House Hunting Part II - OFFER MADE

We made an offer...now we wait... 

Oh man. It’s so hard to focus! My head is spinning. I remind myself often to be MINDFUL. To focus on my breathing. I breathe in God and good and then breathe out anxiety and worries – things I have NO control over. Wasted SPACE in my brain.

I've been waking up at 4:12 EVERY MORNING for the past two weeks. 

Change is SO hard. SO HARD. And the longer I wait to make a CHANGE the harder it IS to make a change. Do you notice that about yourself? You WANT change and you do whatever you can to get there. But then it’s staring at you in the face and the EASY WAY is to RUN and take the easy way out. The comfortable option. But then NOTHING EVER HAPPENS.

How do we grow?

With all that said, I think we found our house. OK, I know we did. The minute we walked in I felt WARM. Same with Karl. The house felt VERY homey and inviting. It was the first house we looked at the second time around. We had four more to check out after this house. My heart was set on BRAND NEW, but this house had clearly been taken care of and you could FEEL the love and joy through the walls. I could almost hear the laughter. It is a FAMILY house. A family of five live here. You know when you just get a “good” vibe. That’s what I had. Even about the owners. Weird. Like I feel as if they are GOOD PEOPLE.

We LOVED the backyard and the deck. SCORE! Not HUGE by any means but it backs up to a little bit of woods. NO houses right in back staring into our windows at night. Granted there is a big hill and the yard even starts to elevate some. There are houses on top of the huge hill in the back (covered in trees), but we know once summer comes, we won’t be seeing them AT ALL. The view is VERY beautiful, even in the winter. There is also an ADORABLE playhouse and a swing set out back too. I could already picture spring, summers and fall with Jackson out back and that GARDEN I’ve been DREAMING of. A drink in hand… :)

Not really our house. But it's fun to dream:) 

Isn't she a beaut? Just kidding...again!

The other part I loved was the laundry room (YES, an ENTIRE ROOM for me FINALLY) has a SLOP sink AND a door leading out to the backyard. Meaning, I could HANG UP CLOTHES OUTSIDE. I also like that the yard is fenced in too. BONUS.  No little boy running away from mommy! And maybe we can get a pet. I mean, once Jackson can take care of him or her:)

Another cool part? A wrap-around porch out front. That has always been something I LOVE as an avid reader. Granted, I haven’t read in a couple years, but someday I will again and I will be grateful for that cozy porch! It is a bonus. Same with the 3-car garage with storage shelves built in. AND a professionally completed basement with a fireplace, built-in surround sound through the walls, cute bar and a 5^th bedroom and full bathroom. And SO MUCH STORAGE (well, it seems to us coming from NONE)!  It’s beautiful.

My mom asked me to envision what I would be doing most in this house. COOKING, CLEANING and PLAYING and going on ADVENTURES.  The kitchen isn’t as fancy as most kitchens are these days, but it’s bigger than a lot of others we saw. My worry is if it's big enough to house all our kitchen stuff. And we can’t sit at the island (which was a bummer for me) and the appliances need to be updated, but I really do love this house.

There are a couple other things…like the master bedroom is quite a bit smaller than the one we have now. The master closet is HALF the size of what we have now and there is only one sink in the master bath and no closets…opposite of what we have now. BUT, I am in our bedroom, closet and bathroom THE LEAST. I have been pinning ideas on Pinterest to maximize the space we have been given the best I can. 

Pro: Less to clean, right?  

I love that there is an office when you walk through the front door that could EASILY be turned into a PLAY ROOM and we can use a bedroom upstairs for a guest room OR a workout room OR a play area OR a computer room. Whatever we want. I love when you walk in from the garage there is a big coat closet and the laundry room is right there too. A nice mud area!

I’m nervous because it’s in a different city than where we live now. And it's kind of further away from things. I’m so used to knowing where things are around me. I also know that I spend an hour and 20 minutes every Monday through Thursday night picking Jackson up and bringing us home. So much time commuting!!!!

I worry about the neighborhood. I worry that there isn’t a sidewalk on our side of the street, but that could also be a bonus too. And I worry cars might travel too fast in front of the house. BUT, there is a forest preserve RIGHT down the street with lakes and trees and animals and a PARK.

I think we have our answer… The perfect starter house for us. 

HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wish us luck!

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Is our Perfect Home Out There?

House Hunting Part I

I know I need to do a monthly recap. This is more of a smorgasbord of thoughts. I plan on doing a recap once I get all the million pics off my cell phone. But just so you know, Jackson doesn't quite run everywhere anymore. He jumps. It’s funny. And he’s obsessed with bunnies. And The Wheels on the Bus videos. And he’s using the potty. I’m not going to write much about that because I’m scared to jinx things and I can’t believe this is happening…

Isn’t this a phase??  Don’t boys take longer?

Enjoying a healthy smoothie

I think Jackson is on his 15^th haircut too. It helps when grandma cuts hair for a living!!!

We started looking at houses. Wow. Exhausting!!! Even more when you’re looking during the arctic blast and blizzard. [Insert frozen face.]  Why not move to Arizona?

We didn’t expect to find a house during our first run through. Problem is the location. It’s quite the distance outside The Cities. It’s like Roscoe back in the 80s (the town in Illinois I grew up in). Very country. Very little to do – no gas stations for miles away. BUT, that’s something Karl and I were hoping for in a weird way.

Isn't she pretty?

Houses are ON TOP of each other otherwise, unless we can fork over half a million or buy a house that was built over 30+ years ago and requires quite a bit of work. We’ve been living in a town home where we share walls with the neighbors and there is ZERO yard. We want SOME land. We want a garden. We want a yard Jackson can play in. We’re over our neighbors looking into our home.

