GoodByeCityLife

More Pictures

2011-08-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

Jordan's Room Before (nice bright pink)

Jordan's Room after. The first picture is the accent wall which is a darker blue than the other 3 walls.

Fireplace prior to any work

Fireplace with brick and drywall at the top.

The guest room on the first floor across from Jordan's room prior to painting

Guest room with a closet and no doors but the accent wall same darker blue like Jordan's room and the other 3 walls are lighter blue. This is the section of the wall where the paint just started to peel when we added primer and then tried to paint the dark blue. Dean did a great job to fix it and finally the wall held the paint! All of our bedroom closets have these shelves and clothing rods. They are really nice to have.

This is our room. Walls are worse than we thought and Dean has had to mud all most every inch of wall. It is now primed and he is continuing to sand and mud. Hopefully soon it will be ready to paint. This room is going to be painted the same dark blue color that is the accent walls in the guest room and Jordan's room.

These are the spindles up at the loft area that overlooks the living room. This is where Nicole spent her Saturday.

These spindles (on the staircase) is where Sarah spent her Saturday cleaning.

This is a side view of the fireplace with the drywall. Couldnt get it to turn. Sorry! It is amazing.

This is the second bedroom upstairs. We will be using this as an office with a tv and computer. We chose to paint it a light dove gray. It turned out really nice. On Saturday Riley came up the stairs and saw this room and said, "Mine". So I guess we can say this is Riley's room!

Hope to have additional pictures soon. We will be starting to paint the outside of the house while the scaffolding is up to replace siding. Might as well get as much done as possible instead of moving the scaffolding several times.

It's been a long month!

2011-08-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

We have been using almost every spare time to work on the house. We really have gotten a lot accomplished, however it's a bit overwhelming when it is some here and some there. We are getting there though.

Over this weekend we had a great blessing and many family members came down to help. We had 11 people who took on different jobs and made progress. Jordan got the task of power washing the deck. He had a big messy job. The girls, Sarah and Nicole helped by cleaning 60 or 62 spindles for the staircase banister. Staci and Mark were able to completly give two coats of paint to 3 new doors. Judy and Ken have been providing their support, Judy has cleaned and put Old English on all my cabinets in the Kitchen! wow, there is a lot of those. Ken has helped with his expertise of electrical knowledge. He was able to switch some lights around and hang some ceiling fans. Dan, Nicole's boyfriend was a gem and did some serious landscaping trimming some bushes and was able to mow a ditch in the front that was being to look like a small jungle. Kay, Dean's mom, has been able to come over during the weeks and help paint. My mom has been helping paint some closets and walls. We have many walls that need paint among other things.

We have run into some problems with some of the walls. They have been worse than what we had thought and Dean has had to really put some work into them by mudding and sanding and sometimes mudding again. In one room, we thought we had it almost completely painted and then the paint started to just peel right off. That sucked and we had to start over with mudding and then priming.

We have been really greatful to all those who have helped us. We really could not do it without their help.

The fireplace is almost finished. Here it was before.

Here it is with the bricks done and although this picture doesn't show it, the sheet rock is up above and has been mudded.

Most of the siding has been replaced and ready to paint. There is still some to be replaced I guess that will happen this week. Here are the new basement doors. They look really nice.

New siding

Hope to have more pictures from the inside soon.

The work has begun!

2011-07-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

The first full weekend of work on the house has begun and come to an end. What a great weekend it has been. We knew the house was a perfect match for us. The house is everything I would dream about and the land and out building appeases the man of the house as well as Molly dog! The work started on Friday. I started in the north bedroom taking the wallpaper down (luckily it was just a border). My mother-in-law came by and decided to work on the bathroom. O' My Gosh how lucky we were. We used a vinager/water solution and the printed side of the paper came of in strips. We then soaked the glue part, took a putty knife and for the most part the glue came off as easy as the print side. I think it took her maybe 1 hour and 1/2 to get the paper off. It has been amazing!

North bedrm before

North Bedrm after

So far we have taken the wall paper off both bedrooms downstairs, the master bedroom, the laundry room, hall way to the garage and the 1/2 bath downstairs. These all had borders and all came off with ease; we were AMAZED and so thankful. All we had to use was 1/2 and 1/2 solution of vinager and hot water. The master bath had a border and wall paper at the bottom. I had 1/2 done on Saturday and the rest done this morning by noon. Here is a picture of the master bath wall. Hope you can see how it just almost fell off the wall. We had someone on our side!!!

master bath in corner

Same corner of master bathroom about 10 min later.

We have kicked some butt the last two days. My aunt came over yesterday to help and then came back today. What a life saver she has been. I have taped the north room, and just waiting to sand some nail holes that we fixed. Tomorrow I will be taping the south room and then beginning to paint. I never dream we would have this much luck and neither did Dean! I tried to talk to him about a couple of projects he was going to do but was told, 'when your project is completed then we will talk' Well buddy get ready because my project will be done quicker than either of us thought! Thank goodness. I will be painting both rooms and starting on the master bedroom by the end of the week!!!! YEAH!!!

