The New House

Ugh...a little over a year since my last blog post.  Why did I stop?  I used to love it so much.  Maybe, I'll start again?  Make it a weekly thing?  We'll see. 

I wanted to blog about our new house for friends and family who are curious about it.  We are so excited about it.  I love it.  Seriously, everytime I drive up to it I do a little happy dance.  It's kind of a fun story too.  Here we go.  First, the story -

When we started looking for houses, I was really disappointed.  There wasn't anything I was really excited about.  Kyle had seen this house months ago when we were playing around with the idea of moving to Indy.  He said, "Kelly, come look at this one.  What do you think?"  I laughed at him and said "NO WAY!"  It just needed too much work to make it the way I'd want it. 

Well, we got here and started our search.  This house came up and met all our criteria.  I still dismissed it.  As the week went on, this house kept popping up in my head.  I knew Kyle was interested initially (although he had kind of dismissed it in the mean time because of me) so I figured it wouldn't hurt to just go look at it.  Just go look...

I drove up to the house in the evening by myself after Kyle got home from work.  The drive was so refreshing.  5 miles out of town.  I've missed these old Indiana country roads so much.  It felt so good. 

I pulled into the drive way.  I started laughing.  It was SO us.  I got butterflies in my stomach.  Yes, I know, so ridiculous.  It was like I was falling in love ;)  I walked around, looked in all the windows (I knew it as vacant).  While doing this, I could see us here - in the yard, in that kitchen, Kyle and the boys working in the garage, having a garden and playset in the back yard.  It was surreal.  I got in the car and called Kyle.  I went home, got him and the boys, and we came back. 

We looked at it as soon as we could.  We took a few days, looked at a few more house just to be sure, and then we put an offer on it.  It was a low offer.  We felt like the house needed way too much updating and cosmetic work AND appliances (it didn't have any) to pay as much as they wanted.  After a few negotations, we still couldn't aggree on the offer so we walked away.

In the mean time, we found another house we liked.  It was a lot like our last house.  We weren't as excited about it, but I liked it and I knew we could be very happy there.  We put an offer on it.  While we were in negotations for that house our relator called and said that the first seller called back and WAS GOING TO ACCEPT OUR OFFER!  We were thrilled!  We got out of negotations with the other sellers and started on the buying process with our current house.  Things from there went so smoothly.  The insception went really well.  It's in great shape for being 30 years old.  They fixed everything else that was a major concern of ours without an negiotating. The sellers were this really nice middle ages couple.  They were excited to know that we were going to raise our family there and fix it up.

Okay,  here are the pictures.  It's got 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a loft, a huge garage, and 1 acre of land right in the country.  Have I mentioned that I love this house already?  It needs a lot of paint (and I mean alot!) and love, but it's going to be perfect for us - our little heaven on earth.

The Outside:

 

 

 

Living Room:

 

 

 

The Entry:

 

 

 

The Kitchen and Breakfast Knook:

 

 

 

 

Loft (4th Bedroom thru that door):

 

 

 

Leon's Room (please, forgive the mess - we've already started workng on it):

 

 

 

 

Grady's Room (currently being used as the boys entertainment room):

 

 

 

Boy's/Guest Bath:

 

 

 

Our bedroom (it was hard to get a good shot of it):

 

 

 

Our Bathroom:

 

 

 

The Oversized Garage (pretty sure this is why Kyle wanted to buy this house):

 

 

I have more, but blogger is just way too slow about uploading pics.  My patience is all GONE!  Maybe that's why I stopped blogging!  Ugh.

 

So there's lots of painting on my plate right now.  LOTS.  And maybe a few bathroom makeovers in the future.  But I think we are going to really love this house! It has so much potential for us.

 

I'll try to keep you up on the progress.

Leon's Big Boy Room

The first room I really started working on when we got here was Leon's room.  I pretty much knew what I wanted to do so it really didn't take much, just time and some money.  I loved how it has turned out so far.  There's still a little bit more to do - I have a wall shelf to paint & put up and some other pics to frame.  But here is what it currently looks like:

A little collage of some of my favorite things in his room (top to bottom): 1) his new green quilt, a train pillow I made him, and our favorite family photo hanging up 2) Mr. Potatoe Head - he's just cool 3) Leon playing with Mr. Potato Head in this room 4) A poster I made with this saying 5) Books from the libray that are kept under his night stand that we read before bedtime everynight 6) The wonderful Ikea bookshelf - I absolutely love this thing

Leon's room has a massive walk in closet too (which is good because eventually the boys will share rooms).  It's barely even filled up with things right now.  I wanted to make a little reading nook for Leon.  One of these days I want to stamp glow in the dark stars all over.

