Monday, February 29, 2016

New House and Thanksgiving



November was a bit of a crazy month for us. We took the big plunge into home ownership! We closed on our first home on November 17, 2016!! We got a great deal on a home that is in the ideal neighborhood. The catch is we bought the worst house on the best block. It is a fixer upper. The picture of the outside may not show it but take a walk around the inside and you would understand. Luckily it is for the most part all cosmetic fixing. Michael and his Dad did spend a couple days on the roof fixing a leak that had not been fixed but besides that it mainly needs a really good clean and new paint. We will need to update the kitchen as well. 

We were so blessed to have two sisters from the branch, Missy Gruwell and Shirley Kinler, who came and helped me clean. It was BAD. I mean it had not been cleaned at ALL in at LEAST 5 years. There is no way to describe how bad it was and it just made me sad to see such a beautiful home being treated so awful. After three days of solid cleaning we got at least one layer of grime off. I would have never survived without them!
That Saturday Mike's parents came into town and they jumped right in helping us move stuff over and getting the house ready. 
They were there for a week and they helped us fix the roof, scrape popcorn ceilings off 3 rooms, and paint ceilings in those 3 rooms, paint walls and trim in 2 of the rooms and all this while we had carpet installed and enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner :) 
It was so fun to have everyone there and they were such troopers as everyone was sleeping on air mattresses on the floor surrounded by all our boxes of stuff. 
Now 3 1/2 months later we have all our stuff unpacked, we have one more bedroom finished, two of the bathrooms all done, and we are currently working on the ceilings in the main area. It is coming along and I can just envision how beautiful it will be when we are all finished! I can't wait.
Here is a picture of our one story home that is 2500 sq ft. It has 4 bedrooms and 3 full bath. It has a 2 car garage and a large front and back yard. We are so excited for the potential of this home and we have loved being in this neighborhood close to our friends and the church house. 




A small small taste of what was on the inside


This is the fun part of that week. Having Mikes parent and two of his brothers and two of his sisters with us for Thanksgiving! Allie and John were in heaven and spoiled like crazy! They deserved it after the craziness of the move! 




Using my china for the first time!



Thanksgiving games

Allie and Grandpa


Allie and Grandma

Natalie, Nathan, and Brian with Allie and John



Allie sporting her Aunties little turkey outfit with 
Aunt Angela


Allie and Natalie

Allie enjoying being spoiled and snuggled by aunt Angela