Vacation Prep (AKA Needing a Vacation to get over Vacation Prep)

Oh vacation, how I love you.

Every year my in-laws rent a house somewhere big enough for the entire family to go stay and be together for a week. We've done Honeoye Lake twice, Autumn Lake (Adirondacks area) twice, and this was our third year in Salvo in the Outer Banks. We stayed in a different house than the previous two years and really enjoyed the new place!

Now I don't know about you, but planning for a vacation is hard. It's easier now that the kids are older and we don't have to worry about diapers and all the other baby things, but still trying to get a family of five packed for a week and getting two animals prepped to leave is challenging.

To Do Lists!

And this year decided to throw us a couple curve balls.

We knew this year would be a little different. Our house still has a For Sale/Sale Pending sign in front of it, and even though we don't live in a village or city, a lot of traffic goes by here everyday. We were a little nervous about leaving our house vacant for a week, but we took steps to make sure that it wouldn't look fully abandoned: our cat was going to stay here and our neighbor would check on him nightly, and some friends were also going to come and harvest our garden while we were away. It's not as much movement at our house to make it look occupied, but we thought it would be enough. (And it was!)

The one problem about the house still being Sale Pending was that we didn't know if we'd need anyone to come through the house for various appointments during the week, and one even got scheduled for the morning we were going to be leaving....meaning we had to leave the house SPOTLESS. That's hard enough to do on any given day, but trying to get your house spotless while trying to leave for vacation is a whole other level of craziness!

The biggest curve ball of them all we didn't even begin to expect.

We swung by my in-law's house on Wednesday to drop off some things, and my father-in-law commented on how our exhaust was sounding loud. We thought it was just a heat shield, so he said to bring it over early Thursday morning and he'd help Pete take a look at it.

Thursday morning came, Pete took the van over. I'm home with the three kids, babysitting an additional two, and trying to pack. Pete calls: the fixed the heat shield, didn't really see anything wrong with the exhaust, but there's a squeaking and squealing noise. They took it to the mechanic's, and the water pump is dying. And two front bolt springs (I think that's what they were??? Definitely part of the front suspension...) were completely broken and could cause real damage at any point....also known as, van isn't leaving the shop OOOOR going on vacation. Big $$$$$ flashed in front of our eyes!

So Pete and his dad checked into rental vans, and we didn't want to pay the price to rent one. We decided to take our car, and my in-laws graciously offered to take one of our kids in their vehicle so we wouldn't have to have three kids crammed in the back of our car. Thankfully we had fixed the car and it's issues earlier in the summer so all it needed was for the air conditioning to be recharged for it to be ready to go.

Even with all of the craziness and our plans going straight out the window, we are so thankful. We are glad Pete's dad had the wisdom and foresight to check our van, thankful there was space for Paige in their truck, thankful our friends and neighbors were able to look after our house, and just so thankful that we didn't try to take the van on vacation (we probably wouldn't have made it out of the state, or at least through Pennsylvania....it definitely wouldn't have made it over the bridges and bumps on the OBX island!).

We were able to leave our spotless house at 5:58 Friday morning (two minutes ahead of schedule!!!!), with Paigey securely in the back of her grandpa's truck and the boys snuggled in the back of our car. We were Virginia bound for the night, and were praying that all the bumps in the road were already behind us!

Up next: Friday afternoon fun in Virginia!

House Hunting FAQ

We've been getting a lot of questions about all the house hunting and selling process, so I figured I'd do a FAQ post!

New House:

Where are you moving to? Will you still be attending the same church?

York! Just twenty minutes away. And yes, as long as God allows, we will still be attending the same church.

Why are you moving?

To be closer to the kid's school. We transferred the kids last year, and it was doable, but with Paige able to participate in modified sports, both boys participating in Odyssey of the Mind, and Pete hoping to coach swim again, it just made sense for us to move. Our family does not function well if we're not home a lot, and just being on the road all the time was going to cause too much stress for us.

How many beds and baths is it?

