Officially OUR little HOUSE

Friday, February 25th we signed all the papers making THE little HOUSE officially ours. Lance couldn't wait to get started on gutting the upstairs of the house. He worked on the house until 1:30am. My sister's family came over to our house on Saturday to help with packing and demolition at the little house. I was able to drive over with my Mom, Sister, and Sister in law to check out all the hard work. While the boys were working on the little house, my Mom and my sister were able to help clear out the unfinished part of the basement by bringing me the bins while I sat on our couch. We put the items into two piles. Long term storage or little house. It went pretty smoothly, but feel bad that my family is getting stuck doing all of the dirty work.

Before and After Photo's of the gut job. The large pile in the last picture was actually a very large birds nest that was up in the rafters of the ceiling. When Lance demolished the ceiling it fell to the floor...yuck! Sorry the pictures are not very clear. Lance said there was so much dust and debris floating in the air he could not get a good shot.

Develop an Organized Moving Plan

I spent the weekend coming up with an plan for the big move to the little house. I am on bed rest/modified bed rest due to complication with this pregnancy and my history, so I am worried that I am going to be of little to no help when it comes time to move. One thing I am good at is I am very organized and detailed oriented, especially in situations like this. When stress starts creeping in my OCD starts creeping out. Plus I am very good at bossing other people around, just ask my husband.

First - I ordered more Rubbermaid storage bends. Since most of our stuff is going in long time storage, we needed containers that are more durable to protect our stuff from rodents and the elements. They should be here in seven days. I know that exactly 15 containers fit on one storage shelf from Sam's club. We will need to purchase some more shelving units or we may just stack them on each other.

Second - We plan to build a garage. Lance and I did some research online to help us decide what we want and what makes the most since for our current needs. We went back and forth on what we should build, a barn or a garage. At this time a garage makes the most since, because there is not one currently on the property and it would be better than a barn for long term storage. Lance plans on going to a garage company after work on Monday to ask some questions and do more research. From what we can tell it may take up to 30 days to have the garage built on the grounds. If the garage is not done in time for our move at the end of March, we may have to find another means of storage for a few weeks to a month.

http://pdqpolebuildings.com/

Third - Our families are stepping up for some much needed help. I don't have to work on Monday, so my sister is coming over to help box up some things. Even if she is able to pack up one box it will be a help. Plus her boys will keep the girls stay entertained while we organize the packing. I will be sitting on the coach watching while she works. I will make sure to pay her back with future service when needed. :)

I am still not stressing. We will be just fine. I am married to an awesome man that takes such great care of his family that I am not worried. Although, our families may be getting stressed out for us. My Mom already told me that her eye is twitching just thinking about our so called stressful situation.

We sold our house!!! Ahhhh!

We are under contract. We received an offer on our house on Wednesday. We went back and forth all day Thursday and finally agreed on a price and the conditions Thursday evening. We signed all of the papers at 9:00pm. Now the clock starts ticking. We need to be completely out of our house by March 28th at 6:00pm. Closing will be scheduled for Friday, March 26th. We have a long way to go before it is a done deal. The inspection will be completed within the next seven days. We do not expect there to be any issues. We still have not closed on The Little House. We are hoping the closing will be scheduled for sometime next week. However, we had some bad news last night. Apparently someone broke into the little house on Wednesday night. We are still waiting to hear from the listing agent. There was a police report taken. We hope to hear something today on what kind of damaged occurred. We are assuming that the copper piping was all removed, but maybe it is not as bad as we are thinking. We will keep you posted. Baby news - I am on modified bed rest depending on how I am doing I can get up, but my Dr. doesn't want me to do a lot of walking. I had an ultrasound on Wednesday. The baby looks great. I am 17 weeks now. Lance and I decided not to find out the sex of the baby. We are just praying for a healthy baby. Also, it is not like we have a nursery to decorate in The Little House. LOL We are thinking the baby crib will have to go in our bedroom. Update on The little House - We found out this afternoon that the crooks did a number on the little house. They gutted the basement. They took the furnace, the air conditioning unit, the copper pipping and they did a lot of damage to the back door as well as the basement metal doors. The listing agent and the insurance adjuster said that this would not prevent us from closing at the end of this month. Wish us luck! It looks like we are going to be down to the wire with getting the little house ready to move in before we need to move out of our old house. We sure like to keep life interesting don't we.

