April New House Updates

We came up one weekend to discover the cement board on the house. I really struggled with picking colors and so forth, so the things happening in the house now are more concerning because they are a direct result of our choices. I remember asking the person at the showroom to stop us if we are making poor decisions. Here's hoping everything will come together. 

Rebekah by our front door. Our front door will be dark blue. Possibly too dark of an entrance? 

What I thought was creme colored cement board for the front is more brown. Lighting is everything. I think it still looks okay but was concerned how everything would come together once the bricks were up.

Our living room windows are in finally. Good to see. 

And the sheet rock came. Living room. 

Rebekah's room.

Back of the house. 

Rebekah out by the pond pondering what life will be like in the new home.

View of the back from the pond. 

Side view.

Don making sure the brick will match. 

The next week the bricks were up. Looks pretty good! 

The walls were up as well. View from the front door. 

Our ginormous living room, kitchen area, music / library. I'm still not a big fan of open concept but here it comes! 

Kitchen. Going to be a huge island. 

Rebekah running out the front door.

View of the music / library room from the back of the house. 

Master bath. That was suppose to be a full window but I don't like curtains. I felt that I'd always have to have the curtains drawn for privacy sake, so I opted for the transom. Not a lot of natural light in the bathroom but our bathroom now doesn't have any natural light so it should be okay. 

View up the stairs. 

One more of the entire house.

It's getting closer!

Evolution of a Sale

The house has been listed for over a month. While we've had about 6 showings, we haven't had any offers. One said they were concerned there wouldn't be enough storage, one said their furniture wouldn't work in the house (I told Don to offer to trade furniture but no...), and one made a comment about the lack of tv space. 

Before we were even up and running our realtor suggested the pictures that were taken were not the best. I entirely agreed. She wanted to wait and take different pictures when it turned more green. Don scheduled the pictures for the Friday after the crew left. We spoke to the realtor on the phone that morning and I asked what else can I do on my end. She gave me a list of things like move the blanket basket, take pictures off the dressers, etc. Then we got to "the black hole" as I lovingly refer to the office space. In the past I've left that and the garage to Don. The realtor was at a loss for what to do with that room. 

Right after we spoke to the realtor Don started feeling tremendously sick. Rebekah felt a cold coming on the day before and was down as well. So it was just me. Which probably turned out to be a good thing because no one could stop me as I haphazardly threw the office into containers, drawers, and boxes. Most of which ended up in the garage. I didn't take "before" pictures because I was on such a time crunch and people were sick. The lady came about 8 minutes early and I needed those 8 minutes to finish. She very kindly started with the outside. 

This was the original picture that was taken by the realtor's counterpart. The room is suppose to be a formal dinning room but of course we have used it as an office for Don since we don't formally entertain nor do we have another dining set up. The office was sized down and cleaned for the pictures. 

This is where the bulk of the office stuff went too. 

The garage. And turns out most of the stuff out in the garage has not been missed. Let that be a lesson to all. Maybe, just maybe we don't need all the stuff. 

I ended up FaceTime-ing a friend and asking her opinion. She gave me good advice and even suggested the plant to warm up the room. She suggested I put it on the desk but I threw the desk out to the garage and left it on the floor. Then she suggested nicknacks that brought joy and would make people want to come closer to look at and / or touch. So I went to the hutch in the living room that holds a bunch of Don's stuff, pulled the candlesticks and books from the bedroom off the dresser that the realtor told me to move anyway,  and there you go. 

 

The office never looked so clean. 

While the lady was here taking pictures I hurried Rebekah and Don from room to room until she was done with a room and then sat them there. When she was finally done and gone I turned my attention to Don and Rebekah who decided popsicles were in order, so I got in the car and drove to Walmart. Little did I know we were beginning the worst stomach bug we've seen in a while. Took Don out for a week, Rebekah for a week and a half, and me? Well, I'm still having occasional issues. But on the bright side we seem to be better now. 

Back to the pictures for the listing. They finally came out. I had to show the difference in said pictures. This is the one that the realtor's counterpart took. Crazy lighting, looks semi orange, etc. 

And the professional: 

Pretty amazing what a good photographer can do, right? Although we still haven't had a showing since they were posted (although we've been sick enough that's probably a good thing). But here's hoping! 

Last Day With the Crew

The next day we spent the morning at home while Rebekah tried her best to finish school. She tried and failed, but looking back it was asking too much of her. Paige was there and wanted to play. The house was full of playing kids. Even grammy came. Rebekah wanted so much to be a part and after the pandemic and lack of playing, it was just too much. So I asked Don to keep the kids away the best he could, went in with Rebekah, and ran through the rest of her assignments at top speed. 

This is what Don was doing while I was helping with Rebekah's homework. Good grandpa.  

Then we went to the park. 

Makenna got thirsty and helped herself to grammy's water. The kids were a tiny bit sniffly so I gave mom my water and left the other one for the kids.

Then she ran to her daddy and the swings. 

Grammy with Cole.

Paige doing tricks on the handle bars.

Then Cole decided he was thirsty and helped himself to the water. 

Monkey bars.

Then the girls played basketball with dad / grandpa.  

She's getting it up there! 

One can tell Paige has dance training.

Then we went back and the kids ran through the sprinklers. 

Kayla being a good sport by carrying the kids into the shower so grass didn't get tracked in the house. 

Afterwards the girl's finished the cake for Don and Cole's birthday. They made a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.

Decorated with a green dinosaur for Cole.

Then they made Mickey Mouse pancakes for dinner. 

Such a fun family dinner. 

After we had pictures. Here's the promised picture of all the kids with their afghan's, and the grammy who made them. 

I set up the camera so we could do a family picture with everyone. While I was doing that Cole came over and since I didn't have a picture of me with him yet.... 

The family picture.

Grammy wanted a four generation picture. Grammy, Don, Kayla (and Rebekah), and all the kids. 

After the pictures we had cake. 

And gave Cole a present.

At this point it was time for grammy to head back. So we had grammy snuggles. 

But grammy called about a half hour later with car troubles. It was raining and her wipers were not working. Don and I drove out with the intention to either fix the problem or drive mom back home. On the way out I noticed a rainbow and took the picture to show Rebekah later. 

Turns out Don couldn't fix the wipers but it had stopped raining and so mom thought she could make it home on her own. Don said that would be okay as long as she called him at every town to check in. Can't wait to live closer so no one has to drive an hour and a half to see each other!