was the deal they had with the new company. ***WARNING*** This is where it gets a little ugly... My response was something along the lines of: "Let me tell you my deal. Either you get the tanks out by Monday, or I get the tanks out by Monday. Your tanks are now on my property without my consent. I'm just letting you know because my guess is, it would work out better for you guys if you did that process and not me." (I told you this would shed some light on my personality.) I then hung up the phone and called my dad. Let's be real, there is no way I can move 2 huge propane tanks over the weekend without help. I confessed that I lost my temper and threatened something I couldn't really carry out without help. He immediately said, "They will be gone by Monday." Sigh...My hero!
Then I made some more calls to find out where to get some old looking pine beams. We have decided to take out the wall between the living area and the "middle room" and since this is an old house, when we (let's be real, my dad) checked out what the structure of the house looked like in the attic we (he) discovered that the trusses were site built and it looks like some type of support comes down at that wall. This means we need to come up with a support system to replace the wall. We thought it would look beautiful and completely appropriate to use rough hewn pine beams. 4x6 for the vertical beams and 4x8 for the header. I got a number of a local mill and when I called the gentleman said I could come up right then. So, off I went.
Now, I know I am a complete dork, and I am pretty sure it is because my dad worked at a timber mill most of my early life, but I love wood. I can remember seeing my first blue pine and thinking it was just about the most beautiful thing God ever created. Then I found out it happens from beetle kill, and I figured there was a purpose to bark beetles after all. (I told you I am a dork.) Well, the mill had about a hundred samples of wood and in about 2 minutes I knew exactly what I wanted. The gentelman asked me if I wanted to take samples home to think about it or show someone (I am pretty sure that was code for check with my husband, but I had already asked and he told me I could do the choosing). I assurred him that I didn't need time, I knew what I wanted and by the way, when could he get it done? This weekend!!!! And as much as I love wood, I have no concept of it's cost so I was thrilled when he quoted the price. No thinking required...I had a wall to tear down!
While he printed up the bid, I admired all the samples in the shop and dreamed of how else I could use wood to make our farmhouse home. I think he was pretty sure I had lost my mind as I picked up and touched nearly every piece of wood, but I was busy dreaming, so it didn't really bother me.
After I left, I called my dad. You may be noticing a trend here... Everything I know about handy work I learned from my dad. He can fix just about anything (sometime I'll have to tell you the story of our trip to Mexico when I was a kid and how he saved us with his McGuyver-esk skills.) We planned a work party for Saturday and I promised to get all the prep work (like pulling off the drywall and paneling to expose the frame and wiring) done ahead of times so it would only take my crew a few hours to complete the task. Next I texted my contractor cousin and then begged a friend to borrow her contractor husband for a few hours. With Matt and I there, we had a crew of 5... I thought that should do it for the job and the muscle required to heft up the header. I'll let you know how that goes. In the mean time I am trying to decide what type of support hardware to use and how I will finish the wood. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated...
Did I mention that after we decided to do the pine beams, Matt and I also decided to use low grade pine for the floors? I know it dings, but that will add to the "old farmhouse" look we are going for. Matt spent Monday driving 5 hours to pick up the pine. We found it at 99 cents a square foot, so it was worth the price of gas. And let me tell you, it is beautiful. I love the look of pine and I know I am in the minority, but I could spend hours looking at the knots and grain. I can't wait to see it in layed down... But that will be a while. I have a lot of work ahead of me before installing floors. I snapped a pic of the wood to share while it patiently waits in the garage...
So, now the plan is back to work on the house tomorrow. I had to go to my real job again today (and I honestly can't complain, that job helps fund our project and I really love what I do), but tomorrow I'm planning to start tearing down a wall!
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Our home-owning story
A year ago I never would have dreamt that we would own a home right now. We had a very rough few years starting in about March of 2009. Humor me with this. In church right now we are learning how God always has an "upper story". It's the story that you can't see when you are in the middle of your earthly experiences. We get caught up in the "lower story" that we are living. I think the last few years of our life have been exactly that...