The Little House

Our 30 acre mini farm.

Background - On January 11th we made our first offer on this piece of property. We ended up going back and forth with the owners. We made 3 different offers. There ended up being only $4,000 between our top offer and the sellers bottom offer and believe it or not we walked away. A couple of days later, the sellers came back with another offer and we accepted. Some people might think we are crazy for walking away for such a small amount. I get my negotiating skills from my mother who walked away from their current home for only $1,000 difference. It ended up working in their favor, so I thought we would try it. Plus, I have heard it's a buyers market...lol!

House Inspection -
Not really any surprises here. The house is a mess. Our inspection report was 20 pages long of defects and issues. Everything leaks. Plumbing, electrical, roof, fireplace, porches all have issues. Thank goodness we are handy people, because this place is a handy mans special. What Lance and I figured because it is only a one bedroom/one bathroom house it wont take much to fix this little bad boy up. So we are taking it as is.

Financing -
Kind of strange how things work these days. Even though we were pre-approved for a loan we were not able to get a loan from a traditional bank. It has something to do with the land being more valuable than the house...even with 20% down and fantastic credit. So, we contacted the Farm Credit Services. They have been great to work with. We are now all squared away with getting the loan. The last step is they have to appraise the property which will happen on February 14th. Hopefully everything will go well and we will have a nice Valentines Day Surprise.

Above - The ONLY bathroom and the master bedroom on the first floor. The master bedroom has the original wood floors that someone painted white which I think is charming.

Above - The Attic

I think it is hilarious that they said that this was a three bedroom house. when there are no closets upstairs, no walls dividing the two spaces and no heating, insulation, or drywall. They through up some plywood on the walls and hung some peaces of fabric.

The upstairs is going to need the most work. Frankly, we plan to gut it and start over. We are going to have to shove all the kids upstairs so it must be heated and insulated.

The Kitchen is nice, but of course very small. All of the cabinets were recently updated, but the appliances are very little. They are half the size of my current appliances.

The PLAN - Yes we have a plan. The plan is to get the keys to The Little House and start working on gutting it and painting all of the walls to get it livable for our family. As soon as it is ready to go, we will get more aggressive with selling our house. When our house sells we will move into the little house while we are building a new house on the property. It is going to be a fun couple of years. We will have plenty of projects and I love to decorate and create so I will have two house to express my creativity. After moving into the main house, Lance wants to rent out the little house. I would like to keep it for a guest house or better yet a pool house. We will see who wins out on that one.

I will continue to blog like crazy as we make changes to the house. This is something Lance and I both enjoy so it will be cool to document the changes and progress of the property. I have so many ideas already. I am getting really excited.

On top of everything...Lance and I are expecting our forth that will be here in late July...NOT any earlier!!!!

Cheers to Art

More pictures from Laney's Birthday adventure.
http://www.cheerstoart.com/

Laney's 7th Birthday - December 30, 2010

Thanks Aunt Tricia for making all of the cupcakes for Laney's birthday!



Laney wanted to take an Art Class on her birthday. So my friend Lisa Miller and I packed the girls up and headed to "Cheers to Art". Cheers to Art is a great little studio that gives step by step instructions on a painting. The class lasted two hours. We all really enjoyed the class. They also have classes for "girls night out". We had such a good time...we will definitely make plans to go again some time.

Christmas 2010 Grandma Laney's house

Lance set up his camera and was able to capture our little Elf Henry having a Elf Party with his friends. The girls thought this was so cool.