Buyer Beware

I made the horrible mistake of buying Palmolive Eco dishwasher detergent. I got it because I try to buy "green" when I can and we don't like to use citrus detergents on our dishes (it is supposed to be bad for certain metal items). We have a brand new dishwasher and use a rinse aid and all of our dishes were coated with a white film after we used them. I was hoping it wasn't the water since we had just moved. After reading some reviews on the detergent, that's definitely what it is. I can't wait to go buy some Cascade and see the difference. I read on some of the reviews that washing a couple cycles with a cup of vinegar each time should clean up the residue. I hope so because I don't really want to wash all my glasses and plastic items by hand again.

The Menu Returns (Finally)

We have been on a weird schedule since moving out of our apartment and in with my parents for a few months. But now we are moved into our house and the kitchen is fully functional. (Well, the pantry is pretty bad since I'm using cardboard boxes for shelving until we get that done.) Anyway, we are going to start our weekly menus again which we are excited about. It is nice to know what needs done each day, and what groceries we need. Here is this week's menu...

Monday
Lunch - leftovers, frozen pizza
Dinner - tacos at my parents'

Tuesday
Lunch - store buffet
Dinner - meatloaf, baked potatoes, steamed green beans, fruit

Wednesday
Lunch - french bread pizza, fruit
Dinner - chicken pot pie, fruit

Thursday
Lunch - out with mom and grandma
Dinner - cheeseburger pie, cheese breadsticks, fruit, green beans

Friday
Lunch - leftovers
Dinner - boiled shrimp in Fairview

Saturday
Lunch - at Spanky's with family
Dinner - tortellini spinach bake in creamy lemon sauce, fruit

Sunday
Lunch - black bean & corn baked potatoes, southwestern egg rolls, fruit
Dinner - crock pot cheesy chicken spaghetti, corn, fruit

We have a few places we would like to eat out at this week so a couple of days may change, but this is a good start... and a lot of cooking! The house is looking better and better daily. I hope to have it clean enough to photograph and blog about soon.

Floor Stain

I must say, I was being quite the drama queen last night. Hopefully that is hard for you to imagine. But it was sort of true. Somehow Brett and I got to talking about the flooring that we are refinishing at our house and I learned that it was not being stained, only sanded down and poly put on. What?!?! That's not what I signed up for! He claims we had this conversation and I was fine with it since it was an extra charge for stain. If we did have this conversation, I clearly didn't know the terminology or what that meant. I really didn't want the golden oak look. I was under the impression that it was being stained to match the existing hardwoods in our bedroom. As it turns out, those are not stained at all but just aged to a darker color. I am learning so much these days! So he reluctantly called our flooring guy (who is a really really nice guy that my dad has known forever) and he said I should stop by in the morning to look at some stains. So that's what I did and for a measly $50 more I am going to have dark hardwoods. Yippee!

I think my husband thinks it is going to look dumb since it won't match our bedroom floor. But I don't really care. There was no way it was going to match anyway and I didn't want it to look like we tried and failed at matching it so I just went dark. Since I painted my walls such a light color and our trim is now white, I felt like I needed a darker floor to ground it. I am pretty confident it is going to look awesome.

Stair Research

I have learned a lot about stairs today trying to determine what to do with ours. I wasn't sure how common our circumstances were since it seemed like our stairs were built sort of weird. And they may be, but our problem is one that many people have - what to do with formerly covered stairs. Most people are trying to get rid of their carpeted stairs.

I found that there are stair tread covers that you can purchase to lay overtop of your existing treads. The tread is the top part of each step - the part you walk on. Then you can also purchase a riser (the other part of the step) which is usually just a really thin piece of wood. I want white risers so I am wondering if we could just do them ourselves. The tread covers have a nose that comes down over the front to leave a little bit of a lip like you see on a lot of wood staircases. And we can buy them unfinished in a variety of wood types so we can stain them to match our wood floors. The total cost if we purchased unfinished tread covers and primed risers would be around $500 including shipping.