We went out on the deck after a brief pour down and wow it was getting cooler and the breeze was great! It was so quite and the birds are finding the bird feeder. It is great! Then I come home to where we live now go out on the deck and its quite and breezy. Look at an see our neigbors across the street.

Quite a difference. BTW I think we have found more muscles in our bodies than we ever knew we had or have ever used. I knew I was getting old but holy smokes getting out of bed this morning was pretty tough! and if you sit for a period of time you are pretty much done! keep on the look out for painted rooms soon!

It's almost time!!!!

2011-06-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

We have the final approval papers completed and we are good to close at 3 pm!! I am so excited! Finally! but man what a process. Hope to have before pictures up soon. We have to start the renovations soon and this weekend is a long one, good thing!!!

Closing was a no go!

2011-06-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

The closing date came and went and we yet to have a house. :-( So today we find that they need proof of Dean's legal name. Guess its a little tough when there is two people with the same name and one has II at the end. I wonder why they never caught that prior to today? Luckily we had the documents to send today. As of about 4:30 today we are hoping to close on Monday but papers won't be ready until that morning. Nothing like the last minute but hey if it gets done on Monday it will be worth it. So here's to waiting the weekend with anticipation. Maybe I will go shopping to take keep my mind busy! Wish us luck!

36 Hours and Counting down

2011-06-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

But.....there may be a problem (of course!). Because of the type of loan we have, the contractors we need to do some work must be 'validated'- whatever that means! As of Friday, our two contractors had not been validated and the loan has not made it through final underwriting. 'They' are way behind and were working on validating contractors for purchaser closing on Friday! Holy Cow, nothing like having to wait until the last minute. Hopefully this will not happen to us. Good news is: found out that if we do have to wait a day or two (again) 'they' will ask for a continuance where we will not be charged the $50 per day everyday we don't close on Wednesday. Don't you wonder who 'they' are???? I guess all we can do is wait for the all clear and go sign our lives away! Stay tuned!

6 days and counting

2011-06-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

So I guess today there was some drama between what the underwriters want and the lady that inspected our septic tank. The underwriters say the septic tank report just says it is working order and they need to say it PASSES inspection. The Crap Inspector Lady is contesting and says she completed the forms out correctly. Good thing the underwriter and Crap Inspector Lady hashed it out (dont think we have enough mowers for Dean to deal with being in the middle of that conversation.). Hope everything got settled.

So I went outside last Sunday or Monday and my father-in-law was up talking with Dean. Dean is on the Uniloader doing some work and leveling an area of ground. Come to find out his dad wants to put a fence up. There were panels of fence up about four months ago before Dean decided they needed to be moved but they never got to their new home. Dean and I were talking later and I asked what kind of fence his dad was putting up and Dean said a regular fence....I thought to myself and then made the mistakeof saying, 'he's putting up a chain link fence?" I thought that would be pretty expensive. Dean looked at me and shook his head - I knew I was wrong then. I asked if he was going to put those panels back up and again got that look that says all too well...'you city-girl'! He growled, no he's putting up a regular barbed wire fence! OOOHHHH, who would have thought a 'regular' fence meant barbed wire???? You don't see those too often in neighborhoods. He then said, 'look around at the other fences that are here...what do they look like??? oh-ok they are all barbed wire but that is NOT what was there about four months ago! and why couldn't he just say that his dad is putting up a barbed wire fence??? Whew - communication skills between us are still in adjustment status!! Hopefully they will get better! Sounds like we are still in line for next Wednesday!!! Getting excited.

7 Days To Go

2011-06-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

Ok! I guess the ole' saying 'all good things come to an end' isn't a lie. Here we are seven days from closing and my how many more forms do they 'all of a sudden' need. Did they not know these were needed a couple of weeks ago???? And one of the forms I am sure we have had completed a couple of times. It must be in that pile of nowhere land people get. So I guess we keep completing and sending and sending and sending. Hopefully one copy of the form will get to whomever needs it. I would think the laws of average would be on our side. If we sent the form they STILL need everyday, do you think one of those copies might get to the person who needs it by next Wednesday? One out of seven I think would be pretty good odds. The thing is if we don't close on Wednesday, there is a $50 charge for everyday past that we go. So I hope they get their stuff together soon so we can keep sending things back and don't have to pay additional money..oh and btw those commercials you keep hearing on the radio about how you can get a home for less than you pay for rent and for around 300 or 400 dollars a month WRONG! and the no downpayment thing GONE! Good thing this is such a great deal!

I believe we have been through a brief calming before the storm. I can expect within the next 7 days we will be going through some rough waters trying to get everything they want turned in. Just hope the mowers can stand the beating for a couple more days! That's called stress relief to a certain male in the family! The mower actually goes on the back of the tractor. It looks like the mower has lost a few battles but the ever so clever male can fix it! Yes, he CAN! (and then I hope he has some time to mow. It's looking like live in the jungle and not the country.)

