We FINALLY MOVED!

WE FINALLY MOVED! Yes, we finally moved into our home. We moved in about a week and half ago and I have been putting off posting pictures until I felt like things were done, but then I quickly realized things will never be done. There will always be more to do, more to buy, more to decorate, and more to fix. So today I will give you a sneak peak at how things are looking as we begin to unpack and make this house our home. This has been quite a journey and it is truly a blessing to be sitting down in my own house typing this blog post. There were times that I didn't believe this day would ever come, but it has, and here it is!

Our Living Room! I am in love with our new furniture. We have never had brand new furniture before so this is very exciting! I have had my eye on it for 2 years!

Our Dining Room, this is all my Grandmother's furniture. I still have a lot of decorating to do in this room but it looks much better than it used too!

I LOVE my Kitchen! Still have to paint and stain the island, but I love it!

The Playroom!

Love this old classroom table I found at an antique store!

To see all the before pictures go HERE!

Appraisal Day!

We anxiously awaited our appraisal on Thursday morning and God went above and beyond provision. The weeks leading up to the appraisal we had several friends offer people they knew who were appraisers but unfortunately it wasn't any help because you don't get to choose your appraiser. I received a phone call from the appraiser on Wednesday and thought the name sounded familiar. Sure enough it was one of the appraisers a dear friend had said she knew.  He was wonderful and saw the true value of our home. First Prayer Request Answered! He came on Thursday morning and after checking out the house reassured me that we would be approved for an FHA loan. Second Prayer Request Answered! Friday morning I received a phone call from the mortgage company informing me that the house had appraised for $130,000! Third Prayer Request Answered! This was $15,000 over what we needed it to appraise for which was very exciting. If it will appraise for that right now when the house isn't even finished yet, it's exciting to think about what it will appraise for when everything is done. Thank you so much for all our prayer warriors for covering my family and our new home in your prayers. God is so faithful! It feels like 100 pounds have been lifted off our shoulders. We won't be losing momentum though, we still need to finish this thing so we can move in! We are hoping to be done within 4-6 weeks. Thursday is our closing day and then we will be official home owners! 

A little note I left for the appraiser on our chalkboard on the kitchen pantry door!

The Week of the Appraisal!

The house is going to get appraised this week either on Thursday or Friday. The original goal was to be completely done with the house by this point but now the goal is to just get as much done as possible before the appraisers arrive. It won't be possible to finish the house entirely by the end of this week but we are making some serious progress. We need the house to appraise for $114,195 in order for us to finish out things with the bank and close on the house on May 13. Even though the house won't be done by then, having the bank and deadlines out of our hair will relieve so much pressure. We are praying for a wonderful appraiser who sees the true value of our home and all of its potential as we work to wrap up all the loose ends. We are also praying that the house would approve for us to take a FHA loan rather than conventional because the interest rate is lower therefore our monthly payments would be less. And last we are praying that even after we close that we would be able to finish up the last projects quickly so that we can move into our new home. It has been a long year and move in day can't get here soon enough. So today I ask that you would be praying for us this week as we approach our appraisal date.

So, what is done? Lets take a look:

Remember This?

Now its yellow! Envision black shutters, new porch railing, window boxes with red geraniums, a white porch swing, new landscaping...... Oh the possibilities!

And this? Looks like it is out of a horror film!

So much better!

Remember this hideous garage?

We tore it down and now have doubled the size of our back yard and have the perfect slab for a patio and place to ride all the kids scooters and bikes.

Does this kitchen make you want to cook? 

?

How about now?

The pantry door has chalkboard panels.... so excited about that! The old pantry became a built in fridge!

Wanna play in here?

What about in here?

(This wall was supposed to say "Play, Laugh, Grow" like the fisher price slogan but my sweet cousin misjudged the space so we had to pick a smaller word, oh well it works! Don't you love how Collin's walker is already in the "playroom"? )

Stay tuned for more updates to come, and please continue to pray for us this week!

House Update.....

Well we are set to close on the house on May 13th...... We have finished lots of projects and several more to go. Here is the latest progress on our house:

Not much progress to the exterior at this point, but painting and new porch railing is in the works.