It has 3 bedrooms (with the ability to be turned into 4) and 1 1/2 baths.

Is it going to be big enough for all of your wants needs? Does the new house have everything you want?

Yes!!! We had very specific things that we needed in a house: I needed an office, the bedrooms couldn't be considered glorified closets, and we needed a space for the kids to play and hang out with friends. I also needed room for a garden and we wanted a yard for the kids to play. I'm getting my office, the bedrooms are great sizes, the kids will eventually have space in the basement to play, and I will have an office in the basement as well. The yard is amazing, and I already know where my garden is going to be. We're also getting a mudroom and a sunroom! Score!

I think the only thing that it doesn't have that we really were hoping for is a 2 car garage. It does have one garage bay, which is definitely better than what we have now!

This house looks like it's in a village? Are you guys ok with that?

It's definitely going to be a change. While it's technically not a village, it is village-like. But the street is so quiet, I think we'll find it quieter than our country road we're on now. God was also showing us through the house searching process that He wants us close to the school, meaning that we have to be close to neighbors. We did hit the jackpot though, and will be next door to some pretty amazing people!

When are you moving?

No confirmed date yet. Possibly September?

How close will you be to school?

Well, we're at about 18 minutes away now. One of the last times I was at the house, I timed how long it took to get to school. With waiting for 7 vehicles to pass by over the course of my drive, it took 3 minutes.

We're going to be so spoiled.

How are you feeling about all of this?

Oh man. I don't know. I'm all jumbled up, and can go from laughing and being happy about all of this to crying within seconds. I'm really excited about my new home and getting to make memories there and make it a beautiful place for us...but I'm really sad about leaving my current home, all the memories here and our neighbors. It's our first house, it's the only home Ryan has ever known. We've put down roots here, and we're all really sad to be leaving it. But there is so much calling to us in the new neighborhood, we have so many friends in that area and we're getting established there, that I'm hoping and praying the transition will be an easy one.

I thought you wanted more land?

Our original wish list had a lot of things: 2 full baths, 4 bedrooms, a few acres, no neighbors, etc. But we realized we didn't need all of those things to be happy:

- We could be fine in a 1 1/2 bathroom house.
- The boys are ok sharing a room as long as the room is big enough.
- We have .8 acres right now, and even that can feel like too much to take care of (note to self: less flower beds at the new house!).
- It felt like God was calling us to be close to school, which means having neighbors.

So I guess my answer is yes, when we started looking we wanted more land, but as time went on we realized we didn't need it and would be happier with less.

A fixer upper? Really?

She's probably more of an "updater" than a "fixer upper" as it's mostly cosmetic work that she needs. We really liked the idea of building, but that was going to be at the top (if not above) our budget to get all the space we really wanted, and the timeline just wasn't going to work with our wants and needs. This way we get to move in before the snow flies (no more driving back and forth every day over the snow covered hills!!!!), and still get the benefits of making the house how we want in the areas that are most important to us (aka the kitchen!). So while it may not be ideal, we really and truly are getting the best of both worlds!

It sounds like you guys have a lot of plans for this house! What project are you tackling first?

Ummm.....we're not sure yet. We need to sit down and really figure out what is most important to us as well as what our budget allows right now. To see what all we have planned for the house, you can check out the blog posts here.

How quickly are you going to try and get all the projects done?

It depends on how big the projects really are and what our budget allows; we will be contacting contractors for estimates after we move in and get settled. We feel very strongly about paying in cash for all of our updates, so that really plays a big part in our timeline. We would love to have everything done in three year's time, but realistically will be more like five to ten (or so we hope; some projects didn't get done in the almost nine years we were here until it was moving time....). It will probably feel a lot faster than that in a lot of the house as paint will make such a massive difference.


Current house:

Do you know the buyers?

Nope. We know their names and that they just got married a couple months ago. That's about it!

How many showings did you have? How much are they buying it for? How many offers did you get?

