Murphy's Law: Home Edition

If it can go wrong, it probably already has. The move into our new digs did not come without some trials.  First there was the damage to our belongings that had been held in a storage unit while we transitioned to this house.  Rodents destroyed all the hosing for our refrigerator and washer, as well as the mattresses that were stored.  There was also mold, so our loveseat had to be trashed as well.  In total we hauled away the loveseat, a king sized mattress, a twin mattress, and a shelving unit.

Then there was the lack of hot water. Turns out that the landlord had disconnected the gas, and we ended up having to wait a few extra days to have gas turned on in our name. Added to that, no one thought to check the water heater, so we took cold showers an extra day because the water heater hadn't been adjust to actually heat the water.  Cold showers are no fun.  Now that we have hot water, we're learning that there is a very small window of comfortably-temperatured water between ice cold and boil your skin off water.

Well then surely my husband, who has a IT-based career, can get the internet and cable connected. Think again. Apparently, the previous tenant had both cable and satellite connection while living in this house, because there are two active cable lines running into the house. You would think that the line that works for our cable provider would work once we plug in. You'd be wrong. So now we have an appointment for a technician to come out, and yet another fee to pay.

By now it's Wednesday, and Mikey has finally replaced the hoses for the washer, and rewired the dryer because this house is older, and had a different power outlet that did not fit our dryer.  I never thought I'd say it, but I was actually looking forward to doing laundry at home, and not having to go to the laundromat. I should have listened for the universe's laughter. We turn on the washer, and water starts pouring out of the side of the washer. Defeated is the word that comes to mind when I think of this moment.  After cleaning up the water, Mikey rechecked the hoses to be sure that everything was fitting correctly. Finding no loose hose, we are now debating between calling a repair man to hopefully fix it, or just buying a new washer. We Googled possible causes, and now we're afraid that if we call the repair man we'll pay that fee, and still end up having to buy a new washer. Ugh!

Thursday we gave ourselves a break.  Mikey went to the laundromat to do laundry, because quite frankly we were getting to the point of wearing dirty clothes or going naked.  I'd rather not share this loveliness with the public, and the thought of redressing in dirty clothes makes my skin crawl.  At the same time that Mikey is slaving over the washer and dryer, the kids and I stayed home. We had dinner. I organized the kitchen a little more. (I'm still searching for all my dishes and pots.) We checked homework. The kids bathed, and went to bed early.  

Finally, it's Friday!  The cable should be on at some point today.  We are in the process of making decisions regarding possibly purchasing new mattresses and a new washer. We are safely into our new home, and working on getting everything organized and reestablishing our routines. We have awesome friends who came out and helped us move our entire household in two days. We are truly blessed, and we know it. So take that Murphy!

House on the Hill

Remember this house. Well...

We moved.  We left what was supposed to be our forever home, and moved into the basement of a family member for roughly six months. And now we have moved again, into a small ranch house that sits up on a hill that we are renting. Why you may ask? To put it plainly: Money. Owning a house is expensive. Whenever anything breaks, you have to dig into your pockets for the money to fix it, or do without. Not to mention all the other costs that go with homeownership, like property taxes, utilities, home owner's insurance, HOA fees, and so many others.

Add on the cost of raising two adorable children, student loans, and wanting to experience life instead of just surviving, and you have the perfect storm of debt and struggle.  It was all beginning to be too much. So Mikey and I sat down and talked and talked. We actually had several conversations about it. We realized that we didn't want to live life surviving paycheck to paycheck. We didn't want to have to worry about the next catastrophe and not know where we would get the money from to cover what we needed to cover. We didn't want to worry that one of us would lose our job, and we wouldn't have a paycheck to cover our expenses.

So we made the decision to downsize, get our debt under control, and build a substantial nest egg before we put ourselves into more debt buying a new forever home.  For now, the house on the hill is our home.

What does downsizing look like for us? We went from a two story, five bedrooms, four bathrooms house sitting on more than two acres, to a single story three bedrooms and two bathrooms with a reasonably sized lot. That sounds so major just typing it. The front porch is to die for! The master bedroom is spacious, even if the closet space is going to feel tiny coming from each of us having our own individual walk-in closets. The kids have asked to share a room, and that will leave the third bedroom to serve as a guest room and office. The backyard is nicely laid out with lots of space for the kids to play, and it's fenced in. There's a laundry room and storage in the garage. I'm optimistic that this house will work well for us.  Of course my Pinterest boards are jumping with ideas to make the loss in space more manageable. 

Yard Work

Remember here when I introduced my new yard men?  Well, they've mostly finished their assignment.  Actually, the big yard man did most of the work, while the little cutie napped.  But the front of the house looks much better.  

Mikey, did manage to get the shutters back up.  The neighbor never did show up to help him figure it out. Now, if only I can get my painters to paint the shutters and the front door.