We buried all the rubble of brick from the inside of the house and tore down 2 dead trees. This pictures shows where the future driveway will go.

This is the living room, all that is left is to sand the floors and paint the front door and trim.

Don't you love the wide window frames? Grandpa did a great job!

The dining room, new picture window, painted chandelier, stenciled wall.

The floors need to be stained as well as the trim for this room.

Dining room looking into Living room.

Here is a before of the chandelier, (my grandfather made this chandelier when he owned this house in 1963, I know crazy, I will tell that story another day)

The picture is kinda blurry but I painted it copper.

The kitchen is coming along, cabinets almost completed, pot rack hung, refrigerator in, I love it.

This is the playroom, the first room to be completely done (besides some touch ups). 

In the end this is what all the floors will look like!

This is Puddin's room, for right now it is the supply room.

This is Cupcake's rooms, obviously all the trim work has to be painted.

This is our bedroom, the floors are taking lots of work because they are in really bad shape. And you can see that the doors and trim need a good paint job.

This is "Mommy's room", aka the laundry/sewing room. I painted it pink of course. I love it!

This is the ceiling my very artistic cousin painted for me in the laundry/sewing room!

Here is the big bathroom. Finished the bathtub and the vanity is still a work in progress.

The vanity...

My $35 garage sale find, Nana and Grandpa sanded and painted it. Isn't it gorgeous. The vintage faucet is on its way. Now all the bathroom needs is a sink and toilet.

So we have five weeks left and everyone is working crazy to get this done. I think we are all kinda of burnt out and sick or it but in the end it will be worth it. Lots of work left, praying some how we can get this done. 

Bathroom Updates!

Before

And more Before pictures......

And the in between, or almost done!
We have painted the walls, replaced the stylish pink tile with bead board, and replaced the light fixture!

We have replaced the tile, added a chandelier over the vanity.
This is my project for the week- to get the vanity sanded and painted as well as the bathroom doors and door frames.

This picture is taken from the inside of the bathroom looking out, that is my littliest helper down there at the end!

This picture is taken from the outside looking in, my garage sale pedestal tub we go in the middle directly under the window. The pedestal sink will go to the left  and the toilet to the right!

This bathroom is my main focus for the week, hoping to finally finish one room! Grandpa and Nana have taken off work for the week to work on the house, stay posted for updates of their projects!

And please be praying that God would provide a way for us to finish this house, we have to be done by May 13!

Kitchen Update

KITCHEN

This is the beginning of putting the kitchen back together..... Yeah

Stay posted for more pictures and updates!

House Progress

Have you been curious how the house is coming along? Anxious to see the changes that have been made? I will let you see for yourself!

This is the kitchen. You can see where the concrete has been chipped away to the brick. (remember we have concrete walls) This was stage one of this wall redo!

We were afraid the wall would not be strong enough to hold the cabinets so we decided to go ahead and sheet rock the kitchen wall. This is stage two of the wall redo!

This is the finished product!

(I couldn't get this picture to rotate ;)

This is the master bedroom exterior wall, it was a nightmare!

The master bedroom wall after some repair. It does look better, but it's still a NIGHTMARE!

This is the new tile in the small back bathroom.

The new tile in the main bathroom, I LOVE IT!

Close UP, isn't it cute?

Chris and our Handy neighbor Andy!

Don't you love the new siding!

Our friends Chris and Rick putting up siding....

Another finished eve....getting closer to that cottage look!

The new roof!

Finally got the windows framed in, Yeah!

More Window.....

Paint samples.....I love yellow houses!

Collin playing while Mommy and Daddy were working!

Well what do you think? Things are moving along and lots of things have gotten done but we have also run into lots of problems. The walls are a nightmare. We have run into one problem after another. I would tell you about it but I don't understand it. HB and Grandpa are working frantically every time they get a chance but time is just running out. Our February deadline is approaching quickly. So STRESSFUL, doesn't do justice to what we are feeling right now. On the other hand, we are so blessed. We are blessed because we have great friends and family who have come to help us when they can. We are blessed because we get to Trust the LORD and believe that he will provide a way for this to get done.
So we are stressed and we are blessed!