It All Began With A Pampered Chef Party

Here's Hubby, signing his life away! It all began with a Pampered Chef party. You see, in January Lynette hosted a Pampered Chef party for our friend Lori, a new consultant. It was so much fun, the food was yummy, yum yum and Lori did a great job. (I'll be having a follow up party in a couple months! If you need anything let me know!) While I was there several of the ladies were discussing the house for sale across the street which had a sign that said "I'm Gorgeous Inside"! I got a little giggle out of that. Some of these ladies live in the neighborhood and it sure would be nice to have them all for neighbors.

When I went home, I looked the address up on the internet and found the listing. I was astonished at how low the prices had gone in the last several months. I know we are living in the foreclosure capital of the US, but still I was shocked! This started the ball rolling. When our tax return from the federal govt came in (California is still holding ours hostage! GRRRR!), we checked into a mortgage company specializing in public servant loans and applied for a CalSTRS loan that is for public school teachers and employees.

The whole thought of selling our trailer and all that would encompass was a nightmare and we began praying for a miracle.

Next we were introduced to Keith. He is just super awesome. Yes, the superlatives do fit! We scheduled to look at some houses. The first one wasn't bad, but every single appliance had been ripped out and they even took all the drawers out of the kitchen cabinets! That would have been a huge expense for us just moving in and with no cash.

Then we saw this house. It's about 2.5 miles from where we live now and not far from our church. It was built in 1961 and needs some TLC and cosmetic work, but it has "good bones".

Hubby and the kids LOVED the yard. It has a Magnolia, orange, grapefruit and HUGE walnut tree. That's princess trying to climb the orange tree, Boogie and Sunshine talking and me and Keith on the right.

This is Sunshine running near the walnut tree. It's a gorgeous old tree that spans the property line and is of a concern because of how it has effected the masonry and goes up into the power and phone lines. On the other hand it has tremendous character and shade. I'll be calling our utility company on Monday to find out more.

Blogger is not letting me move photos around, so the rest will be in random order. This is the main bath, which is small but has been kept nice with some updating.

Here is the master bedroom. His and hers closets! :-)

And this is what I loved about the house... the 16x24 great room. I love the faux timbered ceilings with pine tongue and groove that fortunately noone has painted! The wood looks a little thirsty, so I plan on cleaning it and finding out what type of oil pine needs. That's on the long list of things to do.

This is half the kitchen. It's actually quite a large kitchen but there aren't many cabinets and that is a little discouraging especially coming from where we are now. However, there is plenty of room to add either base cabinets or a free standing base cabinet that we have seen at Ikea. I need more counter top to make bread and have the kids help me cook. This picture doesn't show how dirty it is. Inside, the cabinets are filthy! They will be scrubbed, primed and painted before anything touches them. Eventually I'll paint the outside too, but that can wait until after we move in. I'm going to paint the walls light yellow, the cabinets cream and continue with my cobalt blue accents. It's the Swede in me! :-)

This is the master bath, the other room that needs some work down the road, but for now is mostly functional.

As you go from the kitchen to the living/great room, this is what you see. Eventually we will have a dining table here.

The kids had the first meal in the new house!

These are the sliders/windo leading outside. Eventually we will have to get dual paned windows for the whole house.

The kids are really excited about the house and Boogie really is excited about having his own bedroom! Princess is mostly concerned that we have GRASS! My poor deprived children! Having our own yard will make PE much easier!

So by now you have guessed that we made an offer on this house. We are still praying for a miracle on selling our mobile. We have a verbal offer by a guy who flips homes and trailers... but nothing in writing yet, so I am feeling a bit cautious. We would appreciate any prayers for that!

Saturday we had the home inspection and there were no huge surprises. There are known dry rot issues which will be repaired while in escrow and a few things we will have to do for weekend projects etc. There is another hurdle to cross before definitively moving forward with the sale. There is something wrong with the main water valve for the house. Someone will be out to inspect on Monday to determine what the issue is. We will need to know how long water has been running and whether or not there is any damage to the slab, ground etc.

We are really excited and terrified at the same time. All along we have been praying for God to clearly open and close the doors and slam them shut if we are not to proceed forward. He has been so faithful. The waiting is driving me crazy of course!!! Maybe by the girls' 6th birthday we will be moving in our new home!

We have lived in two places in the ten years of our marriage but I didn't get to be involved in the decision process (due to logistics of long distance romance). This will be the first home we have chosen together and I am really looking forward to "nesting"! :-)

If you feel led, please pray for us in this process! Thank you!