We are unable to give out a lot of this information due to confidentiality concerns and because it still is fairly early in the process. Anything can go wrong at any time, and we'd hate for it to happen because we said too much. We appreciate everyone's excitement for us, and we will share as much as we are able to! Thank you for understanding!!!


Did I miss any questions? Let me know in the comments below!

Moana and Selling Our Home

We absolutely love the Disney movie Moana! The music, the story, the characters....it's becoming one of our favorite movies very quickly.

The thing that surprises me most about it is how it's helping my kids get ready for house showings.

Say whaaat?

Enter Tamatoa!

If you've seen Moana, you'll know that Tamatoa loves anything shiny, and he also sings a song by the same name. It's slightly addicting and gets stuck in your head really easily, which believe it or not, has been helpful.

When we started the process of getting our house ready to sell, our realtor told the kids to get our house as clean as a bright copper penny. The kids decided that wasn't good enough, so it evolved into a quarter or even a one dollar coin.

But then when I was waxing floors to get them nice and shiny, I got Tamatoa's song stuck in my head...and it spread to the kids. And our thing now is that we have to get our house Tamatoa Shiny. They run around singing the song, picking up and cleaning quickly and efficiently....something that never ever happens.

So thank you Disney for creating a character that makes my life so much easier!!!!

Do you have any tips or tricks for helping you or kids clean up quickly? I'd love to hear them!

Secret Keeping: A House Hunting Update

Guys.

We found a house.

And we've been under contract for about two weeks.

There were some things we had to get through before I could share the news, and we've crossed all of those hurdles, so now we can share! Yay!

So what house did we choose? Was it House #5, Yellow? Or House #6, Ranch?????

Before I tell you, here's the backstory:

We saw both of these houses on a Monday. I had a feeling that one of them was "The One" that day.

Pete....not so much.

He was willing to take a second look at it, which we did on that Friday. After the second showing, I was ready to put in an offer.

Pete....not so much.

So we prayed and talked and did pros and cons and prayed and talked some more. For five days.

And then, I don't know what happened, but Pete woke up one day and decided to put in an offer! After a couple days of negotiating, we came to an agreement and signed contracts. The house passed inspection, and here we are, waiting for our house to sell so we can move in and make it ours! Woo hooooo!!!!!

Yeah, I love my new house. Like A LOT.

So here she is, the new Apps Abode:

Yes, to the surprise of many we chose The Yellow House! Before announcing we found a house on Facebook, only ONE person guessed that we chose this one! Everyone else guessed the Ranch. But, after we told Facebook we found a house, the overwhelming response was that we had chosen Yellow!

We have a lot of paint to buy, carpet, paneling and drop ceiling to rip out, rooms to update or move around, as well as "fun" projects, like siding and a porch to add on. You know, just a short little list of improvements ;) She is a fixer upper, but we are so anxious to get started!

So thank you for being on this journey with us! Our house is on the market, and we're waiting for the perfect person or family to come buy her so we can move along with Yellow. I won't be able to share much more for awhile due to confidentiality requests, but I'll be doing some posts of what we'd like to do with the house if there's any interest!

Master Bedroom Reveal

We have one room fully finished and ready for selling! Woo hoo!!!!

Welcome to our master bedroom!

I love this room so much. The calming and relaxing blue on the walls, the new carpet, the large window that looks out to the front trees, the large closet....our next bedroom has a lot to live up to!

This room was fairly easy to get ready. The windows had already been replaced in October of 2015, so it was just to finish painting the trim around the window, touching up paint, replacing the carpet, and deep cleaning.

The bedroom is right off of the living room, and also has it's own full bathroom. The closet is about 10" wide, with two little nooks of hidden closet space tucked in the corners.

Shoe shelves in a closet nook

The bedroom is approximately 12"x13" in size, for over 150 square feet of space, not including the closet!

A lot of the other rooms are just about ready as well. They mostly just need a few things like touching up paint, fixing trim, and a little more decluttering. The biggest project left is actually the counters in the kitchen which we hope to be doing this weekend!