Yet, we realize that our townhome IS REALLY nice. I bought it brand new and I have taken good care of it. I didn't realize how well until we started walking through houses younger than ours and noticing the destruction. And this is probably why we’ve subconsciously hung on to our townhome for so long. That, and we wanted to wait as long as possible to sell so we could get SOMETHING for it.

In the meantime I cleaned out our master bedroom last weekend. NINE garbage bags FULL of stuff. NINE. I have my work cut out for me. It’s PURGE TIME.

Just the start of PURGE FEST

Anyway, we found a house for a GREAT price (bank owned). The view is awesome. But the house would require a little work. Do we have time for repair work?? Can we fork over money for new appliances, carpet and paint from the get go? We can barely find time to keep up with our own place.

The kitchen is huge. There are custom closets. An unfinished walkout basement. A wonderful deck. A slop sink and a laundry area! But I’ve heard the commute (though same miles I drive now) isn’t the best. What to do? What to do?

I now see how this is going to be a little more difficult than I thought. I’m going to have to compromise some wants, aren't I?

I keep thinking something awesome will fall in our lap like it did for my brother and sister-in-law…

Also, my dad went in for his open-heart surgery and I can report he is AWAKE and gave us all thumbs up (via a text message my mom sent)! Can you tell I was trying to keep my mind busy with house stuff? I couldn’t stand the thought of my dad's chest getting ripped open.

Doctors went in and discovered the quarter-sized hole in his heart was even BIGGER than that. They also replaced his mitral valve with a pig valve. My dad looks young for his age, but he’s been breathing heavily and napping multiple times throughout the day. Seemed so odd. He’d walk up three steps and have to stop.

You think a massive hole in your heart might be the reason? BINGO!!! Let’s hope this surgery helps. I pray for a speedy recovery.

This is my reason for living out a healthy lifestyle. I know my family’s heart history. I pay close attention to what goes in my body and the amount of sleep and activity I get every day (sleep varies now that I'm a mom). I know it makes me sound psycho from time to time, but I know what happens when you don’t take care of yourself. Why not start from a young age and establish GOOD habits to carry on forever? Then it doesn’t seem so daunting and overwhelming.

I'm also going to try to blog about my weekly meal plans. Basically I rip out healthy recipes, write out a grocery list, search for coupons and hit up the store ONCE a week. We're good for the week. It's such a HUGE relief knowing what I'm going to make when I get home from work and all ingredients will be there. 

What I need to work on is stress. But I think that rings true with most people! This is why I’m trying to figure out a workout schedule. I feel SO GREAT after working out. But fitting it in is so tough!!! I did get one work out in last week. This cold weather is totally killer. Can’t even step outside for more than 5 minutes without my nose hair icing up on me.

Stay warm out there!

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How to Get a House Ready for the Market

But We Have Too Much Stuff!

I’m in TOTAL organization mode right now. It’s so hard when you have the organization bug and you’re at work more than you are home. Or when you are home, you have a toddler to chase around. BUT, I’m getting things done, closest by closet and room by room.

This all started when our realtor came over to check out our town home a few weeks ago. We’ve been thinking about selling and buying a house with a yard and a basement for Jackson to run wild in! YAY! But after she left, I was so overwhelmed, I froze. I didn’t even know where to start. I even told myself maybe living in a town home forever wouldn’t be a bad thing. 

Bottom line: we have an incredible amount of stuff.

I think both Karl and I get emotionally attached to “things”, which makes it harder to toss or donate. I’m getting better about it though. “It’s just STUFF,” I tell myself. “You can’t take it with you.” 

Right?

I’ve been reading a really great book, “It’s All Too Much.” The author suggests walking into each room and visualizing the purpose of that room, and then going from there.

It’s WORKING.

What happened was I bought my town home when I was 23. It was VERY empty then, but by 30 I had met Karl, we had multiple wedding showers, we were married, then sold his townhome and acquired all his stuff AND then had our son with multiple baby showers. We have a LOT of STUFF.

The plan is to sell. We just haven’t decided when. However, in the meantime, I’m downsizing room by room to get a head start. I can’t tell you how much BETTER I feel when I purge and I walk into a room that is clearly organized. I can breathe easier.  Ahhhhh. I don’t feel so overwhelmed by our stuff.

The big problem with our town home is there is ZERO storage, other than closets and our garage. Karl built me some awesome shelves in the garage when we were dating that helped a ton but they are filled to the top. I walk by and notice there are things on the shelves that we NEVER use so I think more storage space can be made.

The second issue is we plan on expanding our family (this part is exciting but it creates a predicament). We can’t get rid of any baby stuff unless we want to buy all new stuff and that just seems crazy. Baby stuff takes up a ton of space. It’s trying to find storage for this stuff but still allow our home to be sellable.

The biggest problem: do we really want to rent a storage shed for several months? To me, if you have to use a storage facility, then you have way too much stuff. If we’re storing it, then why do we need it? Get where I’m going here? 

The book I’m reading was saying how The Container Store is growing by 30% every single year and the storage business is a billion dollar business. I believe it. Americans have way too much stuff and WE are TOTALLY part of the problem!!

Below are a few images I would LOVE to follow to help me along: 

Love this boot idea since mine are all over the floor

We have all our stuff jammed everywhere. This is an excellent idea!

We need some sort of shoe rack in our garage or somewhere! Our shoe rack now is in front of the closet that houses our furnace and water softener. What a mess when we have to get in there. This would work slick!

Every time I cook I get stressed because our spice cabinet is a MESS. This would TOTALLY HELP!

Any advice on the best way to tackle getting a house ready for the market without overwhelming myself too much? 

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