I loved how it's turning out.  Leon likes his room too - he just isn't so sure about being in it alone though.  It's just one of those things we've had problems with since we've moved.  HOWEVER, Leon slept ALL NIGHT for the first in his own room, in his own bed, without mommy or dadda, since we moved in.  That's gotta be a good sign that he's getting more comfortable.

Our New Home

Well, we're moved!  I'm missing home like crazy this morning, so I thought maybe...just maybe, showing off our new house a bit might help.  And I know some of you have been asking to see photos.  These photos were taken while we were house hunting, so they don't show any of our stuff in them.  I'm going to wait to do that until we get a little more settled, throw some paint on the wall, and getting it looking more like us.  We're mostly unpacked, but we have lots of organizing, rearranging, painting, and all that other new home stuff to do.  Well, here you go:

The Outside:

I usually don't really care for brand new houses, but after spending the last two year fixing an old home up (and still having about 10 more years of work to do) just to have to leave it, I didn't want to put all that work into another one.

The Kitchen and Breakfast Area:

It's small, but has a pantry.  We now also have a fridge.  I also are going to replace those ugly vinyl floors soon - I can't stand them.  We turned the dining room into the office, so that large breakfast area will be the official dining area.  It's big, so we'll be able to fit a good sized table there.

The Living Room:

It looks a little dwarfed in this pic, but it's actually very big and roomy.  We have a lot of spare space.  This pic is taken from the kitchen, so everything is nice and open which I love.

There's also a 1/2 bath on the first floor.  The second floor has the master "suite" with nice bathroom, another bathroom for the kiddos, a rec area (which we're using for a toy room), a huge laundry room, and two more bedrooms.  We also have a full basement which we hope to finish if we're here long enough.  This house is big - much bigger than I'm used to.  However, it will be plenty of space for us for quite a while, if not forever, which is nice. 

Leon is adjusting well.  We bought him a train table when we got here (which he is keeping him occupied at this very moment) and absolutely loves.  He's been getting up early, around 5:30, most mornings which is not soooo wonderful for me.  He had been very clingy and worried around us, but now that all of his favorite things are out of boxes and we're getting settled he is doing so much better.  Kyle started work a few days ago and has been working hard, but he likes it so far. 

My House

Finally, here are some photos of our first little house.  I love what we've made it.  It still could use some work but this is what we've made it.  Before you start browsing, you really should take a look at a few before photos by clicking here. 

The Living Room

Improvements made:  ripped up nasty carpet to expose beautiful hardwood floors,

painted wall and trim, and put a new mantle on the fireplace.

I love the big windows and the great lighting they provide.

The Master Bedroom

Again, great windows and lighting.

The Kitchen

Our improvements:  new ceramic floors, new wall oven, new counter tops and sink, we painted the cabinets and put new hardware, and painted the trim.  Oh, and of course, fresh paint.

We also got this cute little pantry.

And this is my other favorite things - I put up old shoe horns on the wall and we use them to hang up our jackets or purses.

The Office/ 4th Bedroom

The 3rd and 4th Bedrooms used to be one big room.  We gutted the room and made them into 

2 separate bedrooms - making it a 4 bedroom house.

The 3rd Bedroom/Playroom

Leon's Bedroom

The Screened Porch

The 1.5 acre yard

These big pine trees where the previous owner's (who built the house) Christmas Trees!

The rest of the outside isn't anything to be proud of right now.  We had big plans of landscaping this summer but now those plans will be someone else's.  I just hope who ever buys our little house will put just as much love and planning into it as we have the last two years.

So there it is.  It's not much but we've loved living here!

Moving update

Well, haven't I just been the worst blogger?  I remember when I used to blog 3 or 4 times a week and now I'm lucky if I do it once a week!  I guess my life has just gotten a little boring...or maybe I'm just realized that not everybody wants or needs to know about every little thought and/or detail of life.  Anways, here are some details about our upcoming move that some may want to know more about.