What is your favorite color for bedroom walls? We're planning on doing this color again in the new house as well :)

House #4

Yesterday we went and looked at another house!

It was one that we've been looking at online for months now. We loved the interior, liked the exterior, but hated the location. Open houses came and went, and we didn't go. We were afraid to fall in love with the house, but be miserable with the yard and street. So we didn't go.

A couple weeks ago I was praying about the house search, praying things like "Oh God, give me a house with no neighbors....with 4 bedrooms....and a nice office area..." etc. etc. etc. And God, he has a funny sense of humor. I heard him answer "Umm...do you really want to be praying like I'm a genie in a lamp?"

Yeah, not really, God.

So I changed up my prayer, praying that God would show us a house where HE wanted us to be, a place where we can have a welcoming home for school kids and neighbors, a place of peace in the neighborhood.

And then the house with the less than desirable location popped into my head.

And I said no to God.

Fast forward to that Saturday, a few days after God showed me that house and had been showing me that house all week long. Pete comes home from teacher meetings where a coworker of his (and dear friend of the family) and he had been talking about the house hunting process. And she mentioned we should go look at this house, so kids could come over after school. It was basically everything I had been praying and just confirming that we should go look at that house.

We debated about scheduling something, but were still hesitant.

On Sunday, we mentioned it to a couple of people, and they were also confirming that we should go look at it. But we were still hesitant.

We go home, I get online, and boom. The house dropped in price by $7,000. Um, okay, I guess we need to go look at the house! So I texted our realtor trying to set something up for Friday afternoon, and on Monday she let me know that we had an appointment for Friday at 2.

All week I felt off. I was really excited about going to look at the house, but very apprehensive as well. What if we loved the house but the road was too busy? What if it was quiet in the house, but really noisy outside? What if everything was absolutely wonderful and we decided we loved it? Our house isn't finished getting ready yet! That would be so stressful! The week was a whirlwind of emotions, and I felt like I needed a Bible verse to cling to in order to help me get through the rest of the week and then the house visit. I chose this one:

It really helped me focus on what is really important for the house (a peaceful place for my family and friends, a secure structure, and a place of quiet and rest), and then I knew I'd be able to let God handle the rest.

Finally Friday came. The kids had a half day, so Pete took a half day as well. Everyone came home, we packed the kids up, and then drove them to Pete's parent's for their monthly sleep over. And then, it was house time.

When we arrived, our realtor, Deb, and the seller's realtor, Alan, were both there already. Pete and I checked out the back yard quick, and the realtors came out to meet us. We got a tour of the house, and the house was bigger in areas than we originally thought they were. For an older house, there was a lot more storage than we expected, as well as updates. We loved the hardwood floors throughout the house, and it was much quieter inside than we expected.

Recessed lighting! We loved it!

We went out and fully toured the backyard as well, which is below the house and front yard. It felt really private and wasn't as noisy as we expected, either. The house backs up to a wooded area, and apparently who owns the land there has trails cut through for people to walk or ride four wheelers through, which was a really nice addition.

Looking from backyard up to house and garage

Fire pit area with another walk down spot

We spent about 40 minutes at the house, which was a lot longer than I had anticipated us being there. We knew we'd have a lot to discuss, so when we left, we got right to it.

The Pros:
- Hardwood/laminate/tile floors throughout. No carpeting to rip up or deal with allergens because of it! Woo hoo!

- Private and quiet back yard. It was so much bigger and quieter than we had imagined. There was room for the kid's swing set, a garden, fire pit, and pool with deck!

- A lot of storage space. Even though we've downsized a lot, we have a lot of stuff. I think all of our things would have fit in the house!

Loved this built in at the bottom of the stairs!

One of the bedroom closets

- Four bedrooms. The boys really want to have their own separate rooms, so this is something we are looking for. They do know and understand it may not happen, but we're hopeful we can make it work for them to not have to share.

One of the upstairs bedrooms

- Two full bathrooms. We've really noticed lately how much we really need to have two showers! It works out really well to have this option.

