A few of my favorite (house) things...

We are very happy with our new home. I love that it is old and has all the charm and details of an old home! A few of my favorite features:

Lots of cupboards means that I can have one dedicated to just jars! I love opening this up to get one out!

This little corner cupboard is in the dining room and is just darling. I want to add some more shelves, and then it will be really handy.

Our house has two French doors - the front door and then this one off the kitchen leading to the laundry room. They are so pretty!

Settling in (and some Improving)

We've mostly settled in, although I still need to hang things on the walls and finish organizing a couple of rooms. We've been able to do some small improvements - I am continually re-amazed at how much of a difference cleaning, painting, and removing or replacing (small) things can make! I was really bad at taking before pictures, since we were so focused on doing things, but I did get a couple (although they are mostly in-progress pictures).

The living room - this room we painted, and I love the cheery yellow (it was a dirty, dingy white)

The kitchen - this is my favorite room in the house, which is funny because when I first saw the pictures of this house online during our hunt, the pictures of the kitchen made me cringe. We removed the doors on some of the cupboards and I am loving the open shelves! I also replaced the foil-covered burner pans on the stove and I feel like I have a whole new stove!

Before Pictures:

The dining room had old ugly wallpaper (the sellers also left their huge, heavy treadmill which is still sitting in our garage until we figure out how to get rid of it), which we started removing. The first layer peeled off easily, leaving the lower layer firmly stuck to the wall. I started scraping that off - my plan is to paint the top half of the wall yellow, and the trim blue, but that will happen sometime next year!

Here's what it looks like right now:
My drying rack is also in there right now, which helps with the electric bill! =)

And, on with the tour!


I have to admit that the bathroom isn't my favorite room, probably because it needs the most work. The bathtub and the surrounding tile wall (and the floor, probably) need to be ripped out to fix the water damage behind there. We have a shower curtain covering the falling-off tiles until we can get to it - hopefully sometime this spring/summer.

I do like the linen closet, though. We removed the ugly, plastic, accordian-style door and I'm planning on hanging a cute curtain there.

The bedrooms are small; ours pretty much is what you can see, except for the closet behind the door, and the dresser next to that. Curtains for this room are first on my list, since there are no blinds, and I'd like to replace the black plastic garbage bag we have hanging there right now! =)

The kids' room before:

Dark, ugly paneling - not a very attractive room.

And now:

We painted the paneling, and that made a world of difference! The room is bright and happy now. Red will be the main accent color in their room - I can't wait to get some red curtains at the window for some color! Ezra has just about outgrown his basket, so after Christmas we'll be getting another bed set up for Joanna, and he'll be moving into the playpen.

The laundry room is definitely still in progress. There's a bunch of stuff in it that needs to be moved to the gargage, and I'd like to put up some more shelving. We did remove some built-in shelves to make room for our chest freezer, since I preferred that to not have to be in the garage. I'm loving the new-to-us washer and dryer! The house didn't come with those, and after a few unsuccessful tries at getting some off Craigslist, we were able to find these at a used appliance store.

And last but not least is the office/library/sewing room.
This is technically Seth's office, but my sewing stuff and our books are also in there. This room mostly just needs organization, but Seth also has plans for painting and someday replacing the ugly built-in shelving that is currently there.

That's our house! We are absolutely loving it and are so thankful for it! We do have lots of work to do (we also have to do some electrical and other work), but are very encouraged by the small improvements we've already done. I'm looking forward to the spring, when I can get outside and dig a garden and plant some flowers!

Our House

Our house was such an unexpected blessing. We had not expected to be able to buy a house for years, mostly because we hadn't realized how low house prices had come, but also because we thought we needed a much bigger down payment than was actually required. Although I wanted my own house eventually, I was fine with renting. Earlier this spring, when we were seriously looking for a bigger apartment, we were frustrated when we couldn't seem to find anything. Several places that looked promising just didn't work out for one reason or another. Then all of a sudden prices went up, and what we needed just wasn't affordable anymore. I knew that God would provide something for us, but I was impatient and anxious when nothing seemed to open up. I had no idea that he wasn't letting us get an apartment because he had a house waiting for us! One day just after Ezra was born, Seth just happened to look at a real estate site and he was amazed when he saw what a monthly mortgage payment would be. Everything followed from there - visiting the bank to find out what we might qualify for, looking at houses. We found one house that we were going to put an offer on, but it went off the market that very day (only to come back on right after having the accepted offer on our house) - can God speak any plainer than that?
Our house was the first house we had seen that fit our needs and seemed to be in pretty good shape. It is an old house, so it does need some work, but it is definitely livable, and everything it needs can be done slowly, as resources (time and money!) become available. We feel so incredibly blessed and are so amazed with all that God has done for us!

Moving, Part 2

After four long months of waiting, our house finally closed November 3. After the sellers moved out, we spent the first week cleaning, painting, making a few minor improvements, and moved in November 12. We have been busy getting settled and enjoying our little home and I can't wait to share pictures!

Hopefully they will be coming soon! =)

Moving, Part 1

It's been a while!

This house-buying/moving season has been a crazy whirlwind for us.

First there was the short sale that was taking longer than we were hoping.

Then there was the landlord, who, since he knew we were going to be moving, decided that he wanted to rent out our apartment before he went to Arizona for the winter.

Then there were anxious days, wondering where we were going to live for a couple of months while we waited for our house to close, followed by an answered prayer through some friends at church who needed to rent out their condo.

A huge provision and blessing! Far beyond what we truly needed for our short stay, we have thoroughly enjoyed our two bedrooms, washer and dryer, numerous closets, and lovely back patio area where the kids can get outside often.

Moving day was an eye-opening affair. Seeing the enormous pile that was our belongings was overwhelming. How did we fit all of that into our little apartment? We try to live simply and don't buy a lot but somehow we had amassed a disgusting amount of stuff. We spent quite a bit of time purging, followed by a garage sale that earned a little money to put aside for a larger table, as we are definitely outgrowing ours!

Most of our things have stayed in boxes, since I didn't want to have to pack everything back up again. I have enjoyed having less stuff around and expect that when we unpack everything in our house, I probably will trim down even more!

The short sale on our house was officially approved at the end of September, and we are now in the middle of the loan process, so the plan is that we will be moving again the second weekend of November! We are so excited to be settled in our own house. We have been on an emotional roller coaster ride these past few months but have been blessed and encouraged by God's blessing, provision, and grace that we have experienced. Onward and upward!

Sometimes...

the best way to be organized is to not be organized at all!

For a long time I thought the best way to organize my plastic lids was to keep them with their corresponding container. That way, they were right where I needed them. But lids are awkward and they were always getting in my way, or falling out of the cupboard, or something. It really wasn't the best way!

Then one day I had a brainstorm. What if I put all my lids in a drawer? They wouldn't be falling out of the cupboards or getting in my way, but I'd always know where they were. I had already packed some kitchen stuff up, so I had an empty drawer. All my lids are in one place, and I just dig around for the one I need. I've been doing this for a couple of months now, and it is one of my most useful organizing ideas ever! It really makes my life a little simpler!

A Busy Month...

Seth just started his Master's degree, which meant he was gone for 10 days. We're still waiting for approval on the Short Sale house we're trying to buy, but we have to move out of our apartment at the end of the month, which means boxes...everywhere! Life gets crazy sometimes, but we're thankful for a God that always provides, family that is always willing to help, and the fun little things that make every day special!

Like:

Freshly dried lavendar

The start of homemade healing salve (calendula infused oil)

A trip to the zoo

The laughter of children

Lots of love

Projects getting closer to completion!