Three years ago we found ourselves in a position we never thought we would be in... We were stuck in an awful home loan on a house that wasn't worth half of what we paid for it. We tried everything we could to work something out... A modification, a short sale, a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but the bank would have none of it. We ended up foreclosing on our home in June of 2011. It was unbelievable. My husband and I both have good jobs and we make good money, but one agonizing turn after another lead us to the only option we still had. We moved out of our home and watched as the bank sold it for less than half of what we bought it for.
None of it made sense. We had done everything right. We had jumped through every hoop, filled out every form and made hundreds of phone calls. How could this have happened? We were baffled and completely scarred by the entire experience. We knew God was with us, but we were having a really hard time seeing Him through the mess. This time forced us to examine our beliefs and tried our faith. We learned to rest in the promise that God is faithful and we chose to believe He would make sense of this for us.
We watched as home prices dropped, and dropped. It was so hard to know we could buy a home for less than our rent, but we decided we would just have to wait it out. A realtor friend had mentioned that owner financing was becoming more and more common, largely due to the foreclosure crisis and so many people being in our exact situation. We started keeping our eye on homes available in our area. But this time we planned to be patient. We set our criteria for another home very high... We wanted a very specific area, the possiblility of owner financing, and preferably something with a little land. A place we could make home for many years to come. We also decided that if there was something out there God wanted us to buy, He would make it happen. We weren't going to push.
Then one day that realtor friend found a property that we might be interested in. It was an old farmhouse on 13 acres on one of the 3 streets we had specifically mentioned being especially einterested in. We went to look at it and completely fell in love. Matt's exact words were, "I really wanted to not like it." But he did. We both did.
I went home and called my mom to tell her all about this beautiful property and the sweet owner we had met. She was an elderly widow and we had the chance to meet her while we looked at the house. She and Matt hit it off right from the start. In fact he spent almost the entire time we were in her home talking to her instead of looking around. Turns out she knew Matt's dad and they visited about her property and her plans when she moved out. I kept saying the owner's name and telling my mom all about the place. Then my mom said, "I think I know her, or at least her nephew that takes care of her."
When we got off the phone, my mom called the nephew, and sure enough, it was exactly who she thought. And believe it or not, she already had an appointment scheduled with the nephew the next morning. At the appointment they talked about the property and how much Matt and I loved it. The nephew invited my mom and dad to come out and have a look that Saturday, and if we wanted to, Matt and I could tag along. Are you kidding? If we wanted to? We couldn't get to the weekend fast enough!
My parents loved it out there. We walked nearly the entire 13 acres. It was even better the further you went back from the road. There were building sites all over the back of the property. If Matt and I could make the 2 bedroom, 1100 square foot farmhouse work for our family of 6 for a few years, we could build another house on the property that would fit our family a little more comfortably. Then we would have a rental, or more probably, a second home on our property for family members to live in (either of our parents, my grandmother) that would make them close enough for us to help out, but far enough for privacy.
We wrote a letter to the owner and made an offer on Monday. There was a lot of work to do... The house is over 80 years old (probably more like 90) and it needs work, but Matt and I are not afraid of hard work. We would be able to have chickens, raise a steer or a pig, and let our children run and play until their hearts content. This is exactly what we had dreamed of. Now we just waited and prayed.
She accepted our offer!!! We were thrilled. And 3 weeks later we had the keys and so began our farmhouse dream.
Only God could have taken us from a tiny home, mortgaged to the hilt and without hope of ever getting the money we had put in back out of our "investment" and put us in our dream location, on land better than either of us had ever dreamed, with possibilities beyond our imagination. If Matt and I had sat down and come up with our own wishes for our future and the future of our children, we couldn't have dreamt anything this incredible. This is a God story. Only He could have written this, only He could have orchestrated the chain of events we lived the last three years that ended here. This road has been hard, and I have been angry (sometimes even with God), hurt, troubled, and completely dumbfounded. About the time I finally let go and trusted God with my story, He made it better than I ever could have.
This is the second time in my life where I spent months asking God what I had done to deserve something awful to happen to me. I felt like I was getting punished for something, I just couldn't put my finger on what I had done that was so bad to deserve something like losing our home. I mean, I'm a sinner, but just the little, normal sins... How haughty of me! How do I get trapped into thinking like that? That every bad thing that happens is a direct result of something bad the individual did to deserve it. I don't look at the lives of others like that, why do I fall into that kind of thinking in my own life?