The main problem I am running into with these is a safety issue. When we put this cover over each stair, it is going to cause the top riser to be a different height since our upstairs obviously won't have one of these tread covers. And we can't really do anything with the upstairs floor because it is the exact same floor as the two bedrooms up there - so we can't add height to the landing/hall area. Anyway, having this height variance (which would probably be around 3/4" and should only be 3/8" max) causes balance issues when you are using the stairs. Another thing I am considering is how slippery the steps will be for Kyler walking up and down with socks or pajamas on which is making me at least consider carpet although I really want wood stairs. The other thing that I would need to figure out before we order anything is how the bottom few stairs would look because of the fact that the edge of each stair already butts up against the top of the wall so now they are going to stick out some.

House Update

I cannot say enough good things about our families. We got SO much done this weekend thanks to all of them...

1. We have running water! Brett had had to turn off the water because of a leaky valve and a busted hose that had a broken valve. His dad came this weekend and got got everything fixed up so we could turn the water on. We even got the pilot light on the water heater lit so not only do we have running water, we have access to hot water too. No more running back and forth to get water. Yay!

2. We got a ton of stuff painted and a majority of what was left is primed. Brett's mom watched Kyler the entire weekend so we could work. His brother came to help paint on Saturday. His dad painted a ton too. And my mom and aunt also helped with the painting. My dad removed all the cabinets and got them set up and ready to paint in their garage.

Today we have someone getting started on refinishing the wood floors in the kitchen/dining room/living room. We are hoping to get at least one coat of paint on the cabinets and the trim painted in our bedroom tonight. I will be working on the cabinet doors in the garage today and hope to have most of them primed.

We did run into one problem that we will need to find a solution for. The stairs had a piece of vinyl over them and looked horrible. So we pulled that up hoping we could refinish the top of each step and paint the rest white to match the trim. Unfortunately, some of the steps had lumber markings on them. A couple of others splintered and a piece fell off when we pulled up the sticky vinyl. We were hoping we could just replace the top of each step but they are nailed in from the sides which are no longer exposed. So now we are trying to find a way to cover them and we would prefer to not have carpeting since that would be the only carpet in our house.

Once the floors get done, we will be so close! We just need to finish the bathroom and then we should be able to move in and start living there. There are lots of finishing touches that need to be done and a few things we will have to tackle once we're in (like the stairs) but it is night and day to what it looked like when we moved in!

Austin

Have I ever mentioned how awesome Austin, Texas is? If Kyler were a girl, we would have named our firstborn Austyn. That's how much we love it! It is definitely one of our favorite places to visit, if not the favorite. We took a trip there this past weekend for a friend's wedding.

One of our first stops was Wahoo's on West 6th.

We were so happy to have arrived in Austin.

Wahoo's is famous for their fish tacos. I got a shrimp taco and a blackened fish taco. The blackened was a little spicy for me but good. And everything else including the rice and beans was amazing.

Brett got a couple of blackened chicken tacos since he's not a seafood fan.

We took a walk around and grabbed some dessert at Walton's - a little bakery around the corner.

Then we ventured back in to share a margarita before leaving the area for the afternoon. It was really really good!

They have bumper stickers everywhere in that place. Here is an interesting one.

And we also spotted this Jesus band-aid. Where the heck do you find those?!?

Later that night we went out to Oasis for dinner and to see the sunset. This is the view from one angle.

Aren't these places amazing? I have no idea what they are. Houses maybe?

Here is part of the Oasis. There are tons and tons of decks. I want to go back some afternoon when it is hot out.

And here is the view of the sunset over the lake. Those islands are not normally there but with the drought they are huge.

It was pretty chilly the first couple of days we were there. I think we brought the Kansas weather with us... and the wind.

The next day we just sort of went exploring. Brett remembered this place (Baby A's) that has purple margaritas so we stopped and he took a "wildcat" picture. They were pretty strong and they would only allow you to have two. I was feeling a slight buzz after just half of one, of course my alcohol intake is pretty minimal these days.

We couldn't leave Austin without stopping by Trudy's for a Mexican martini. It is basically a margarita in a martini glass with olives. They give you the whole shaker and again, they limit you to two. So we shared again. It was sooo good. And pretty nice out on their patio.

