Home Repairs

When we purchased our first home on the other side of the country, it was (at that time) only 5 years old. It was owned by a bachelor with a live in girlfriend. The owner's best friend lived down the street with an identical house. So, I have a feeling that there was some healthy competition between each other. This house on the other hand, was lived in by a family of at least 5. Along with a huge dog, birds and an iguana. This house has been lived in... literally. And this house is only 6 years old. This new house is infested with mice and cockroaches (even if slightly -- it is). There are holes to be patched from the tiny visitors and traps to be set. Ken has been ever so busy since we moved in to make this home one that we can grow our family in the coming years.

• He started by vacuuming the carpet floors (after they were professionally cleaned). He vacuumed for five hours. Each room was vacuumed three times (horizontally, vertically and then diagonally). Why so much vacuuming, you ask? Even after being professionally cleaned, the floors were imbedded with loads of dog hair and dirt. The amount of hair and dirt that he was pulling out, was unbelievable.
• After this job was complete, next it was on to cleaning under the appliances. The fridge was first, where we found our first welcome home guest... a dead mouse. Under the stove/oven, was lots of grease and caked on dog hair and miscellaneous items that had rolled under the oven. Not to mention the pathway of mouse droppings that were back behind the cabinets. He took the oven apart and cleaned each part individually to rid it from all the grease that was around the door hinges and front window.
• He then worked to blow out all of the mouse droppings, dust and debris from the basement. During this adventure he found the entrance of the mice as well as the nest behind the furnace.
• He fixed both the basement door and the front storm door (which didn't close easily) and put wd40 on ALL the doors throughout the house, as they all squeaked!
• His weekend project has been to scour the kitchen, laundry and half bathroom vinyl floor (after I've cleaned both twice). He spent several hours cleaning them on his hands and knees, and has now been "finishing" them with a special sealant. They look completely new. Totally amazing!
• I have painted the living room and kitchen with primer (it's almost done).
• I've cleaned the glass cook top stove that was caked with grease around each burner.
• He's purchased our washer and dryer as well as a new lawn mower and trimmer with coupons and saved a slew of cash!

Basically, my husband is amazing!! He's done more, waded through more, and taken on more projects than we knew this home needed. And all without a gripe or complain. And completed all to the fullest and completely. More home repairs to come and hopefully we'll make this house into our home real soon!!

Tears...

I cried today... for the first time in 2 weeks. It's been 2 weeks since we got on an airplane and traveled to a new city, still miles and hours away from anything that we know. And today, I cried for the first time... I missed my friends, and I missed my familiar life and the normal that things were. But this is not what caused me to cry.

We'd been planning to attend a play group with a new church we'd visited. The moms meet once a week from this small church and the kids play. I was pretty excited as Finnegan had been asking to play with friends. We packed ourselves into the car, and headed to the specified location. We got there, and knocked on the door... no answer. I knocked a total of 4 times, hoping that perhaps they were playing in the basement or in another area of the house. No one answered. Then, we had to make the walk back to the car, while trying to explain to my sweet boy why we were leaving. As he climbed into his carseat he was crying... not just crying, sobbing. He wanted to play with friends so badly, and we were now leaving empty handed, and heading back to our lonely home with just his mommy and baby sister. He cried, and then I began to cry. The transition is becoming more and more difficult as we only visit a church once a week, and then have 6 days before our next visit, and hopeful meeting with people that we can befriend.

It breaks my heart to hear my son cry over wanting friends... and wanting a playmate. We have a sweet neighbor who brought over dinner for us on our first day here, and she has a sweet daughter who is just over 2 yrs old. So, we'll hope to call her this weekend to see if they can come over and play...

Pray for our hearts, that we won't be weary for making friends and finding people who we can relate to and will open their hearts to us.

xoxo

Move to MD Photos

Here are some photos from our recent travels from one coast to the other...

This one was taken a few days before we left. This is my dear friend Shawnta and her mom, Theresia.

And here is Finnegan with Liam and Rylee, his two pals (Shawnta's kids). He still asks about them and wants to know when we're gonna play with them. It really breaks my heart!!

This is the truck as it sits in front of our WA house.

Walking through the airport.

Our first hot day in MD... Oh it was hot!

The truck has arrived at our new house...

He got to sit in Mack' Chair. He was so excited!!

This is Penny... showing off how dirty our floors are. She has several onesies that are stained because of all the dirt. I'm afraid to dress her in anything that is white or light colored for fear that it will be the last time she wears it. :)

Playing with his water table on a hot day!

Enjoying the play room together... this was a luxury that we never had at the other house. And actually it's not a playroom at all but the formal living room that we're not willing to buy furniture for... so this is what we make of it... we have more toys than we know what to do with, so putting them in their own room makes sense... and then they don't clutter up the rest of the house.

More moving tasks.

Each day, we tackle a new project. We are still living amoungst boxes, and half painted walls and grossness of unwanted pests. I've worked each day to do more cleaning and unpacking. The kitchen is the closest to being completed. There is just one drawer that doesn't have anything in it, as we're still dealing with a mouse problem!! UGH!!

Mice... I don't like them. Especially when they are INSIDE my house! UGH! Luckily, we've not seen one. We think they've gotten the idea that there isn't food around anymore. But now we're picking up the pieces of the house and cleaning up after them!