- Big kitchen with lots of counters and cupboards. We love to cook and bake, and this would have had just as many (if not more) cupboards as our current kitchen! These pictures don't show the wall of cupboards and counters with the sink, stove, and dish washer, but they're there!

- Garage! It was only a one car detached garage, but it's better than nothing. There was also room to make it a two car garage down the road if we wanted.

- Quiet. It was surprisingly quiet in the house. We hardly heard the traffic, even when we were really listening for it. Now, we didn't open the windows at all, which would have made it louder, but we deal with tractor trailers and tractors on our road now, so we're used to some big noise already.

- Easy commute for Pete/pick up for kids. The house is across the street from the school, part of the reason why we were hesitant about the location. But while we were there, we were loving the location!

- Bay windows. I have always loved bay windows, and it had TWO of them!!!!

- Bonus room. Off of the living room was a bonus room through a set of beautiful french doors. It also had a huge closet in there. Having a space for the kids to hang out with friends, use their foosball table, and just have a place to play is really important to us.

The Cons:

- The layout. We knew going into the house that three of the bedrooms were upstairs, the master bedroom was downstairs, and both bathrooms were downstairs. We thought that it wouldn't be a big issue, but at least one of our kids is prone to stomach bugs. They'd have to go down the stairs and either through the whole living room or through the living room, kitchen and laundry room to get to a bathroom. The master bedroom would also have to go down the hall and through the living room to use a bathroom. It's not a complete deal breaker, but a frustrating aspect.

Kitchen looking into washroom.
Bathroom is across from closet by back door.

- One bedroom didn't have a closet. Again, not a deal breaker. We could definitely get a wardrobe for hanging clothes, but having a bed, dresser and wardrobe in the room with baseboard heat, it doesn't leave a lot of space for anything else and layout options are limited. An option would be to use the bonus room as a bedroom as it had a closet and then use the upstairs bedroom as the bonus room. But, we want to be able to check on the kids as needed when they're playing, and having it be out of the way isn't ideal (but workable).

- It might be cramped. We were surprised that even though the rooms felt bigger than we imagined, how cramped we might be. The living room is smaller than what we have now, and the kitchen/dining room is smaller as well. We could see us feeling claustrophobic there as the kids grew up and had friends over, and that would be a major issue.

- Office space. One thing we definitely need is an office space for me. In order for me to get it in this house, the boys would have to share a room. However, the upstairs bedrooms weren't really big enough for them to share. I could have the bonus room, but then the kids wouldn't have the hang out space. There was a partial basement, but it wasn't big enough for office/studio space plus storage space. The basement was also damp (but this has been a very very wet spring), and although a dehumidifier would help greatly, I don't know if I'd be willing to risk having my canvases and products be down there.

- Resale. Now, we're not planning on moving again ever (haha!), but when we do, we want to be able to sell as quickly and easily as possible. This house has already been on the market for six months. A lot of people probably refuse to look at it for the same reasons we wouldn't (busy road, across from school), and that's something just floating around in our heads. It's not a deal breaker by any means, but just something we thought about.

It was such a weird experience. We went in expecting to love the house and hate the yard and location, but came away loving the yard and location but not liking the house. One of the things we went in expecting was for God to either say that yes, this is the house for us, or no, this isn't the house, but be willing to look at houses even if you are unsure about the yard/location. And we really feel like maybe having houses close to us may not be as horrible as we're imagining, or being on a busy road might not be the worst thing ever. We learned that we really need to keep an open mind, something I thought we had learned when buying this house...but I guess we didn't.

At this point, we're saying no to this house. We're going to keep working like crazy on this house to get it ready, and keep looking. We really want to be in the school district, but maybe we need to reconsider looking on the edge of the district. Who knows! Either way, we will continue to keep you all updated!

New Carpet!

When our realtor said that we should seriously consider replacing the carpet in the master bedroom, small bedroom and hallway, I have to admit I cringed.