Now that I can see the "upper story" in my life, I'm not asking why I deserved to have something awful happen to me... I am asking why God loves me so much that He would take my circumstances and change my hopeless situation into extraordinary.
Three years ago we found ourselves in a position we never thought we would be in... We were stuck in an awful home loan on a house that wasn't worth half of what we paid for it. We tried everything we could to work something out... A modification, a short sale, a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but the bank would have none of it. We ended up foreclosing on our home in June of 2011. It was unbelievable. My husband and I both have good jobs and we make good money, but one agonizing turn after another lead us to the only option we still had. We moved out of our home and watched as the bank sold it for less than half of what we bought it for.
None of it made sense. We had done everything right. We had jumped through every hoop, filled out every form and made hundreds of phone calls. How could this have happened? We were baffled and completely scarred by the entire experience. We knew God was with us, but we were having a really hard time seeing Him through the mess. This time forced us to examine our beliefs and tried our faith. We learned to rest in the promise that God is faithful and we chose to believe He would make sense of this for us.
We watched as home prices dropped, and dropped. It was so hard to know we could buy a home for less than our rent, but we decided we would just have to wait it out. A realtor friend had mentioned that owner financing was becoming more and more common, largely due to the foreclosure crisis and so many people being in our exact situation. We started keeping our eye on homes available in our area. But this time we planned to be patient. We set our criteria for another home very high... We wanted a very specific area, the possiblility of owner financing, and preferably something with a little land. A place we could make home for many years to come. We also decided that if there was something out there God wanted us to buy, He would make it happen. We weren't going to push.
Then one day that realtor friend found a property that we might be interested in. It was an old farmhouse on 13 acres on one of the 3 streets we had specifically mentioned being especially einterested in. We went to look at it and completely fell in love. Matt's exact words were, "I really wanted to not like it." But he did. We both did.
I went home and called my mom to tell her all about this beautiful property and the sweet owner we had met. She was an elderly widow and we had the chance to meet her while we looked at the house. She and Matt hit it off right from the start. In fact he spent almost the entire time we were in her home talking to her instead of looking around. Turns out she knew Matt's dad and they visited about her property and her plans when she moved out. I kept saying the owner's name and telling my mom all about the place. Then my mom said, "I think I know her, or at least her nephew that takes care of her."
When we got off the phone, my mom called the nephew, and sure enough, it was exactly who she thought. And believe it or not, she already had an appointment scheduled with the nephew the next morning. At the appointment they talked about the property and how much Matt and I loved it. The nephew invited my mom and dad to come out and have a look that Saturday, and if we wanted to, Matt and I could tag along. Are you kidding? If we wanted to? We couldn't get to the weekend fast enough!
My parents loved it out there. We walked nearly the entire 13 acres. It was even better the further you went back from the road. There were building sites all over the back of the property. If Matt and I could make the 2 bedroom, 1100 square foot farmhouse work for our family of 6 for a few years, we could build another house on the property that would fit our family a little more comfortably. Then we would have a rental, or more probably, a second home on our property for family members to live in (either of our parents, my grandmother) that would make them close enough for us to help out, but far enough for privacy.
We wrote a letter to the owner and made an offer on Monday. There was a lot of work to do... The house is over 80 years old (probably more like 90) and it needs work, but Matt and I are not afraid of hard work. We would be able to have chickens, raise a steer or a pig, and let our children run and play until their hearts content. This is exactly what we had dreamed of. Now we just waited and prayed.
She accepted our offer!!! We were thrilled. And 3 weeks later we had the keys and so began our farmhouse dream.
Only God could have taken us from a tiny home, mortgaged to the hilt and without hope of ever getting the money we had put in back out of our "investment" and put us in our dream location, on land better than either of us had ever dreamed, with possibilities beyond our imagination. If Matt and I had sat down and come up with our own wishes for our future and the future of our children, we couldn't have dreamt anything this incredible. This is a God story. Only He could have written this, only He could have orchestrated the chain of events we lived the last three years that ended here. This road has been hard, and I have been angry (sometimes even with God), hurt, troubled, and completely dumbfounded. About the time I finally let go and trusted God with my story, He made it better than I ever could have.