That night was the rehearsal. It was at the same place as the wedding. This is where Chris and Julie exchanged their vows in the hill country. It was a pretty view, and even better the night of the wedding with some soft clouds in the background.

After the rehearsal, we went out again. We went to a pretty fancy and pricey bar called the W with the groom and his crew. Then we hit Woodrow's on West 6th before making our way to "Dirty 6th" where the main drag of bars is. They close down the streets at night in that area on the weekends and we usually have a good time there.

We stayed with our friends, Mark and Becky, and they partied it up with us over the weekend. These pictures are at a bar we stumbled into called The Stage on Sixth. There was a great band there from Tennessee. They played rock versions of lots of hip hop songs from the 90s, and did a medley including the theme from Fresh Prince. It was awesome.

Saturday was the wedding. We lounged around in the morning, did a little souvenir shopping, and headed out to the wedding. It was very windy but still beautiful and a lot of fun. Afterward, we headed to the bars for one last night. Brett was reluctant but when we stopped at the Ginger Man and the waitress let him keep this glass, he got his second wind.

We ended up going to Kiss Fly and he got his dance on one last time. There was quite the entertainment there - a male cage dancer. We had What-a-Burger on the way home and Rudy's for breakfast in the morning. Rudy's BBQ is a must stop if you are ever in Texas.

I didn't want to leave, except to see our little Kyler. The weather was almost tropical when we boarded the plane since it had finally rained and warmed up overnight. We almost had a chance to move to San Antonio this summer for about a year but it didn't work out. So here we are in Seneca and always ready for an excuse to visit Austin!

Remodel Update

The remodel is close to coming to an end, the major work anyway. The drywall is pretty much all up with the exception of the interior part of the patio door we installed. They were waiting for the electrician to come and wire for an exterior light, which has since been done. So now there is just some patching and smoothing and repairing of cracks to be done and the construction crew will be done.

Once said patching and smoothing is done, we will start painting prior to the wood floors being refinished. We also need the plumbers to come and move a floor vent. Then the downstairs floors will be refinished with the exception of our bedroom (which is in good enough shape and separated by a doorway) and the bathroom (which will be tiled). When the floors are done, we should be able to start cleaning up and moving stuff in.

The kitchen will be a work in process and will mostly be done after we move in. First, we will paint the existing cabinets from a dark brown to a shade of white. The hardware will be replaced as well. Then we will probably live with it as-is for a while until we save up and decide exactly what we want to do. I have several ideas but due to our budget, we will have to do things in a certain order. So it could take a while to get everything done the way we want it.

The other thing that will be done probably around the time we move in is the electrical work. We need to switch out our fuse box with a breaker box and increase the voltage running from the pole to the house. There are several light switches that we disconnected for construction that will need to be wired. I would also like to add some can lighting in the kitchen, living room, and hallway. And we are going to add a ceiling fan/light to the living room which currently has no overhead lighting. We will also need to get the switch put in for the exterior (backyard) light.

The bathroom is ready to be tiled and Brett has decided to do that himself because of what we had spent on the construction (nearly $3500 so far). We had a tub installed by the local plumbers, and that bill ($560 - which didn't include the tub itself) was a little shocking to us. We haven't received a bill for some additional work they did - replacing some seal on our toilet drain. We have also purchased paint and supplies, a dining room and pendant light fixture, bathroom faucets, shower curtain rod, some cheap blinds, and tile. We still need to buy a toilet, vanity, vanity top, bathroom light fixture, many more window coverings, dishwasher, and garbage disposal to make the house functional.

After we move in, we will need to buy new light fixtures (probably with ceiling fans) for the bedrooms and a new light/fan in the bathroom. We will replace the exterior door knobs/locks. We will paint the two doors in the garage. Our overhead garage door will be replaced. New shutters will be put on. A new front railing will be added. We will put a step with a trap door on our back patio (the trap door to maintain access to the crawlspace which is directly under the patio door we added). We also need to do some landscaping in the spring and add a fence for our dogs. Plus the kitchen, as mentioned earlier.