And look at the cutie that I found when I went outside to take the pictures.  He's his daddy's helper for the day.

Happy Birthday Sharon!

My New Yard Men

Sunday, Micah and I napped, while Mikey worked in the yard.  I was quite surprised, because I had no idea that was in his plans.  He made a lot of progress with the flower beds.  Before they were a hot mess.  Grass had grown up.  The bushes looked like trees.  Just a hot mess.  Here are the in progress photos.   

Adorable Yardman

The flower beds still are nowhere near completed, but we've made progress.  The right side is ready for the weed blocker and mulch.  The left side still needs work.  We {read Mikey} still need to finish clearing it out, and level it before the weed blocker and mulch is placed. Thanks to rain forecasted for the rest of the week from Hurricane Isaac, however, we're on hold for a while.

Right side.

Left side.

Hardworking Yardman

And here are what the shutters look like on Micah's windows.  Luckily, the neighbor said he would come over and help Mikey put them back up later this week.  We also need to paint them.  It seems like the To Do List keeps growing.

Pointing out the sad state of the shutters.

Falling shutters.

On another note...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIMI!!!!!

Moving Around Furniture

You know those people who get bored and redecorate.  You're walking through your house, and something catches your eye. Or something annoys you, and you know there must be a way to organize it differently to be more efficient.  Or maybe you just want to try something new, just to see if it will work.  I think I may be one of those people.  Case in point, earlier this week, Micah's room went from this...

... to this...

Basically, I moved the crib to where the shelf had been.  The shelf went to where the dresser had been.  The dresser to the crib's spot.  His chair moved downstairs.  It may make it's way back into his room eventually, but I'm not sure.  Nothing on the wall changed, but I want to change the walls up too, and add some things in the blank spaces over the dresser and shelf.  I just don't know what to add yet.  Pinterest, however, is helping me make the decision.  Of course, I'll let you know when it changes.  Oh, and we managed to make progress on the closet.  It's still not what I envision it to be, but I'm working on a non-existent budget.  Here it is.

I finally organized the clothes that Micah has outgrown.  I want to get matching containers and separate the different sizes into their own containers.  I also have to find containers to hold the soft items on the shelf, like his homemade boppy and the bumper.  We're not even going to talk about the stuff on the floor.  I don't have anywhere else to store it.  We're keeping any- and everything that can be used for Baby Giles #2.

I really think it's an illness.  You know, moving furniture out of boredom.  I'm working on it.  Micah had no problem at all with the changes.  It's been a few days since we've made the changes to his room, and I think we're going to keep the room like this for a while.   Or at least until another round of boredom causes more rearranging to happen.

Today, we're hanging out with a couple of my best friends.  Look for that post soon.  Probably tomorrow, if I'm not too lazy.

Cleaning Out The Closet

What lurks behind this door? A grievous monster.

Micah and I worked on cleaning out and organizing his closet yesterday.  It was a jumbled mess of disorganization and clutter.  I really did not want to think about taking this on, but I'm glad we got started.  We still have so much to do in this closet before we're done, but it's a start.  I'll let the pictures tell the story.

My helper.

Beware all who enter!

I told you.

With the light on so you can see better.

I should be ashamed to show this.

You should be able to see that we had a lot of work ahead of us.  First we emptied the closet, then we worked to organize the things that we put back into the closet.  We also hung Micah's clothes that were in his dresser on hangers in the closet.  This gives us a lot more drawer space.  I'll show his dresser when we finish with the closet.

The person who painted this straw to the wall probably thought they were so funny.

Progress

So you can see that we did make some progress.  I still need to figure out a better way to store the items that Micah has outgrown.  We're saving those things for the as yet not conceived Baby Giles #2.  I also need some type of organization system to hang his blankets and other items in his closet.  I also need storage containers for the clothes that Micah has outgrown.  We're saving everything until they fall apart or we decide that we're done making babies.  We may work on this some more today, and it may wait until we have another burst of cleaning energy.

Moving Around Furniture

Mikey and I decided to do a little moving around.  Actually, I asked Mikey to move some furniture, and he told me that he had suggested it when we first moved in.  I don't remember him making the suggestion, but maybe my memory is failing me.  Any way, here's our bedroom before.

Here's our bedroom now.

I love it.  Now we just have to figure out what we're going to do with the sea of space that is left. 

Gallery Wall

Remember this picture?

It's from this post.  That is my husband on a very tall ladder, putting up the photo gallery that I had to have in time for the housewarming party.  I think it turned out nicely.

As you can see, we also got the roman shades that I wanted.  I am starting to like my family room.  It needs more color, but I'm working on it little by little.  As soon as I get my sewing machine fixed, I will be making pillows for the couch and love seat.  

 The laundry room is also on my mind, but it will have to wait.