This is the second time in my life where I spent months asking God what I had done to deserve something awful to happen to me. I felt like I was getting punished for something, I just couldn't put my finger on what I had done that was so bad to deserve something like losing our home. I mean, I'm a sinner, but just the little, normal sins... How haughty of me! How do I get trapped into thinking like that? That every bad thing that happens is a direct result of something bad the individual did to deserve it. I don't look at the lives of others like that, why do I fall into that kind of thinking in my own life?
Now that I can see the "upper story" in my life, I'm not asking why I deserved to have something awful happen to me... I am asking why God loves me so much that He would take my circumstances and change my hopeless situation into extraordinary.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Hubby to the rescue!!!
So I promised the story behind my husband having to rescue the kids and I our first night of owning our new home...
After waiting all day to start working on pulling out carpet and wall paper I had a hard time stopping. Remember that I spent the early part of the day checking out all the outbuildings on the property? Well, every lock has a different key, and in my brilliance, I decided to leave the appropriate key in all the locks until I could mark them somehow. Well, that decision was made in the daylight. When we signed papers on the house, L mentioned that she had problems with vagrance and vandalism at times in the past. 13 acres with one elderly lady is a good combination for people using your land. I remembered this all about 8pm... mostly because that is my kids' bedtime and their behavior was starting to show it, so I thought it was about time to call it quits for the day and head home.
My husband was working a late night at work, so we were on our own. Now I grew up in this rural area, but I have to be honest, I'm the skiddish sort. One weekend I came home from college and ended up waking in the middle of the night to the sound of footsteps outside my bedroom window. I called (read screamed) for my father convinced we had an intruder and too scared to actually get out of bed and go get the poor, sleeping man. My hero headed outside to investigate... Only to find 3 deer eating the plants on the patio. I was relieved no one was plotting to murder us in our beds, but a bit embarrassed that a 21 year old still calls for "daddy" over bumps in the night.
Back to last night... So I decided to put on my big girl pants and go lock all the doors and grab the keys. The lighting behind the house is moonlight at night... I was on my own. But armed with my handy iPhone for a flashlight, I knew I could find my way. Until about 20 steps from the back porch I heard footsteps in the grass area behind the sheds. Now, I'm a reasonable lady. I was sure it was just a deer or some animal, but boy did it sound like a really huge, scarey man. Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt for someone to spend the night in the sheds.... I'd lock them in the morning. I very respectably walked back to the house and locked the door behind me.
Then I started loading up to take my tired crew home. I headed to the car with a load. I had been getting in and out of the car all day and had left it unlocked, but when I got to the car it was very much locked tight. I checked 2 doors and then I pretty much freaked. The last time I had gotten into the car was through the back hatch... There is no lock button there, so there was no way I accidentally locked the car. I turned and ran back to the house, not at all respectably. By the time I got through the door I knew I needed to hold it together enough not to scare my tired children. I calmly grabbed the phone and called my husband. No answer, so I left a message that I had locked the keys in the car and needed his help. I didn't want to sound like a crazy woman, after all. Then I looked everywhere for my car keys.
Here's an important detail about my world... From the outside looking in, I'm pretty organized. Everything has a home in my house and if anyone is coming over, it is all in it's home. But if you know me, you know me, you know I lose my keys or iPhone about every other day. In fact, I had already lost my iPhone once that day, making me late to pick my son up from school. So, in order to save myself from needless searching, the most common place to find my car keys in in the ignition... Hey, this isn't LA! I know anything can happen, but car theft isn't a huge issue around here...
So, I searched the (basically empty) 1100 sq ft farmhouse for the keys I believed I had probably left in my ignition. I had been in every building, but lets be real, after the "footsteps" I wasn't going to any of the out buildings. As I searched I locked both the doors and shut all the drapes. I was still trying to be brave and not let the kids know I was freaked out! About 10 minutes creeped by with no word from my husband. So I texted him that my keys were locked in the car and my cell phone battery was almost dead. All true and sounded a bit more urgent. About 5 minutes later I started to panic... Text #2 went something like, "We need help, and I don't know who else to call. Please call back!" Definitely urgent, but I was pretty sure I didn't sound like a complete crazy woman.
