My First Pinterest Project

Today was such a great day. Steve and I both had the day off, so after church we went to lunch with my best friend, Shere and her wonderful family.  We spent several days trying to decide where to go.  We decided to meet at the South Bend Chocolate Cafe.  Steve and I had had actual food there.  We both had the half sandwich and soup comb.  We both got the Grilled Fajita Pepperjack Sandwich and I got the Lobster Bisque soup and he got the Cheesy Broccoli soup.  Everything I had was spectacular and fresh made.  Shere's girls had a great time playing in the play area while us adults chatted.  There is no better way to end a get-together at the cafe than chocolate.  I got a Hoosier Sundae - Hot Fudge, 1 Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream, 1 Scoop of Chocolate Ice Cream, Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Pieces, Whipped Cream, a Cherry, and Two of Our Hoosier Candies and the six of us shared it.  Yum!

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Today was such a great day.  I think I said that already, but it's ok to repeat it.  It's been a long time since I have felt this good.  After lunch, I came home and worked out for 30 minutes on our exercise bike and did some house cleaning.  Then I got inspired to organize the kitchen.  I created a Pinterest account several months ago, but I hadn't really done anything with it.  Tonight, I looked up kitchen organizing ideas and came up with this one. I changed to idea a bit based on what I found at Lowes.

Here is the before picture of the small cabinet next to our stove.  We hadn't really used it much, because we couldn't decide what to put in it.  I found something at Lowes that would allow us to put a sliding shelf in the cabinet that fits a small trash can.  Now our trash can doesn't have to sit out in the dining room or kitchen.  It's hidden away.

Here is the after picture.  The trashcan came with the kit.  Steve put this together in about 5 minutes.  He is really good with tools.

 

 Here is the before picture of under the sink.  It was kind of a mess with all our cleaners just thrown under there with no organizational thought.

Here is the after picture.  I cleaned the bottom and put a mat underneath everything to keep it looking nice.  Up on the shelf, I put the dust pan and rubber gloves.  The white basket holds all the miscellaneous cleaners, like oven cleaner, car cleaners, bleach, etc.  Then in the middle there is an area for the trash bags, Febreeze, and swifters.  On the right side, there is a basket for the kitchen and bathroom cleaners.  That shelf slides out and can be removed, so I can pick it up and take the whole thing to the bathroom and bring everything back at the end.

Total Cost for the whole project: $102.84

Curb Appeal

After work today, with the help of my mom, I finished working on the garden in the front yard. I think it makes the front yard look much better.  Hopefully, this will help the curb appeal on our house enough for when we are ready to put it on the market.  The plan is to have it on the market by the first of October.  Now if we can just get the grass where the tree was to grow.   

This first picture is our front yard before we cut down the tree.

This is the front yard with the garden done.

 

Here is a close up of the garden.  They are perennials, so that means that they will come back every year.  :o)  The purple flowers are Mums.  The two yellow flowers are daisies.  There are some Lilies too but they haven't bloomed yet.  The flower pot has yellow Begonias.  I got them on Mother's Day. I can't believe they are still alive. 

Grow Grass Grow

After a week of faithful watering, the grass in the front yard is growing. Grow grass, grow. You can do it.  We will probably need to get more seed and fill in some spots, but it's a great start.

A Productive Weekend

We are finally getting things together to sell the house.  We bought the house with the intention of one day selling it, so we could enter ministry with Wycliffe debt free.  We met with a Realtor last week to talk about what we had to do to get the best price for the house.  I'm nervously excited about the selling the house. Neither of us have ever sold a house before.  On one hand, we want to sell it quickly so we can be debt free faster, but on the other hand we can't sell it before December or we won't have a place to live.

This weekend was pretty productive.  Friday, I had to work until 7 then we went went with my parents and brother to see a Silver Hawks game for FREE!  I love free entertainment and free food.  The paint company that Steve does purchasing from for the YWCA and even some for our house, CE Lee, invited us the game for their customer appreciation day.  It was a great game.  The Silver Hawks actually won 3-2 and the fireworks afterwards were spectacular.

Saturday, I had the day off work, so I wanted to get some stuff done.  I went through all my clothes and sorted stuff that longer fit and things that I didn't wear anymore.  I put them in "throw away", "donate", and "garage sale" piles.  I finished sorting everything in the kitchen too and putting everything in it's place.  I brought some of the donate stuff to Goodwill and the rest I put aside for the YWCA.  Then I bought some grass seed and soil from McKinley Terrace Garden Center.  Everyone there was very friendly and helpful.  I definitely recommend them for your planting needs.  I planted the grass seed where the tree used to be and watered it.  Hopefully, the grass will grow so we have grass in the whole front yard.  Then I was going to pressure wash the house, but God had other plans.  He thought it should storm instead.  I wish I would have told me that before I watered the front yard...  Oh well, the yard got really, really watered. If I would have had a spray bottle for the house cleaner, I was going to spray the house with the cleaner so the rain would power wash the house, but no spray bottle could be found.