I know, the carpets are old, stained, ripped, and just very sad looking. Just cleaning them up and trying a patch job probably wouldn't cut it. They are 23+ years old, after all!

But how much money were we going to have to spend to get it looking pretty? And was the money spent on new carpet going to have a good return of investment? While we do have some money set aside to fix up the house to sell it, I don't really want to dump a ton of money into the house, either.

The Thursday of Spring Break we actually went to a local furniture and flooring place to look at carpet and talk about getting an estimate. They did our church's flooring (which turned out great), so we knew they'd do a really nice job for us.

When we told the sales guy that we were looking for new carpet for selling our house, he showed us a sample of what their most popular carpet for situations like this was. Apparently they can't keep it in stock because it's so popular, and the sales guy even has it in his spare bedroom at his house. To quote the sales guy: "This carpet sells houses!"

I am not a huge carpet fan, but let me just tell you, I fell in love with this carpet. It is the perfect tan color with hints of dark brown in it. It's light enough to keep a room bright, yet dark enough to hide dirt, and the dark specks of brown will help hide lint and things in between cleanings. It's soft, yet super affordable.

And the best part? It's name is 'Cookie Dough'. That right there was the selling point for me! (I know, I'm weird...).

While the sales guy was writing up the estimation appointment order, Ryan was leaning his head on it, and Paige and Nate kept reaching over to pet it. I think they liked it, too!

The estimation appointment was actually scheduled for the following day (woo hoo!), but the guy was a no show. We waited and waited as we knew he had had another appointment, so maybe it was going late. Finally, Pete called in the early afternoon, and the guy was there but hadn't noticed a new appointment on his schedule. Oops! He came right out though, and was only here for a few minutes getting his measurements. He said he'd have an estimate on Monday (it was Easter weekend and he'd be away all weekend), but ended up calling us back that night with our estimate! We accepted it as the number was a lot prettier than we thought it would be, and the installation appointment was scheduled!

Well, today installation day! We opted to do the ripping out of the old carpet ourselves to save us a few dollars, so Pete, Paige, Ryan, and I tag teamed that on Sunday after church. With all four of us working, we were able to get it all out and cleaned up in two and a half hours! Not bad at all! Ryan loved helping so much that he says he hopes the new house has carpet so he can do it all over again.

We're glad that it was only a two day wait before the installation. All of our bedroom things (except the bed) moved into the living room, and all of Paige's things were in the dining room! Mozzie loved it, though, as he got to explore the tops of the bookcases for the first time.

The installers arrived at 9:30 this morning, and by 10 they had the tack strips and padding all down! They did have to leave for a little bit as they were double booked for today, but they still managed to finish everything by 2:15. That is super impressive, especially because they had the massive loft bed in Paige's room that had to be lifted and worked around.

The Loft Bed of Doom had to be lifted over the roll!!!

We are soooo happy with the new carpet! I wish we had done it earlier, just for us. It just makes the house feel so much nicer, it is so soft under our feet, and it's just so pretty. We're also really impressed because we had some issues with where the carpet meets up with the laminate flooring in a couple places (the laminate was the issue, not the carpet), and they totally fixed it for us.

SO PRETTY.

I'm waiting to see who ends up sleeping on the floor tonight; Paige asked if she could sleep on her floor tonight (would have let her if she didn't have an early day tomorrow), and Ry has been known to sleep in the hallway. They've all been rolling around on it or just cuddling it this afternoon, so I'm sure someone will be on it when we get up in the morning!

Or maybe I won't have to wait until morning as someone's already camped out:

BIG NEWS! With the carpet install, we have our first room completely ready for selling!!!! WOO HOO!!! Okay, so it's just the hallway, but still, one is ready!!!!

No, Ry isn't sleeping in this picture, he just didn't want to have his picture taken again! But the hall is so pretty without chips in the walls, it's new art work, sparkling clean trim and doors, and of course, new carpet that doesn't have a huge hole in it!