I am told this can go on a 3 point hitch system! See, I am learning more and more. Now all I need to know is what is a 3 point hitch system. Oh and don't worry about those wires you see in the background. I am told "WE ARE OK, I do work for the electric company, after all" That made me feel SO much better! And even more impressed with the way he organizes it all.

Through the next few days I am sure there will be some rough ones but I am also sure when its finally said and done and it ours, we will be ready to go and sweat those hot summer days to make it our home. Hopefully the weather will be nice to us when we start and not get above say...95 degrees.

9 days to go --

2011-06-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight I thought we were going to have to recreate a scene of City Slickers! Coming home two small cows (ok I know I'm a 'city girl' but they were small cows not calves) were walking down the middle of the street. When Dean honked the horn, they started running but not the way they were supposed to go. They started running down the street and I thought they were headed for our house. One cow turned and was trying to get back through the barbed wire fence but couldnt it turned again and kept running. Finally, he or she found a piece of the fence s/he could ram through.The second cow kept walking down the road. Luckily a truck was coming up the other way and scared it through the fence. I thought maybe we were going to have to corral them with the truck. But all ended well and two small cows found their way back home.

Speaking of homes, day nine went by without any requests from the mortgage company. I guess that is good news. Here are two pictures of the house!

10 days and counting

2011-06-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

So we found each other on Facebook and about a year later I moved in with him. Wow what a change of pace. No longer could I hear customers ordering late night food at the local Wendy's (nice nights I would open my bedroom windows to get the breeze and got people ordering food!). No more hearing the sirens going down Noland Rd. Instead I found myself wondering what the howling noise was...oh, he says just a pack of coyotes so keep Molly (our dog) in for the night! Also discovered the different color of cows are different breeds. We have several Black Angus cattle and one donkey across the street. Never knew donkeys help protect the herd. Who would have thought cows have protective 'asses'! And sometimes when the cows are not very happy they make a horrible kind of howling noise.

One time I had to admit to him that I was ultimately a 'city girl'. We drove into the pasture and my job was to shut the gates. They come together in the middle and have a lock. I got the right gate and pulled it to and then went to get the left gate and by the time I had pulled the left gate to, the right gate swung back open. I looked at him sitting in the truck just laughing! Molly was in the back of the truck watching and then finally laid down! I had disappointed both! It was pretty funny. I finally got the gate closed and on we went.

I also have discovered real quick my 'summer city' shoe collection: flip flops and sandals really don't fit in the country with gravel and dirt roads. Tennis shoes and boots work best but I cant give up my flip flops. Btw this is only a small portion...didn't want to get carried away!

We finally tied the knot and are on a new journey...not the newly wedded bliss journey but the new home owner journey. Yeah!, didn't take him long to find the 'perfect' place - just 3 days after the wedding and here I though I was going to have some time to take to breather! We had been looking but every house we looked at all had one problem...neighbors! Gosh who would have thought the worst thing about a house would be neighbors!

So the house we have found and in the middle to purchase sits on almost 8 acres on the other side of town. No close neighbors!

We have been in this process now for a couple of months and what a process it is. Never knew someone would want my signature so many times. We have 10 days and counting until we are supposed to close. We will be renovating some of the house after we close, if we make it through the process. During this process I have encountered interesting things.

when toliets flush, they go through a septic tank and out to latteral lines to who knows where (at my apartment, everything wend down the drain and I never gave it a second thought. now we have to put chemicals down the toliet to help the system stay clean.
the more paper work you send in - they always want more
and when someone is angry about losing a home, they try to burn it down.

This is a foreclosure and the sherrif was serving the last foreclosure notice and found the fireplace on fire. The fire department came and saved the day!

Once we close all the work begins... luckily we have the hot summer months ahead to complete drywalling, painting, mudding, cleaning and moving. Although we do have an advantage of not having to put a time period on moving from where we are currently living. I will have pictures of before and after while we are renovating this 'perfect' place!

In the Beginning

2011-05-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

I have to start from when it all began.

My husband (just married April 16, 2011) and I met about 23 years ago. I was home from college (then Southwest Missouri State University) that summer and needed a job. I had a friend who worked in the Western Auto district office who helped me get a job. Dean was working there at that time and we became friends. We started 'hanging out' and spent the summer doing things young people do. He lived and grew up in a small town, Peculiar MO. I knew where Peculiar was as I drove by the exit each time I came home or went to school. I was raised in Kansas City, inner-city. Peculiar just a blip on the map.

Then it came time for me to go back to school, oh and to the guy I was dating. Dean wanted to continue the 'friendship' and I was not so nice. Remember, I was 20 years old with huge ambition or as I would come to understand, huge disconnect with reality. I told him, or so he says, that I didn't want to date a boy from small town especially one that wore plaid shirts! Soon he would want kids and I had no plans on having children. I wanted to live in a big city; New York, Chicago, Miami, etc. There was no room for a country boy like him. And off I went to school. He even tried to contact me later on and I asked how he got my phone number. Boy I really wasn't very nice to him! We lost touch for a long time and then alas comes Facebook! Gotta love it.