Lots of work to do but the big stuff is pretty much out of the way so we are excited for the progress!

Hurry!

We have to make a quick trip to Manhattan tonight to get a new bathtub. We can keep our construction crew for the rest of the week so we decided to let them tile the bathroom floor and around the tub. Unfortunately, the tub has to be installed first (got the local plumbers to make room for us on Friday) and nobody in town has a tub in stock.

Moving Right Along

The construction crew has arrived and they think they will have most of it done today. Yay! I think they will have to come back to mud and patch the sheetrock but it should look pretty different this evening. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Prior to them coming, I removed the trim and door jambs where we are taking out walls and doorways. We also took out the carpeting and carpet tacking. We busted through some of the sheetrock to access electrical outlets, etc. to be shut off. We also decided last night to completely gut the bathroom and put in a new tub. That way Brett can get to all the rotted flooring and we can do our upgrades the right way. In doing this, we discovered that the closet that backed up to our bathroom cabinets was pretty small and we could turn it into one big bathroom closet and get rid of the odd little door/closet that would be in our dining room. We found that out just in time since the crew came first thing this morning.

Hopefully I will be able to get some "during" pictures of our new floorplan tonight. Things are moving pretty fast so hopefully we can paint quickly and move in sooner than later!

Remodel Plans Updated

Our new house is quite a mess right now since we are undergoing a big remodel. The bathroom is pretty bare since Brett got the toilet, vanity, and a partial wall taken out. He has started taking out flooring but hasn't gotten too far yet. The hardwoods need to come out (they were a little rotted) before tiling. There will also be some drywall patching and painting prior to the new floor and fixtures come in.

As for the rest of the downstairs, we are making some major changes. We decided to take the hallway wall out to open up the house more. The living room isn't going to be all that open but the rest of the downstairs will be. Due to the size of the living room, it just doesn't seem like there will be a way to open that up. We started the demo this week and it is going pretty well so far. We had an electrician come in last night to look at everything so that we can continue with the demo.

We haven't touched the upstairs which is okay. All that needs done there is painting and new window coverings. I am hoping to get the window coverings purchased this weekend while we're in Kansas City and then start painting next weekend. We will also need to paint the entire downstairs before furniture comes.

The kitchen will be the only room left not updated. My family thinks we're crazy for not doing that now too but we want to be smart about our money and not spend more than we can handle up front. I am planning to paint the cabinets white and we will redo the flooring for now. There are just a few things that need done before we can remodel the kitchen. The main one is getting a new furnace installed in the garage when we put in central air and ducts to the upstairs. We will also have to move the water heater out there, or maybe install a tankless one. This will allow us to put the dryer in a kitchen closet where the washer sets and I will hopefully have a large pantry where the dryer currently is. 

Lots of work to be done but it is coming along pretty nicely so far. The construction crew will be in early next week to get the remodel done. Hopefully they will be able to finish by the end of next week or shortly after. Then it is just painting and flooring, and putting the bathroom back together before we can move in furniture. Hopefully that won't take more than a couple of weeks. I think we should definitely be moved by Thanksgiving and hopefully a week or two prior.

Closed

We closed on the house yesterday. It was uneventful and pretty fast. Now it is time to get to work! We are going to order a patio door today or tomorrow so we can get our doorways cut and that installed. We will also start demo on the bathroom to get that done. And I will be painting whenever I can.

Closing

We finally have our closing scheduled for the house. It will be this coming Wednesday. Only two days before our originally scheduled closing date. We were hoping to be in at least a week or two earlier but the bank's appraisal took forever! Our next step is to get a patio door ordered and a contractor scheduled to come install that and knock out our other doorway between the kitchen and new dining room. In the meantime, I will start painting the bedrooms and kitchen cabinets and Brett will start pulling everything out of the bathroom and putting the new tile, toilet, sink, and vanity in. We are ready to get started but I'm sure we will be overwhelmed very soon!