Now we just have to pick out the new counter top, and we'll have yet another big project ready to go. I'm hoping the weather will continue to cooperate as there's a lot of outdoor work that needs to be done. And of course, the perfect house has to come on the market for us, too!

I hope you all are doing well! I'll be putting up more posts soon from last week, the kid's spring concert, and a completed room reveal, so stay tuned! :)

House Hunting Update

Many of you have been asking how the house hunt is going, so I figured I'd give a little update:

It's at a standstill.

There isn't much on the market right now in the area we're looking, so we're waiting and attempting patience as we hope and pray that the housing market picks up soon.

In the meantime, it gives us time to work on our ever growing to do list. I swear, every time I cross something off of our list, three more things get added.

We can see the progress, though!

Walls are getting patched and paint touch ups...

...our new front door was installed...

...new counter tops are being planned and hopefully supplies are being purchased soon...

...bathrooms are getting repainted (even though they weren't supposed to *sigh*)...

...closets are getting cleaned out...

...and the house is getting a much needed deep cleaning.

I was really bummed out yesterday. The weather was GORGEOUS and I was going to work on painting the front porch and having the kiddos paint the fence. However, my body thought it would be a GREAT day for a migraine, so I was at home on the couch for most of the day. I apparently needed the rest as I feel so much better, but I did make some super yummy soup for dinner last night!

A few of the rooms are almost finished in the house, so I hope to have some "selling ready" reveals soon :) I'll keep you updated here and on Facebook with house hunting progress, I promise :)

Have you been working on any house projects lately?

The Last Goodbye

I knew this day was coming.

I really did.

I tried to avoid it for as long as I could, but no, it was time.

When we moved into our house 8 1/2 years ago, Paige was 3 and Nate was 1. They were at the age where they'd take baths in the big tub, and it was great....for the most part.

Their least favorite part of bathing was the looking up from whatever fun thing they were playing with so we could rinse their hair without getting the shampoo in their eyes. You'd think we were torturing them with their screams of protest!

So what is an exhausted mom to do?

Paint a mural on the ceiling, of course!

I painted fish of all shapes, colors, and sizes, as well as a turtle, a seahorse, and even an octopus! We'd have the kids look for a yellow fish, find three little fish, or choose a color to paint the next fish. They loved looking up during bath time now; it solved our problem beautifully!

As you can see, I never finished the mural, though. Painting on the ceiling is horrible for my back, and it has sat untouched for about 7 1/2 years. Now that the kids are older, I've been meaning to repaint the ceiling....I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I felt like it was saying goodbye to having little kids for good. I know my kids aren't super grown, but they're not super little anymore, either. We've gotten rid of all their other little kid things (with the exception of storing some things for when littles come to play), so this was going to be the final goodbye.

And now that it's time to sell the house, there's no more putting off the inevitable: it's time to paint the ceiling.

I took advantage of Pete and the kiddos not being home Tuesday afternoon and worked on it. The fish got three coats of paint, and even with a full ceiling coat, the fish were still visible!

Once the paint fully dried, most of them were completely covered. There are a few spots that needed touch ups, but for the most part, it was over.

And we're all sad that they're gone.

Stay tuned for the full bathroom reveal soon; I repainted the walls today, and it looks like a completely different room! We miss the fish, but the new paint makes it look really really pretty :)


For you parents out there, what is the most creative thing you've ever done to help solve a problem one of your kids was having?

Houses 2 and 3...and Where They Should Go

Yesterday we went and looked at two more houses in between yard work and errands....and we fell in love.

Both of the houses we looked at are at a modular/manufactured business, so basically we either get the particular house we tour or we get to design one similar, and then have it moved to whatever land we have purchased and they will install or build it for us.

House #2

We've been crushing on this house for about a year now, but finally just got to go tour her yesterday. And she did not disappoint!

The Good:

Curb appeal. She's gorgeous! We live in a plain ranch house, so we love the variety in her exterior. And the color really suits our tastes, too.

The master bedroom closet. Okay, so we don't need this much space, but a small walk in closet? Amazing.