Sunday, Steve mowed the lawn and cleaned up some of the sticks in the backyard while I was at work.  After work, I helped with plant and water some more grass seed.  It was a great, but very tiring weekend.

Good bye Beautiful Tree

On Friday, we had the tree in our front yard cut down.  Our insurance company threatened to drop our coverage because they didn't like that they tree went over the house.  It was a beautiful tree and gave our house a lot of shade. Hopefully, our house won't be much hotter now.

The company was great.  The were going to come on Thursday, but postponed it because of rain to Friday.  They did the whole tree, haul away and stump removal, and ground leveling included, for $1500 and got it done in one day.  I'm impressed.

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Our front yard before the tree was cut down.

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Our front yard after the tree was cut down. :o(

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The Silver Lining: We will now have a lot less leaves to rake in the fall.

Year In Review: 2011

Goals for 2011

I can't believe that 2011 is over already. I can't wait to see what adventures God has in store for us this year. I suspect that our lives will change a lot this year with starting Wycliffe training, getting our house ready to sell, and preparing to maybe move down to Texas. There is so much up in the air when it comes to a time line. I'm trusting that God has it all in control.

We actually paid off about off more debt than we did last year, so we did make our financial goal. I didn't think that we would with all the pay cuts. We have leave the credit up to God, because we did not do it on our own. God has really provided for us this year. I could not be happier with the way things are right now.

The year started out with us remodeling our bathroom. It looks really nice. Steve did a really nice job. We replaced the last two windows in the house this year too. That was basically all the major work we did on the house this year. In February, it got a little stressful in our house when I lost my job at the mall Sears. We scrambled to adjust our budget while I looked for another part time job. God provided me with another job at the new Sears Hometown Store the next week. Then Steve transfered down from the Electronics Department to the Hardware Department. That was a huge blessing, because Hardware does quite a bit more business than Electronics. So when the YWCA cut his hours back again this summer it was easy for him to work for hours at Sears and make up the loss in income. In the Spring, we took a trip to Tulsa to visit my best friend and her family. It was an eventful trip. I was happy with my Lizzy and her parents though. That part was a good part of the trip.

Steve and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary. I'm looking forward to another 80 more. Before we even got married, I knew that he wanted to work with Wycliffe and do Bible translation. This June, we got to the point financially where we could start the application process. I didn't realize how long of an application process it was going to be. In November, we were finally accepted as members and now the process continues. We have to find a place to serve and wait for that country to send us an invitation. We have been in talks with both Chad and Cameroon in Africa.

My sis and I turned 30 this year. I'm looking forward to what the next decade has in store. We had another baby boom in our family this year. Two of my cousins had kids this summer. For my cousin Joe and his wife, it was there first son. Little Chris is an absolute cutie. My cousin Pete, his wife Gina, and their son, Isaac welcomed a little brother named Eric. He is a cutie too. So far, I have three little "second cousins" and they are all boys. Our family needs some little girls. Steve's family grew too. His mom decided to adopt a baby this year to help out one of her students. Her name is Julienne and she is precious. I know it might sound crazy, but I think that little girl is going to be blessed. God pulled her out of a life of generational poverty and put her into a huge loving family. God has a special plan for her.

We were blessed beyond belief this year. I am so thankful for the amazing friends and family that we have. I'm so looking forward to great adventures 2012 will have in store for us.

I'm Evicting Mickey!

Mickey has decided that he wants to raise his family in our garage.  Actually, there are three empty houses on our street and Steve thinks Mickey's family lives in one of those houses.  Our neighbors all have dogs, so they like to come to our house for dinner.  I am so grossed out by this.  We have tried putting traps and poison in the garage to catch them, but that seems to only discourage them temporarily.  I would think the sight of their dead family members would discourage them from coming back.  I read online that mice do not like the smell of Ammonia, because it smells like the urine of their enemies, so I have been using Ammonia to clean the kitchen.  It does not smell very good at all and it only seems to work if I clean the kitchen every night and spray it around the doors.  I'm not sure how effective it's going to be long term though.  We haven't figured out yet how they are getting in.  I need a good way to make them leave forever.  I am officially giving Mickey and his family an eviction notice.  Please raise your family and find your food in a different house, preferably one very far away.  If anyone has any mouse evicting tips, I am willing to try just about anything at this point.

