the big nut hut...

Wow!  Almost a month later, but we are in!  We were able to close on the house on September 14th!  We immediately moved the little motel stuff into the house and lived on our air mattress for another week, but we were in our HOUSE!

One week later husband man's family and a few friends from church helped us load some new furniture into the truck.  The next morning a wonderful pair of loving people helped us pack up odds & ends in our little nut hut and load an entire house onto a 26 foot U-Haul.  They loving loaded us out of our home and into our next chapter.  I wouldn't have survived the day without them...sweet friends :)

2 hours later we arrived to the smiles of my wonderful family who helped unload the entire 26 foot truck into our new nut hut.  I wanted to share some photos of this mad event!  I didn't think to take any on the "packing up" side of things....but this was the aftermath that is our new home.

Our very full 26 foot moving truck...haha...

This was our laundry room for about 2 weeks....

other angle of the laundry room!

Took about 2 weeks, but this is how our dining room started out!

The beautiful bay window I fell in love with was blocked for about 3 days; it is my favorite sitting
spot now....5 weeks later :)

The extra room down stairs....yes, 5 weeks later it still looks pretty
close to this!

Our very tired baby pup; catching up on much needed rest after the big moving day!

The "guest bedroom"...

My kitchen....it is able to be cooked in now!

I need to take some updated photos....and I'll upload them soon.  Needless to say, this young lady is done moving and hopefully done unpacking :)

almost home

We're almost there.

4:00pm on Friday

We're closing on our beautiful second street home :)  To say I am excited is an understatement.  I am thankful and craving and utterly joyful!!  I can't wait to show you photos.

We've been in our one room motel home since July 8th....that is 9 weeks...63 days....thankfully I had a few weekends away to break up the 9 weeks....

Husband man has been gone for this last week. He left Sunday afternoon for a class he needed to take for the new job.  He'll return Friday afternoon and I'll meet him outside the lawyers office.

And then we'll go to our new forever home  <3  This crazy emotional overwhelmed and grateful lady couldn't be any happier for Friday to roll around.

I bought a new dress today...I'm so excited :)

....the final step....

We have a closing date!!! WAHOOOOO

September 17th.  12 days....I will again sleep in a home.  We'll be able to move the few things from our "temporary home" into the home that night.  Then a few days later we'll have a mad rush of a weekend filled with driving, packing, thanking, saying goodbye  and driving, unpacking, thanking, beginning to settle again.

It's with many mixed emotions that I count down.  I am 75% very excited about finally being to this point (100% excited about the home!) and 25% sad that it is a definite move.  It's funny how one's brain can be tricked into believing things are temporary and we'll *some how* end up moving back home and I'll be able to teach 5th grade.....craziness isn't it?

I am simply thankful we are at this point there.  There were many days that I fully doubted we would ever get here. and here God brought us....faithfully as always.

Thanks for following....I can't wait to post some before and after paint photos!!

The countdown begins....

We finally did it :) six weeks, 50+ houses, two realtors, and numerous Internet searches later....we have our home! The home inspection was completed last week and came back fairly clean. There are a few things (old gutters, cracked sidewalk, etc) that we are getting estimates on today.  Good news is, in 25 days (or less!!) we'll get to sleep in our new home!!

Husband man has already asked me to stop counting down each day, it's annoying to him haha but I just won't tell him :) I don't have photos on my iPad, but I'll try to upload some soon. I already picked paint colors out for our bedroom and my sunroom. I can hardly wait. It's such a big house with extra bedrooms that we can grow into....hopefully with a nursery and not just a bunch of stuff :)

It doesn't look like I'll have a teaching position this year. I'm thinking about going into something different and still working with kids. We haven't decided anything permanently, but if I'm not going to work is it really worth my time subbing only to walk away from a job in a few years. I don't know? I go back and forth. It's what I love to do and I've been told I'm pretty daw gone good at it. Ivealso been told I won't be able to leave my kids so I'll probably end up staying home with them. Both our moms did that when we were little....I just don't know.

I also don't know if I'm ready to enter mommy world yet. With husband man being 6 years older than me, maybe we are getting closer to that time. I have this huge fear of still not being needed or wanted. What would I do if my kids aren't affection and don't want hugs? What if they are early independent kiddos who waltz right not preschool without a second look. When I teach, I know I have students who need me to be there. There day isn't the same without me.

I've been told its very selfish of me, and I have come to agree, but that doesn't mean I've ended the struggle with feeling like I gave up my whole world for this move. Yes the hours are better for him, but honestly, I did believe there would be something here for me too. There still isn't. No one needs a newbie teacher they never met before.  Somedays it's almost suffocating....I just want to have a reason for being here.

25 days.....at least I can start painting then :)

t-minus...

We negotiated a price over the weekend and received the scanned Agreement of Sale this morning in our email :)  WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Now we wait.
We wait on our realtor to call the home inspector and set that appointment up.
Then we wait for the home inspection report to come back.

Then we decide if it's still worth the negotiated amount....

Then we get to go through banking paperwork.

BUT FINALLY!!!!  We'll have a closing date...

Right now, that date is estimated on or before September 24th.

I can't wait :) It will be such a wonderful day when we open that front door and I know it's our home <3

OOOO Guess what?!

Thursday came and we went with our realtor to visit three homes....two we had seen before, one was a new one.  We had high hopes for the new one; judging by the photos online it looked like a decent outside with an inside that needed a little love and fixing up.

Little didn't come close to describing the amount of love this new house will need.  It appears as though someone wanted to flip it; and they started to.  They had made some progress but then apparently got terribly mad and took foot & fist to walls and nice work causing much damage.  Plus there was one room that was painted a bright blue floor to ceiling.  It needed more love than the two of us have to put into the home.