The master bathroom. That tub! I have been wanting a deeper tub since we moved into our house, and this tub was perfect! It would be like having my own personal spa!

It also had double sinks, which isn't completely necessary, but it would make mornings easier when Ry and I have our teeth brushing parties ;)

The open floor plan. I love how the living room is so open to the dining room and kitchen! It felt so spacious and bright and welcoming.

The kitchen. So gorgeous!

It's a 2 story. We live in a ranch, and although we're not completely opposed to having one again, we'd really like a 2 story this time.

The second story would come unfinished, but it's almost 1000 square feet, perfect for an office space, play/hang out space, or an additional bedroom...or any combination of the three!

The mudroom/utility room. Seriously? This is the room where all the dirty things get cleaned up in? I'd be afraid to mess it up! But it's soooo pretty!

The Bad:

Bedrooms 2&3. They were kind of small, probably comparable to the ones at House #1. However, we could fit the loft or bunk beds and dressers into them, but that would be about it. Having the flexible second story and possible basement would make up for that small space, so their size isn't a complete deal breaker.

No place for a porch. We would love a big front porch, but there's really no place for one that wouldn't mess up the aesthetics. We could definitely do a deck behind her, so again this isn't a complete deal breaker.

The Ugly:

Um...nothing?


House #3

We weren't planning on looking at this house, but the salesman had said all of the houses were open and to go look at any one we wanted...and the kids wanted to do this one. And I'm really glad we listened!

The Good:

The kitchen. Again, so beautiful! And plenty of space for working and storage.

The open floor plan. I absolutely love how the kitchen looks into the living room. That's one thing I really wanted when we were house shopping the first time; I want to be able to watch movies on Fridays with the kids, but I'm usually cooking dinner, or just keep an eye on the kids as they play or visit with guests while we entertain.

The second and third bedrooms. These were the largest ones we've seen so far! They could definitely accommodate most if not all of the kid's current bedroom furniture and toys.

Fancy bathrooms. I loved the counter in the master bathroom! It only has one sink, which is fine, but it just felt really pretty in there. The second bathroom (which would be the main one and the kids would use it) was also gorgeous, and had a linen tower in there so the kids could easily get new towels or extra soaps, rather than have to leave the room as they have to do with their current bathroom.

Flexibility for extra space. We would definitely need a basement for this house, as I would need an office, the kids need a play/hang out space, and we need storage. We were saying that this house would basically be like upgrading our current house!

The Bad:

The master bathroom shower. Don't get me wrong, the walk in shower is drop dead gorgeous. However, this momma loves relaxing in a bath once in awhile, and I can't do that in a shower ;) The sales man did say that anything can be changed in the homes, and the walk in shower was definitely an upgrade. If we decided to get this house, I would definitely ask for a tub/shower combo!

The curb appeal. We loooove the blue and the peaks, however the white in the big triangle is a little distracting and just feels off to us. It might be something we'd want to upgrade to a window or figure something out with that space.

It's a ranch. While not being a complete deal breaker, we really were hoping for a 2 story.

The Ugly:

Again, nothing! Woo hoo!

Final thoughts:

The prices for the houses are actually pretty amazing. If the houses were already on land for those prices, I think we probably would be trying to figure out which house we'd be writing an offer on! However, the prices right now are just for the house, not the land, construction, basement, well/septic, etc. And that makes us a little nervous about going this route.

The blue house would probably be the house we'd go with right now if we were to choose between the two of them; the price would fit so much better with our budget, and really, is having a ranch that horrible of a thought? However, we do love the space of the green house, but I don't think we could make the price work for our budget.

And for those of you wondering about land, there is a plot that we found for sale that I drove past today. It is really really nice! It's about 4 1/2 acres, nice and flat, and ready to be built on.

And the view is pretty awesome too! Makes me want to sit and paint it all day!

However, to buy the land, buy the house, and then get it built and finished will be pretty expensive...so this option is on the back burner for now.

Which house do you like better, the green one or the blue?