All about our home in Pingree

I have not been writing as often as I should, which brings a problem… I'm far behind on my blog. No one probably knows what's going on with my life. We purchased a house at the end of July, the last day of July. We kept it from EVERYONE!  Mostly because I kept getting the feeling that it would fall through, and I didn't want to be disappointed and keep sharing and sharing in the disappointment.  We have a small budget so that equals a small home or a home that need major work.  We looked for a year for a home in and around Blackfoot, everything within our budget we either couldn't get a loan for or was falling down.  Kade wanted some land, but that was pretty much nonexistent for our price range.  When our home came on the market we looked at it and made an immediate offer.

Some stuff about our home.
It was listed as a 2Bed 2Bath home with an office, when we looked at it and realized there were in fact 3Bed 2Bath with an office we figured it would be big enough. It is 1682sqft so we may not have any room for more kids and  Kade didn't get the garage he wanted but we hope to build one someday in the distant future.  It was stick built in 97 so it sin't very old and has some nice custom things about it and central AC.  The one and only previous owner was in a wheel chair and so all the doors are nice and wide, there are 3 outside doors, the toilets are super high, the closets have nice shelves and the tub and shower are a little different designed.

The house was in rough shape (foreclosure).  Cats and dogs had been left inside.  There was even feces on the walls (YUCK). We knew it would be a lot of work, but it's always more work than you anticipate. Especially since I mostly had the kids and so when they were with me it was impossible to get much done.  Trecia and Jake helped a ton, painting, pulling out floor, painting, putting in floor, painting, and cleaning! you guys rock thanks!  Plus my mom and Annie watch my kids from time to time, thanks for that, awesome people.

These are the pictures from the realty website.

front room/living room

The kitchen while standing in the dinning room

Kitchen standing by the laundry room/ backdoor.  You can see the dinning room as well.

master bedroom, and master bath.  

master bathroom, there is another mirror/sink on the other side of the tub.

The office

one of the bedrooms.

There isn't a picture of the 2nd bedroom, and I didn't take one. As soon as we closed Kade went and ripped out all the carpet before I had a chance, haha.

bathroom

back of the house. 

It took us a full month to redo flooring, paint, and make it so we could stand to live in it.  We didn't get the bathrooms or the laundry room floors done.  they are just subfloor. but we can use them and eventually will finish them.

I never want to move and I don't plan on it EVER again!

The house is on a 5.3 acres and is up on a hill.   The outside is surrounded in sagebrush so establishing a yard will be a big to-do. There are also 2 single-wide trailers on the property...which are torn to shreds and the kids love to explore in them *yikes*  we are hoping to burn them or something in the spring,

The moving is slow and painful.  Someday we will finally be unpacked......someday. But we officially are living here.

Painting and more painting

We got carpet today Aug 24, 2015

Here are some pictures of the painting and carpet.  

The kids always wanted to help, what would it hurt? The floors were painted already....they had fun.

Oh, they loved to help vacuum.

  

The front room/living room after painting and right before flooring was installed.

other side of the living room

The office after paint, before carpet. 

Hallway

Bedroom 1

I didn't paint the 2 regular bedrooms yet, until I decide who is where and what colors I want. Which could be years or days, so I kept them white.  

Bedroom 2 - 

the biggest of the 2 and lots of closet. As of now both Drake and Addy are in this room.  Lex is with the parents.  and the toys are in the first bedroom.

Hallway whlie standing in bedroom 1

Master bedroom

Master with carpet

office and hallway from the living room.  And that's right there is no door on my office.....

office with carpet

Hallway with carpet

Bedroom 1 with carpet

Bedroom 2 with carpet.

Standing in the hallway looking at the livingroom/ kitchen/ door to the master bedroom.

And yep, Lex is walking at 11 months.

2 Exciting Things

First, I registered for a fun run this week! I have been wanting to run races this year but my dang knee keeps hurting. Hopefully it will heal! Anyway, it is on Independence Day weekend. 

Second, and more exciting, we made an offer on a home this past week. Scary....and we hope it doesn't fall through. If not, in OVER a month we will own a home closer to Kade's job!!!  

See the pending?!? Pretty COOL!

Playing Catch Up (Our CraZy August of 14)

I am so behind on this blog and I am sure things are not going to calm down anytime soon.  That means that I will just have to post what I can, when I can.