Remodeling Fun

I am really ready to have my house back.  We have been in construction zone since Christmas.  We drove all around town on Sunday looking for a mirror that we liked to put in the bathroom.  We didn't find anything, so the search continues.  We found a really great shelf online at ikea.com but it is only available in the store. The closest Ikea to us is 106 miles away. :o( Luckilly for us, my Aunt lives near there and she is amazing and she is willing to drive to the store and pick it up for us.  I love my Aunt.  It's not a fancy shelf, but I really like it.  Then ikea also has some little white wicker baskets that we are going to put on the shelf.  You have to buy those at the store too, so we are hoping we can find some that we like close by.  Now we just have to find a mirror that we like to put over the sink and the bathroom will be almost done.
Last night, I started getting the living room cleaned up.  I folded some laundry, vacuumed the floor, and put the exercise bike back where it goes after we got home from Trivia Night.

"Stay-cation" 2010

Steve and I both took a week of vacation time this week from the YWCA.  I had to work a few nights at Sears, but Steve had off from both jobs.  Steve and I decided to use our vacation time to fix up our bathroom.  It's been on our to-do list since we moved in, so we figured we had the money saved up, it was as good a time as any.  The bathtub was chipped and really dirty, so it is being replaced with a Whirlpool tub with tile on the wall around it.  The toilet is being replaced with one that is more water bill-friendly and will not leak.  We are getting a new vanity and sink too.  The cabinet and mirror, we are keeping because we like them.  My dad put in the tile floor new when we moved in, so we are keeping that too.
Steve spent Tuesday, with the help of our friend Stacy, planning the project, taking measurements and ripping out the dry wall.   Stacy helped with the drywall part mostly.  I think they had some fun doing that. The drywall had to be replaced because there was some mold behind the old tub that we have to get rid of.  Wednesday and Today was spent going to Lowe's and Menards way too many times to get everything we need for the project.  Steve is working on the electrical right now, so we can put up the dry wall tomorrow and put everything in where they go. The plan is to have the project completed by the end of our vacation.  I'll post pictures of the finished project when it's done.

Girls Night Out and Windows Weekend

This weekend was fun and busy. On Friday, Shere, Tabby, my sister, and I got together for our Girls Night Out. We went to Pottery Schmottery in Elkhart. I am so not talented when it comes to crafts, but it was really fun. I think my project turned out pretty good actually. We pick them up next Friday, so I will post a picture when I get it back. After created our masterpieces, we went to an Italian restaurant called Lucchese's Italian Restaurant in Elkhart. Yummy!

We got our windows this weekend. Steve started to project on Thursday created the rough opening for the big window in the front of the house. The orginal window went almost all the way to the ground and the new window was going to be not as tall. That meant that Steve had to create a new opening and put new siding on the outside. Our friend Bobby came over to help him on Thursday. Thursday we also had Mighty Ducts come over and clean our ducts out.

On Friday, Pella came and installed the big window in the front. Since it was so big, we decided to have them install it and Steve installed the rest. When I came home from work on Thursday, I came home to a big whole in our house. I was excited when I came home from the Girls Night Out on Friday to a new window. :o)

On Saturday, my dad, our friend Bobby, and our friend Josh came over to help Steve do the rest of the windows. Steve originally thought that we would have to take the drywall off the walls to make them fit. The side frames of the window on our house are part of the stud of the house, so he thought he might have to create the rough opening. It turned out that after some discussion and testing of some things that we did not have to take off the drywall. Unfortunetly, they decided this after we had already removed the drywall in the middle room and part way in the back room. :o( Oh well. Steve is going to keep the old insullation and put it in the attic and put new insullation in the two rooms, so I guess something good is going to come out of it.
My mom and I worked on the drywall removal and the cleaning up of the insullation and dust that came from all that. Of course, we had the Ohio State and Notre Dame games on while all the work was being done. OSU pulled a huge win and Notre Dame won but it was close.

Thank you so much to my parents, Bobby Athey, and Josh Gulledge for all your hard work to help us put in our new windows. We appreciate you guys a ton.

Sunday, we got up for church and then came back home to finish the job. My dad came back over to help Steve put back on the siding and my mom and I cleaned some more. It was a busy weekend. I was so tired Sunday night.