So guess what?!  Friday we put an offer in on the house I've been praying for since the first day we went house hunting.  It was the second house we walked through....I loved it then and I love it now.  It's a big house with bedrooms to grow into.  It has a living room with a pretty bay window and that beautiful dark trim that only comes with a 1926 home.  There is a dining room and a cute little sun room that I know will become my favorite little hiding place :)  The kitchen has more than twice the cabinet and counter space than our current home.  There is a half bath downstairs and a normal size full bath upstairs.  There is a laundry room/mud room which has an entrance to the backyard (perfect for a muddy or wet dog!).  The basement stays dry and husband said he could put a work bench and his tools down there and they wouldn't be ruined.  It's tall enough for us to stand up and walk in....though probably not my 6foot + brother....but he won't be in our basement much anyways!!  The main floor has tall ceilings (BEAUTIFUL!) and the upstairs ceilings are of normal height.....not low like many of the houses we have seen.

We spent the weekend negotiating the price and came to an agreement Sunday evening.  I don't know if I have slept as well in the last 5 weeks as I did last night.  It's a wonderful relief and a great way to go into week 6....there is light at the end of this "temporary housing" tunnel.  My husband man seems satisfied with the price we'll be paying and just keeps reminding me that we need to wait on a good home inspection report.

I don't think he believes me when I say I know everything will be fine :)  God showed me this home weeks ago and it just took us forever to come full circle back to it.  Husband man will be able to sleep soundly knowing we walked through every (and I do mean EVERY) other option....knowing we made a good choice......

So, dear bloggy world readers, we are one home inspection and a load of bank paper work away from moving into a beautiful home in a wonderful old town.  It will put us 2.5 hours away from his parents and just under an hour from mine.  It's not perfectly in the middle of the two, but both are only a days drive away and we'll be able to see both families often.

I spent the weekend thanking God for bringing husband man around to considering this house; asking Him to let the home inspection go well; and apologizing for whining a few weeks back.  I figure He probably laughed at me and again said 'Child, when will you learn to just trust me?"

The other exciting part.....last Monday three elementary teaching positions were posted on the school district's website that we'll be moving into.  I applied on Tuesday and I received an email today saying my application was received and is in the review process....I'm crossing my fingers for this one now.....

the roller coaster...

There are two things you sweet bloggy people should know about me.

1-I despise roller coasters. I don't like riding them, I'm terrified at watching people I love ride them (seriously! what if they fly off right in front of me!) and I canNOT stand the feeling of a dropping stomach.  UGH!  Nothing about that is enjoyable to me.  I fully respect people (like my husband man) who enjoy them as they were created to be enjoyed.  I appreciate the fact that not everyone has an anxiety attack at the thought of getting on one, but this chick prefers to keep her feet on the ground and be the "can you hold this bag" lady :)

2-I am a terribly emotional person.  So much of my life feels like a roller coaster.  Some days I appreciate my "emotionalness" other days I do crave a switch that would allow me to turn it off and be semi-logical about such things.  Maybe that is why the good Lord brought a man that is a logical as I am emotional into my life and said "marry him".  Hmmmm....there's a thought!

So we are half way through week 5 of our "temporary home" situation.  I have become a bit stir crazy I will admit.  Thank goodness for a second car and a nice library with reliable internet service :)  At least I get a little bit of the outside world.  My mama, mama-in-law, sisters, and best friend have been constant phone companions :)  Thankfully they enjoy talking (or at least they pretend to for my sake) and have been willing to take on my emotionalness so that I can appear somewhat level headed for my husband man when he comes home.

School starts in a few short weeks and hopefully someone will need a substitute teacher!

We have one house to look at tonight.  A ranch style whose carpets are currently the beautiful shade of 1960s green....haha I know right?  I think husband man is hoping this turns out well....I was too until last night's conversation.

He asked me to list the houses in the order I would live in them....my favorite being first.  I had given up on my "ah it's the one" house after the third time I brought it up and him saying "M....really?  There's this and this and this and this".  But it still ranked number 2 on my list last night.  I told him I'd never fully give up on it.  I'll make a home anywhere we choose to live, but until that last paper is signed and someone hands me a new key to unlock our bigger nut hut, I will always choose this house......

Well, last night....rather out of the blue...it topped his list....pending the house we're looking at tonight, and the one new one we are looking at tomorrow....and as long as the home inspection comes back okay...

Oh my word!! I think I almost cried.  Except that I made him repeat it....then I sat and stared at him.  Really?  You're still thinking about that one?  "Yes kind of" was his simply logical reply.  So I calmly began telling him how joyful I was that it's still on our list.  Giddy almost really.  I told him of the dream I had about bringing a baby home to that house and knowing it was supposed to be ours.

"But M, why for this price has it been there so long?" and to this I said "Because it's waiting for us and we're taking our good ol time getting to it."

We have made no commitments to any house at this point.  And if you asked me to honestly tell you if I thought we would really buy this house....I don't know that he'll really want to.  But it's still on our list, and we're going to see it again tomorrow night (for the 3rd time!!!!!) and there is a very large part of my heart that is simply saying "God, did you show me that in hopes that I would wade through all these other homes only to come back to this and be so grateful for it?  Please?????"

No matter how it ends, for a few moments last night I felt as though my desires, and wants, and pleading hadn't been fully ignored.  They weren't being overlooked by my husband.  He was listening....he just thought it best to wait 4 weeks to show me.

Would you pray that this beautiful home is the one we get to move into??  And if it's not supposed to be that one, that we would find the one we are to move into soon?