So much has happened and it all happened at the same time.  Kade was offered a new job in Blackfoot that started the 11th of August, just 15 days before my due date.  After much pondering and prayer we decided this would be the best decision for our family's future.  There was only two weeks before the new job started so...we looked around for a place to live and couldn't find anything very affordable. We were very sad at our findings.  If you recall we own a home in Idaho Falls, close to the temple, that has had renters in it for over two years.

After more prayer, and tears from the prego lady, we felt a push to move back into our home.  We had to give a month notice and so that put us not being able to move in until the first part of September.  This was so close to my due date, so more tears and stress from me.  We felt so much guidance for this move, but it was still hard to accept, even if it was what we needed to do.

We had to figure out what to do next, because we had nowhere to live for 3ish weeks.  I didn't want to live with family because I know how stressful and hard that can be.  I really didn't want to step on toes and be in everyone's hair.  We were in everyone's hair anyway, even if I didn't want it that way.

Kade's parents were so kind and let us borrow their very nice RV, which we parked in my sisters yard for those three weeks.  ~Now the last weeks of pregnancy are super long, this made things even longer and more stretched out. ~  Between my sisters house and my parents we survived.  We had our own place but we had family to make times better.  My kids had a blast being so close to my family for so long, but man I know it wore everyone else out. 

On Saturday, August 23rd, three days before my due date, Kade had a day off so we headed up to box up the trailer house.  Word traveled fast through the ward and before 4 o'clock that day we were ready to move out. I was in shock with how much love and support we received. We have never been able to get a house packed that fast. 

Only problem, we still didn't have a place to move, the renters did end up moving out faster then originally planned and on the 29th (3 days past due date) we were given the green light to move in. 

There were some problems, they had pets, and the house reeked!  They had the carpets cleaned 2x's and it still stunk soooo bad.  We pulled up the carpets and white washed the floors and all the walls in the effected areas.  They had painted the kitchen and I hate the new color, so it still needs work, but we left that for later.  The house is mostly white now with new smelling carpet, it made a huge difference. We were sad we had to do so much work, it caused us to push back our move in date, plus carpet isn't' cheap! :(

My due date came and went, almost a whole week.

I ended up going into labor the last day in August, Lex wanted to make sure that the month of August was as long and drawn out as possible ;)
I ended up giving birth to him on the day that I originally told everyone I was due.  I always go over and I hate when people text and call asking if I have had a baby yet.  So, I just went a week past my due date and told everyone that date...I am a better guesser then the ultrasound.  :D Lex is a lucky boy, he shares his Birthday with Paul and Annie's Anniversary.  It really fits because they were so kind to let us crash for so long at their house, it is a tribute to their awesomeness.

We were still living in the RV when I went into labor.  After Lex was born we stayed at my parents house so they could help me with kids.  Carpet was installed the 5th of September.  On the 6th of September everything was loaded, moved, and put into our home, lots of boxes! On Tuesday the 9th we went up and spent our first night.  Finally, a place of our own!

Basically, there is no progress with the unpacking.  There is so much to unpack and put away, but I'm just sitting here holding my baby and soaking in his baby smell.  I love baby snuggles.  

A New Adventure

This year, my number one goal was to start getting out of debt.  With the little income we make, it isn't hard to get in over your head.  I myself have always been on the frugal side, hating to spend money and loving to save it.  I can say our marriage has consisted of plenty of money talk and disagreement.  It has taken over 3 years but I believe my husband is starting to agree with me...probably not ;)

We are downsizing our rent payment!  So, we are moving again.  This time it isn't to a massive home with 6 bedrooms, it is to a single wide trailer home.  I am not excited about the limited space and future heating problems.  But at this point, it can't be more expensive to heat then the home we are currently in.  Although there isn't much room to grow where we are going and I will have to work on dejunking (something I stink at) it will be great in the end.  By doing this it isn't my proudest moment, in fact I would love to stay in this big home that I can't afford.  But I understand that I don't want to be weighed down by debt my whole life, so we will sacrifice, and pray to not be overrun by mice.

On a better note, I am excited!  We will be living close to Shyla (Kade's sister) and I will get to smell cow manure on a regular basis and hear bawling calves....makes me think of childhood :)  I am also excited to be able to fix up the trailer and make it beautiful.  Also, it is a pretty decent home, apart from wood paneling and yellow sinks, it is close to 1300 square feet, so it is a nice size for only a single wide.

Pictures???  Yeah, I will get more of those up, when I find the missing memory card.

Anyone have a solution for painting wood paneling?  I don't love it and don't wanna put sheet-rock up...Oh the 70's had style, ick.