The Lease

I called to get out of our lease yesterday and found out we can't. The apartment was pretty shady about the whole thing (of course). She told me we would have to wait until we had been into our lease for 6 months before even being able to give the required 60 day notice. Well, that's impossible since we only have a 7 month lease. The most irritating thing is that Brett specifically asked about this, knowing our situation and a possible move at any time. They said we could buy out of our lease with one month's rent at any time. But then apparently we signed something saying otherwise. We went over what we were signing with the people in the leasing office, but apparently they translated or summarized it incorrectly. I guess we were a little too trustworthy... yet another reason moving to a small community where everyone knows everyone is nice. It makes it a lot more difficult for stuff like this to fly. So Brett is going to call and call and see if they get sick of him and will let us out of the lease. If not, we will have to continue to pay through January. It's not horrible and we should be fine, but it sure would have been nice to use that extra money each month on fixing up the house.

"Before" Pictures

Okay, brace yourselves. This isn't going to be pretty but here is a house tour before we take possession and do any work.

Here is the front of the house. We will be pulling out all the bushes and doing new landscaping right away. We will also be replacing the garage door. Within the next few months we will be replacing the iron shutters with normal white ones. And eventually we will put a new front porch on.

Here is the living room when you walk in the front door (if that were possible and there weren't thick vines blocking the front door). To the right is the kitchen and the other doorway (which is actually directly across from the front door) leads to a hallway where the bathroom and downstairs bedroom are.

There are hardwood floors under the carpet that we hope to expose. We will repaint the ceiling, paint the walls, and eventually paint the trim and windows white.

Here is the rest of the living room. There is a nice big window in front as well as a side window and air conditioner. We plan to add central air by next summer. Obviously the curtains will be coming down right away.

Here is the downstairs bedroom which we will be our room. It's nothing special and not too big but that's fine with us. We don't spend much time there besides sleeping anyway. The same updates will take place here as in the living room - hardwoods, painting of walls and trim, and new window treatments.

Here's the other side of the room.

And here is the one room we will be gutting right away. The bathroom. We haven't decided exactly what we want to do with this yet. The wallpaper will come down as well as the window treatments. The bannister (I don't know what that's called) will be removed. the window and cabinets will be painted (if not replaced). The door and trim will be painted and probably reversed so that it opens to the right rather than to the left where it covers the vanity. Shower doors will come off and we will tile the shower and floor. The toilet will be replaced as well - it is nasty.

Here is the vanity, which will also be replaced. Not sure yet whether we will paint the cabinets or replace completely. We will probably bring some contractors in for ideas and estimates on remodeling this space and decide from there. There is actually a closet behind the bathtub that we might get rid of and move the bathtub back a bit to create more space.

Here is the lovely kitchen. It is in need of some major updating. This is the view from the living room. What we are planning on doing is making a separate dining area by cutting out a wide doorway in the wall to the left (not pictured). The cabinets will all be repainted, we will replace the washer and dryer with the ones we own, the range hood will be replaced with a new one or an over the range microwave, and the dishwasher will be replaced. The wallpaper will come down and we will paint. And the light fixture will be replaced.

We are going to try to live with the backsplash for now and see how it goes. We will probably redo the flooring as soon as we have time to tile it. Eventually we would like to remodel the kitchen but that is probably a couple of years down the road. So we are going to try to go with cheap updates for now that we can live with temporarily. I would like to take out the wall behind the refrigerator and make a two-level counter in between the kitchen and living room.

This is a room that we are going to turn into the dining room. This is a view from the hallway. I think it used to be a bedroom before the garage and upstairs bedrooms were added on. The light fixture will definitely be replaced. We will paint and expose the hardwoods in here. The window will be replaced with a patio door to the backyard where we often grill. Eventually I would like to put a pretty railing on the stairs.

Here is the spot where it will open up into the kitchen. We will remove the hallway door as well. The stairs currently have some vinyl stuff on them which we are hoping to remove and be able to have wooden stairs to match the floor.

Here are the upstairs bedrooms. Curtains will come down, paneling will be painted, and doors and trim will be painted white.