Pella Windows

Steve and I finally had out meeting with Dave the Pella guy last night. Our windows are officially ordered. I'm excited to finally be getting this project done, but I'm also a bit nervous because they are not going to be cheap. We shopped around to several different companies, so we are pretty sure we are getting the best deal. Dave the Pella guy is also a Christian and a Financial Peace grad, so he didn't even pressure us to use credit. The other companies we had out to give us quotes all looked at us funny when they asked if we wanted to sign for payments and we said, "No, we will be paying in cash." It was actually kind of fun to see the blank stare from them. :0)
Dave the Pella guy hooked us up with some good windows and he made sure they would qualify for the tax-credit. He was very knowledgeable too. He answered all out questions and explained exactly what was going on.

Pella is going to install the big window in the front and Steve is going to install the rest himself, with the help of some good buddies. I am very happy with our choice to go with Pella and I can't wait to have our new windows in.

Our New House

It has been a crazy few weeks. Apparently, I haven't been updating people on the house very well. Sorry Shere.

The process seemed to be going really smoothly until we got the inspection back. The Realtor didn't think we should get one, but I'm glad we didnt listen to her. The inspection said the furnace was bad and several other things like the electrical panel and roof have problems.
We got several different quotes from different companies on the furnace and the electrical panel. Steve's dad, who is does electrical work, said that the electrical panel is fine and that the inspector may have been wrong.

Steve and I sent a counter-offer to the bank with a request that they put in a new furnace before closing. They refused and said they only sell foreclosures "as is." Needless to say, I was pretty upset with that. We almost walked away from the deal because we dont really have the money for a new furnace. We could probably scrape it together out of our emergency fund, but i dont really want to do that. My dad has offered to pay for our new furnace and have it installed before closing. I am so greatful for that. I wish we didnt have to do that though. I hate borrowing money from my parents.

Our originally closing date was November 21st, but the bank changed it to December 3rd. I guess this is sort of a good thing for us because now we wont have a mortgage payment until February. It does make things busy for us during the Holidays though.

We are trying to plan our budget right now around all the work that needs to be done. Most of the work is cosmetic, except for the furnace. The previous owner left the place a big mess, tore all the light fixtures out of the ceiling and even stole the air conditioner. The biggest challenge right now is finding the time to get in the new house and clean up before we move in. With the original closing date, we would have had 2 weeks with both the house and the current apartment, but now we will only have a few days. The bank did say that we could get in and clean before closing but we wont have the utilities turned on yet.

Our budget is going to pretty tight for the next few months but we can survive. We have done this before. When Steve and I had our hours cut last summer, we lost almost $500 of monthly income and we managed to survive. It sure wasn't easy. Last month, Steve got a raise and they put him back to 40 hours. Thank God for that. I told Steve this is the last time I want to move during the Holidays. It just way to busy during the Holidays. I have this afternoon off from Sears, so I plan is to start cleaning and packing a bit. Anyone that's bored and wants to come over and visit, give me a call.

I'm still a little nervous about the whole process but I think we can get this done. Once we get started on the process I think I'll start to feel better. I do look forward to going to Lowes and picking out the light fixtures and sinks and stuff.
WWDRS? What would Dave Ramsey say? If we play our cards right and don't get to off tract, this should be a great thing for us in the long run.

Moving Again

I can't believe Steve and I are going to be moving at Thanksgiving again this year. I have decided that this is the last time we are going to move during the Holidays.

My dad's bank foreclosed on a house and he suggested that we buy it. After much thinking and praying and looking at our budget numbers, we decided to go for it. I know crazy, huh? The mortgage payment is will only be about $100 more than our current rent payment. Steve's theory is that when we are ready to move to Texas, we can sell it and make a killing in Equity. It is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, with an attached garage. It has a nice big back yard too. The house was appraised before it was foreclosed on for $60,000 and we are buying is for $40,000 with a 20% down payment. My parents offered to gift us the down payment because their parents did that for them when they first started out. I love my parents.

I can't help but here Dave Ramsey in the back of my head. He says never buy a house until you have an Emergency Fund, you are out of debt, and have a good down payment. We have our Emergency Fund and are working on getting out of debt, and thanks to my parents we have a down payment.

The house is all electric, so unfortunetly we need to buy a new dryer and a new stove since they are gas. We are going to try and sell them. The house needs a little work, mostly cosmetic. Steve is excited because he gets to use his tools. Anyone surprised? It is going to be a busy couple months. Please keep us in your prayers, as we try get all the money together we need to make the move and to fix the new house. We also need to keep our heads together and prepare Thanksgiving and Christmas.