He finally called back spouting reasons why it took so long and I completely cut him off with "Somebody locked my car, I heard footsteps and I am scared!" So much for remaining calm and trying to sound like an adult. I was the girl calling daddy to rescue her.
My hero was there within 5 minutes, and he even called on his way over and stayed on the phone until he was walking into the house to help me feel safe. Unfortunately, the keys were not in the car... But his spare key did get us in the car and eventually home. He came in the house, helped to load us all up and then went around to all the out buildings to lock up and retrieve keys. He then headed back to work... Apparently my hero was in high demand tonight and needed to put out some fires there too.
When he finally got home, he sweetly said, "I don't want to invalidate your feelings, and I would have been scared too, but I am thinking the footsteps might have been an animal and that the kids might have found your keys and managed to lock the car with the remote button. I just don't want you to be scared in our new home, and I am pretty sure there is a reasonable explaination. And I really don't want the kids to be afraid, so maybe we could not talk about this in front of them." Ugh... If he wouldn't have been so nice I could have at least been mad at him instead of feeling like a baby!
This morning I went back to the house to start working. I picked up the blanket the kids had used for their dinner picnic, and there they were... Right where the kids could have been playing with them...
After waiting all day to start working on pulling out carpet and wall paper I had a hard time stopping. Remember that I spent the early part of the day checking out all the outbuildings on the property? Well, every lock has a different key, and in my brilliance, I decided to leave the appropriate key in all the locks until I could mark them somehow. Well, that decision was made in the daylight. When we signed papers on the house, L mentioned that she had problems with vagrance and vandalism at times in the past. 13 acres with one elderly lady is a good combination for people using your land. I remembered this all about 8pm... mostly because that is my kids' bedtime and their behavior was starting to show it, so I thought it was about time to call it quits for the day and head home.
My husband was working a late night at work, so we were on our own. Now I grew up in this rural area, but I have to be honest, I'm the skiddish sort. One weekend I came home from college and ended up waking in the middle of the night to the sound of footsteps outside my bedroom window. I called (read screamed) for my father convinced we had an intruder and too scared to actually get out of bed and go get the poor, sleeping man. My hero headed outside to investigate... Only to find 3 deer eating the plants on the patio. I was relieved no one was plotting to murder us in our beds, but a bit embarrassed that a 21 year old still calls for "daddy" over bumps in the night.
Back to last night... So I decided to put on my big girl pants and go lock all the doors and grab the keys. The lighting behind the house is moonlight at night... I was on my own. But armed with my handy iPhone for a flashlight, I knew I could find my way. Until about 20 steps from the back porch I heard footsteps in the grass area behind the sheds. Now, I'm a reasonable lady. I was sure it was just a deer or some animal, but boy did it sound like a really huge, scarey man. Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt for someone to spend the night in the sheds.... I'd lock them in the morning. I very respectably walked back to the house and locked the door behind me.
Then I started loading up to take my tired crew home. I headed to the car with a load. I had been getting in and out of the car all day and had left it unlocked, but when I got to the car it was very much locked tight. I checked 2 doors and then I pretty much freaked. The last time I had gotten into the car was through the back hatch... There is no lock button there, so there was no way I accidentally locked the car. I turned and ran back to the house, not at all respectably. By the time I got through the door I knew I needed to hold it together enough not to scare my tired children. I calmly grabbed the phone and called my husband. No answer, so I left a message that I had locked the keys in the car and needed his help. I didn't want to sound like a crazy woman, after all. Then I looked everywhere for my car keys.
Here's an important detail about my world... From the outside looking in, I'm pretty organized. Everything has a home in my house and if anyone is coming over, it is all in it's home. But if you know me, you know me, you know I lose my keys or iPhone about every other day. In fact, I had already lost my iPhone once that day, making me late to pick my son up from school. So, in order to save myself from needless searching, the most common place to find my car keys in in the ignition... Hey, this isn't LA! I know anything can happen, but car theft isn't a huge issue around here...
So, I searched the (basically empty) 1100 sq ft farmhouse for the keys I believed I had probably left in my ignition. I had been in every building, but lets be real, after the "footsteps" I wasn't going to any of the out buildings. As I searched I locked both the doors and shut all the drapes. I was still trying to be brave and not let the kids know I was freaked out! About 10 minutes creeped by with no word from my husband. So I texted him that my keys were locked in the car and my cell phone battery was almost dead. All true and sounded a bit more urgent. About 5 minutes later I started to panic... Text #2 went something like, "We need help, and I don't know who else to call. Please call back!" Definitely urgent, but I was pretty sure I didn't sound like a complete crazy woman.