1) Getting a house ready to sell really, really, really sucks!  Especially when you really don't have any true desire to sell it.  I like my little house.  I've put a lot of love into this little house.  However, I will say it is looking rather beautiful with all the little things we've been doing to get it ready to go on the market.  We've been cleaning and organizing all weekend and will continue doing so for the next two days until it's perfect for the realtor's camera.  And then we'll have to keep it clean and beautiful for what I'm sure will feel like forever - aka until it sells.

2) We're going to get to buy a house!!!  I'm so excited about not having to rent and to be able to move into a house.  I'm so excited about house hunting.  I will say that even though I love this little house it DEFINTELY has it's flaws.  We've learned so much by this house being our first house - we know what will be important to us for the next house.  We're going in a few weeks to search the northern Kentucky side of Cincinnati which I think it'll be a perfect place for us to live.  It's all little more rural then other parts of Cincinnati and it's still close enough to downtown where Kyle will be working and still has all the conviences of the city too.

3) Have I mentioned that there is an Ikea in Cincinnati?  Or that the closet temple is only 1 hour away?   Or that they supposedly have one the best Zoo's in the US or that they have this awesome aquarium.  As much as I think it'll be hard for me to adjust to not knowing where just about everything like I do here, there will be so much to explore.  Our days and weekends will never be dull with all these new explorations!

4) As much as I'd love to stay here for the rest of my life, I am getting so excited for this next chapter in our life.  I think I'm past that utter state of shock (although, I'm sure there are still a few meltdowns still to come).  I know that the Lord has something in store for us.  I'm not so sure what'll it be, but I have faith that it'll be wonderful for us.

Thanks for reading - I'm sure I've lost some of you over the time I haven't been a very good blogger.  Hopefully the next post will include photos of our sweet little house - I've been promising them for quite a while.

Our Moving News Continued...

Well, we're still not sure if we are going to take the job in Cincinatti yet.  It's likely we will, but we're not 100% sure.  We're still figuring everything out, weighing our options.  The one thing we do know is that we will have to move.  There aren't anymore acturial jobs for Kyle here in Lafayette now that his company is moving to Cincinatti.  The offer that was given to Kyle is a good offer with lots of very nice moving benefits included.  It's nice to know that he's not out a job.  We have one if we want it.

We met with a realator last week.  I have a page full of small projects to work on the next month before we put it up on the market.  Lots and lots of little projects.  I've already started.  It's been a little hard though because Kyle is working and studying so much that he barely has the time to help.  Luckily I have a handy-man brother who is going to help me out with the things Kyle would normally be doing. 

I've had a couple of meltdown the last week or two but I'm doing pretty good with everything.  I think the thing I'm most bummed out about is the house.  I've worked so hard on this house and we just have to leave.  Someone else will get to enjoy all the hard work and love we've put into it.  It's seriously an entirely different place then when it was when we first bought it.  It's a home now, our home.  I'm going to be so sad to leave it to move into a rental.  Yep, a rental .  We want to save for a good down payment and get to know the area of where ever we will be living before we buy our next house.  It's pretty bad when you have seller's remorse before you even put the house up for sell.

This will be a new adventure for us.  One that will be really good for us, I think.  We'll have to expand our horizons.  We'll get to start over again.  And that'll be nice. 

O Christmas Tree

We usually go to a Christmas Tree Farm to pick out the perfect tree for our home.  This year was especially fun because it was right after the first real snow of the year and everything was so beautiful. We had so much fun.

The tree we picked.  It was perfect and petite.

My favorite thing about our tree this year are these little cardinals that I put on it. 

Photo Collage

I've been planning a photo collage for a living room for sometime now and we finally got it up.  There's still a few twicks to make to it but for the most part I'm so happy with it.  It really brings something to that wall which just had a puny little shelf on it before and it's nice to finally have some of my favorite photos of all of us up on the wall.  It took a lof of planning and  most of the afternoon, but it was well worth it.  Take a look at our process.

Cutting out papers the size of the frames and then arranging them on the wall helped so much.  It really elimated a lot of measuring and frustration.

Actually getting some of the frames up. 

Leon is helping Kyle who is making sure the measurements are just right.

And the final product:

We actually had plans for another row but we quickly realized we were not going to have enough space.  This is what we orginally had planned:

The living room is really starting to look like I've wanted it to.  It's so nice.  I just have to make a few pillows and finish decoring the fireplace mantle it will be pretty much done!