Today, our cars arrived from their trip across the country, and so we had to return the rentals. We had to take the one all the way back up to the airport. And it was a long drive. When we returned, Ken's been fixing the front door, and now has the oven torn apart and cleaning it. I mopped the bathroom floor again yesterday... the old fashioned way -- on my hands and knees with a scouring pad. I got it about 80% clean. And will attack it again later in the week. I'd like to get the full kitchen primed later this week, so that we can paint the final color and be done with this area.

We've made the formal living room into a the kids playroom. It gives them a place downstairs to play and keeps me from desiring to buy furniture to fill the room with, that won't fit in the other house when we return... :)

I do have photos to post, and I know that I haven't... but I will in a couple of days.

We've Moved...

Well, it's been a week since we loaded ourselves on an airplane from Seattle bound for the other side of the country... with little plans to return. The week has been a busy one. Last week Wednesday, the packers arrived and packed everything up into boxes. The following day, the moving truck arrived and the movers took all of our belongings away. Friday morning, bright and early, we went to the Seattle airport (with some friends who helped us get our luggage from the curb to the counter) to head to Baltimore. The airport was chaotic, with kids, and bags and dogs and laptops. It took us about 10 minutes just for our family of four to get through security!! We got to the gate just as they were calling our names over the loud speaker (as they'd just boarded everyone else). We carried ourselves, our 4 carryon bags, 2 dogs and 1 baby and 1 toddler all the way to the BACK of a fully seated aircraft where the dogs didn't initially fit under the seats of the plane (as it was a bit of a smaller plane than we thought it would be). But finally, we were all seated, and the door was closed, and the plane proceeded to take off and fly 4hours and 45 minutes to our destination.

Since Friday afternoon, we've been living out of suitcases, in a hotel. And what an adventure this has been in and of itself. Kids with little or no naps, and going to bed WAY too late. Finnegan seems to be growing like a weed, as he wants a snack every time we turn around (or this is his coping mechanism for all the change). And Penelope has developed a horrible enough cold for me to make a call to our old doctor who encouraged me to find a pediatrician here and have her seen before the weekend.

We've been busy preparing for our home goods to arrive as well. We took ownership of house #2 on Tuesday (i know, I own 2 houses, one on each coast of the country -- not my initial idea of what we'd be doing with our money at this stage in the game). We've been visiting it each night to do work and prepare it for our things to arrive. We had originally been told that the house had been cleaned. If it had, I don't want that person near it again! The house IS NOT clean, as the previous owner had a HUGE shedding dog, and there is dog hair EVERYWHERE!! On the walls, on the floor, in the corners... everywhere. And simply disgusting if you ask me! I suppose it's one thing if it's your dog. But if it's someone elses dog, that's where I draw the line! Ken has successfully taken down all of the wall paper boarders in 3 of the rooms and we've started painting. And oh, the amount of work that we CAN'T get done with kids around!! UGH!! I've already begun to figure out the finances to see if we can have someone else paint the rest of the house... these are bigger projects than I imagined! I had this beautiful dream that we'd get the living room/kitchen area painted before the furniture arrived, and that we'd be almost done with the kids rooms... at least one of them at least! And in actuality, we are only half done priming the living room/kitchen area! Oh man, this is really gonna be a long project. But the positive is that once we're in the house permanently, we won't have to leave at the end of the night, and the kids can go to bed and we can get some good work in while they're sleeping.

We're finding out more and more what REAL home ownership is about... This house needs so much more work. There is still a small threat of mice. We'll see if they return once there's food in the house EEWW!! The yard is in shambles, and needs a lot of attention (i think) and obviously, we'd like the painting to be updated. The basement could be finished for some extra living space. It also needs some new exterior doors and sliding glass doors.

I'll try to post some travel photos in a few days once we are in the house and have some internet access.

Move in day is tomorrow and we're pretty excited about that!

Prayer request...

Less an 36 hours left in the state of WA as residents. But with that, I have a prayer request for those of my faithful blog followers.

I have a super concern for the health of my family while we travel. And I'm not just talking about colds, but bad stuff... the stuff you don't want to be stuck on an airplane with. The stuff that is uncontrollable from either end of your body... If I haven't been descriptive enough without grossing you out, let me know. But this is the request that I have...

Would you pray for the health of my family? That God would keep both of our kids safe from a stomach bug during our travel and week interim (not being in our own home). That God would continue to keep us patient, loving and respectful to one another as we live so closely together and help us to adapt to the close quarters, limited activities and all things adventure that come with this kind of move.

Thank you dear friends!!

Let the Countdown Begin...

The countdown has begun. It is late Monday nite, and we have 4 more nights to sleep in Washington before we are official Maryland residents. It's actually pretty surreal. This past weekend was a myriad of get-togethers with our Washington Family. We had our last game nite on Saturday. And on Sunday, I had lunch with Shawnta, my "sister" here in WA. She doesn't have any sisters, and always said that I was the sister she never had. We were pregnant together (she with her second, and me with my first) and we've worked together to gain our bodies back :) She is a great friend and truly family to me! Here are a few photos from the weekend excitement!!

After about 10 days of potty training, Finnegan is finally making some awesome progress. I wasn't going to do anything before we moved, but he kept talking about it and talking about it, so we took the plunge and he's doing great. Part of his training is a reward system that is working out pretty well!! And here is Finn with one of his larger rewards -- Jessie :)

At our game nite... Mulligans. (Finnegan's best friends - Liam and Rylee)

Group photo!!

Nana and Grandfather with all the grandkids!!
Shawnta and I!!

Later this week, I'm having lunch with my other dear friend from WA, so I'm sure the waterworks will flow, as they did when Shawnta and I spent some time together. Now, why didn't I invest in waterproof mascara?