He finally called back spouting reasons why it took so long and I completely cut him off with "Somebody locked my car, I heard footsteps and I am scared!" So much for remaining calm and trying to sound like an adult. I was the girl calling daddy to rescue her.
My hero was there within 5 minutes, and he even called on his way over and stayed on the phone until he was walking into the house to help me feel safe. Unfortunately, the keys were not in the car... But his spare key did get us in the car and eventually home. He came in the house, helped to load us all up and then went around to all the out buildings to lock up and retrieve keys. He then headed back to work... Apparently my hero was in high demand tonight and needed to put out some fires there too.
When he finally got home, he sweetly said, "I don't want to invalidate your feelings, and I would have been scared too, but I am thinking the footsteps might have been an animal and that the kids might have found your keys and managed to lock the car with the remote button. I just don't want you to be scared in our new home, and I am pretty sure there is a reasonable explaination. And I really don't want the kids to be afraid, so maybe we could not talk about this in front of them." Ugh... If he wouldn't have been so nice I could have at least been mad at him instead of feeling like a baby!
This morning I went back to the house to start working. I picked up the blanket the kids had used for their dinner picnic, and there they were... Right where the kids could have been playing with them...
Before pics
This is the bedroom off the "middle room". We are planning to use it as the master because the door you can see on the right leads right out the front porch. I'm not actually sure our Cal-King bed will even fit in the room!
More "master bedroom". At least there will be lots of light coming in!
"Master" bedroom closet. We will be going from a very large walk in to this... I see a lot of dressers in my future!
Back in the living area.... This is the dining room. You can just see the entrance into the kitchen on the left.
More of the "pink bedroom"!
The area linking the kitchen and living area. I know it looks like a chalk board on a brick wall...It is actually a brick panel with an area of green wall paper in the middle. But check out the cool cabinet... I have big plans for that find!
Pictures of the kitchen are to come, as well as the unattached laundry shed and more...
It begins...
We officially own our farmhouse and 13 acres!!! We recorded yesterday and I started pulling up carpets. The hardest part of the day was when my husband, Matt, told me I needed to wait to start tearing things apart until the place was OFFICIALLY ours. You see, the lady we bought from gave us the keys at escrow signing the previous afternoon. Yes, we did signing the old-fashioned way… All of us sat around a table face to face. It was pretty appropriate… Our biggest motivator for embarking on this journey is to get back to the way things used to be done. We want our kids to learn the value of hard work, knowledge of utilizing the land, appreciate God’s creation, and so many of the things that often get lost in the rush of life.
So, back to waiting and keys… Since the previous owner, we’ll call her L, gave us keys, I could get into the house. I had big plans of pulling up carpet and tearing down wall paper until Matt told me to “respect the process” and wait for word the place was officially ours. Yeck! I’m not known for my patience, especially when there is work to be done. But I am working on respecting my husband, and he did have a point. I figured it would be okay. It was supposed to record first thing in the morning and I needed to make calls to get all the utilities in our name anyway. It would probably be done before I could even make it out to the property…or not.
So I decided to spend some time exploring… The property has the old farmhouse, 3 sheds, a garage with work shop and a mobile home on it, all in less than a football field-sized area of land. I thought I would open everything up and take a look around. L had moved into assisted care after her 60 years on the land and I knew they had left behind a few things they thought we might like… I smelled a treasure hunt.
I will have to post some pics for you to see. It was amazing! Cool things abounded! Antique woodstoves, cast iron and porceline pots, steel wash tubs, a very cool antique bird cage, and more antique tools than I can describe. I was so excited by the time I got done, I had to show somebody, anybody! So I started calling and texting people to come by and take a look. That got me to about 11:30… Still no word.
Then a friend came by and after showing her all I had discovered we sat in the floor and I tried to convince her it would be okay to start working… Matt would never know. She held me down and distracted me with talk of “The Hunger Games”, a trilogy we both read recently but had never had the opportunity to discuss (and those books warrant some serious discussion)… That got me to 12:30…Still no word.