We have to be out by the end of this month, I am sure hoping for time to fix things up.  If anyone is bored they are welcome to come help with some DIY projects, or babysitting!

Stress

Did I mention that I joined a biggest loser FB club?  Yeah, and so far we have been doing it 5 weeks, 3 left in the time I have been doing it I have lost 15 pounds!  I have been in 1st place the last 2 weeks...so maybe I will actually  win the $230 prize.  I will keep my fingers crossed, and keep off the chocolate.

These are my before pictures....except I took them about 2 weeks after I started.  These are motivating because they remind me of my maternity pictures I took, what a belly!   

I don't look any better and it discourages me because all I have done to lose weight is have my appendix out, stayed sick for 2 weeks following that, and cut out most of my sugar.  :D

I wasn't going to post about it at all but I got excited that I am in the lead 2 weeks in a row!

Apart from procrastinating my midterms in school, we have been moving a lot lately   Kade doesn't get off of work until six and it only stays light for an hour after that.  So, every time we go to move and get stuff done, we don't get a lot done.   We are out of the little white house in Mud Lake, all of that stuff is in boxes in the new house in Mud Lake.  We went last night to the house in IF and the upstairs got cleaned, and the downstairs got pushed into a corner???  Yeah, Kade's alternator went out in his truck so we were unable to pull a trailer to haul the rest of our stuff.

His alternator? In his new truck?  Yes, that is our luck.

But he can replace it himself so it will be about $120 for a new one :( but that is all it will cost and that is with his parts discount....at least we wont have to replace the batteries as well.  It would have been 400 for new batteries  whooo, good thing we didn't need to replace those.


On a happy last note, because not much is happy on this post, my friends Brad and Nikki Black are in the hospital right now having baby number 2!

Another Move

Kade and I purchased our house before we were married, so before a few months ago I had never moved with him....we have so much stuff.

Well I know I posted about how sick I have been, to top it off everyone has been sick.  I honestly think it is the house we are living in.  GOOD NEWS, a rental opened up.  We have been in limbo waiting to move in so we have been staying with Kade's parents again.

Steph and Dan moved into Kade's parents house with their three kids tonight, and even though it could be fun I am looking for some space :D

The little house we were renting was to small.  So small that we had to rent 2 storage units to fit "other stuff in".  Yes, we could downsize, but we are hoping to eventually buy a house that was as big as our other one.

We are going to have renters move in week to the house in I.F. we don't know them, but they want to rent our house.  And it will only cover our mortgage payment but I am sick of making double house payments TOO stressful.  Looking back at this last few months we could have made smarter decisions had we known all that would happen, but things are how they are and we are just excited for a change.

Anyway, the rental that opened has 5 bedrooms, yeah a little bigger then the last place.  We don't need that much space, but I rather have too much then too little.  It is wood heated, and Kade seems excited but I don't want to put in that much work...although it will be WAY cheaper.  ALSO, there is 3 acres....a place for all of Kade's projects.  No animals other then dogs for now.

DOWNSIDE the house is for sale, and out of our price range   SO, if they sell the house we won't have a ton of warning, but hey you never know if they will sell it, they are asking a lot for home in these parts.

FUN FACT  Kade works at a parts store, he replaced the owners son Jason, and that is who's house we are renting.....

PICTURE TIME,

you can see in this picture there is an upstairs and two storage sheds in back :)

2 car garage!

Mud room when you walk in from garage 

from mud room to kitchen

kitchen

dinning room

going from kitchen you can go to dinning room, front room (right) or down the hall to the bathrooms or bedrooms

front room

another shot of the front room

bathroom

1st bedroom

2nd bedroom

den or computer room

now there is a split entry at the end of the hall going down

family room

family room facing the downstairs door

storage room next to the downstairs door

1/2 bathroom and laundry room next to downstairs door

if you go upstairs instead of down

3rd bedroom this will be DRAKE'S 

4th bedroom, this will be ADDY's

5th room (MASTER)

big walk in closet, same size as the room we use to sleep in :D

then this is our master bathroom

there are things like carpet that could be updated and the kitchen and I would change some wall colors but other then that I am happy with EVERYTHING....


So the upstairs is decided for, like who's room is who's and you have the den...now what to do with the 2 extra rooms??? I'm thinking craft room for me and maybe Kade will want one for him??? Maybe an exercise room? Na I think it will be a guest room!  Who knows! I'm excited.