Then another friend stopped by, shortly followed by my mother and her friend. I showed them all around and then sat and talked to the friend while she nursed her rather hungry 3 week old son. That got me to 2:30…Still no word.
Then the garbage yard I had ordered was delivered. 3:00. (Odd that all utilities are in my name and I just had a garbage yard delivered, but I don’t technically own the place!) People, I was dying here!!! Every bone in my body ached to get started on my project. I broke down and called the realtor. I hate being the pushy lady, but I was desparate! Still no word of recording…
Then at 3:15 it happened! I got the call and we were OFFICIALLY home owners!!!! I didn’t even take the time to let my husband know. I went to the diningroom and started pulling off baseboards. I needed to know if there was hardwood underneath the carpet…There wasn’t. Orange carpet over (I promise, I’m not lying) sparkly rainbow linoleum. But the subfloors were in pretty good condition. Overall, not a bad find. Hardwood can be pretty pricey to refinish, so I think God new we don’t have the cash right now….Sigh. I snapped a pic and texted it to my husband right after a text saying we had recorded. (I needed to make sure it was in the right order. After all, I did wait like he had asked…I needed credit for that!)
So, back to waiting and keys… Since the previous owner, we’ll call her L, gave us keys, I could get into the house. I had big plans of pulling up carpet and tearing down wall paper until Matt told me to “respect the process” and wait for word the place was officially ours. Yeck! I’m not known for my patience, especially when there is work to be done. But I am working on respecting my husband, and he did have a point. I figured it would be okay. It was supposed to record first thing in the morning and I needed to make calls to get all the utilities in our name anyway. It would probably be done before I could even make it out to the property…or not.
So I decided to spend some time exploring… The property has the old farmhouse, 3 sheds, a garage with work shop and a mobile home on it, all in less than a football field-sized area of land. I thought I would open everything up and take a look around. L had moved into assisted care after her 60 years on the land and I knew they had left behind a few things they thought we might like… I smelled a treasure hunt.
I will have to post some pics for you to see. It was amazing! Cool things abounded! Antique woodstoves, cast iron and porceline pots, steel wash tubs, a very cool antique bird cage, and more antique tools than I can describe. I was so excited by the time I got done, I had to show somebody, anybody! So I started calling and texting people to come by and take a look. That got me to about 11:30… Still no word.
Then a friend came by and after showing her all I had discovered we sat in the floor and I tried to convince her it would be okay to start working… Matt would never know. She held me down and distracted me with talk of “The Hunger Games”, a trilogy we both read recently but had never had the opportunity to discuss (and those books warrant some serious discussion)… That got me to 12:30…Still no word.
Then another friend stopped by, shortly followed by my mother and her friend. I showed them all around and then sat and talked to the friend while she nursed her rather hungry 3 week old son. That got me to 2:30…Still no word.
Then the garbage yard I had ordered was delivered. 3:00. (Odd that all utilities are in my name and I just had a garbage yard delivered, but I don’t technically own the place!) People, I was dying here!!! Every bone in my body ached to get started on my project. I broke down and called the realtor. I hate being the pushy lady, but I was desparate! Still no word of recording…
Then at 3:15 it happened! I got the call and we were OFFICIALLY home owners!!!! I didn’t even take the time to let my husband know. I went to the diningroom and started pulling off baseboards. I needed to know if there was hardwood underneath the carpet…There wasn’t. Orange carpet over (I promise, I’m not lying) sparkly rainbow linoleum. But the subfloors were in pretty good condition. Overall, not a bad find. Hardwood can be pretty pricey to refinish, so I think God new we don’t have the cash right now….Sigh. I snapped a pic and texted it to my husband right after a text saying we had recorded. (I needed to make sure it was in the right order. After all, I did wait like he had asked…I needed credit for that!)
(It's a little hard to see here, but this is the linoleum under the carpet. I swear it is gold flecked (think sparkles) and rainbow colored. It's only saving grace was how easy it was to pull up. I guess the glue has pretty much disolved by now...
And so began our homeownership. Me very impatiently waiting and then tearing things out at the word go. Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about how I ended up calling my husband in a panic to come rescue the kids and I…
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