Same story on this bedroom. The door on the right is a cedar-lined closet in addition to the existing closet.

Here is a view of the inside of the garage. It is pretty nice for a one-car garage. One thing we will have to do pretty quickly is put a railing on the stoop where I am taking the picture from. It is a cement stoop that Kyler is sure to walk off of onto the concrete floor of the garage.

Here's some storage in the garage. I would like to get the furnace and water heater out here at some point so that we have more space in the kitchen for the washer and dryer, and more counter/cabinet space for the kitchen itself. Plus, the upstairs bedrooms will need ventilation added for central air/heat. Right now they have their own wall heaters.

And here is a view of our backyard. This is currently the nicest part of the house. It's got some nice big shade trees and we have a decent sized yard for being on sort of an odd lot. The one thing we will need to do is paint that old metal shed. We may eventually take it down and build something new out of wood on the existing concrete pad. But that will be after Brett builds us a deck!

I hope you enjoyed your tour. Check back for updates. There will be a lot changing in the next two months prior to us moving in. We should be closing next week or the beginning of the following week. Then we will start working inside the house and hopefully be moved in by Halloween. Does it make you tired just thinking about all this work? Not me yet, I'm still too excited!

Totaled

Hitting a deer turned out to be pretty profitable for us. The car is totaled and our insurance company is giving us a very nice chunk of change for it. We are going to buy a much less expensive car for Brett to drive back and forth to work and spend the rest of the money on updates for our soon-to-be new home. Yay for suicidal deer who only hurt cars and not passengers!

They Accepted!

We are moving forward with this house. They accepted our offer and we signed the offer letter last night. Now we are going to get an inspection done. This makes me feel better, especially since the house has been vacant for a couple of years. We will know what works and what doesn't and whether there is anything major to be concerned about.

Another House

I have some exciting news. We made an offer on another house yesterday! Brett was driving Kyler around (he has been missing his daily commute apparently, since we aren't in the city anymore and I don't have a car currently). Anyway, Brett spotted a new house with a for sale sign in the yard. So he called the realtor who had it listed (the only realtor, in fact) and she said it was listed for $65k but didn't have a basement. We wanted to look at it anyway because of the location, price, and looks of it.

It needs some work but there is nothing wrong with it structurally. The outside needs major landscaping around the house. The bushes are so overgrown you can't even get in the front door. An old man had lived there for years and has been in a nursing home for about three years now. They are in the process of adding a new roof but it will need new guttering. The doors and trim on the outside also need repainted. It has a one car garage and a small shed out back. The shed also needs painting and isn't the nicest thing but it is extra space for storage and sets on a concrete slab.

The inside also needs some updating. The walls are mostly white so we shouldn't have a problem there besides touching up a few cracks from settling around doorways and windows. The downstairs needs all new flooring but there may be hardwood floors under the carpeting. The kitchen needs the most updating. It has old wallpaper, old laminate flooring, and an old backsplash. The cabinets should be okay if we paint them white.

It has a nice sized kitchen, a decent living room, an okay sized master bedroom, and one bathroom. There is also a bonus area we could use as an office or toy area. Then there are two bedrooms upstairs above the garage. We have talked about some things we may be able to do like taking some walls out to open it up (depending on whether they are support walls). I thought we could add a patio door to the back yard. We would like to add a deck to it and fence the yard for the dogs. We will probably replace the shutters and do something with the front porch eventually. It has central heat but we will also want to add central air. And I'm not sure how the upstairs rooms are vented so they may need window units (which we have one of already and the house comes with a second).

Of course, first they have to accept our offer. We were supposed to hear back this afternoon and I haven't heard a thing yet. I'm sure we will have to meet in the middle on the price but even with that, we will easily be able to put down a 20% downpayment and do a 15 year mortgage and still pay about half of what we pay for rent in our KC apartment right now. Only time will tell, and if we don't get this house it isn't the end of the world. We are taking what we can get right now and we know that if it's meant to be, it will happen.

The Move

Yesterday we made the move to Seneca. We are currently staying with my parents temporarily while we look for a house to buy. We kept our apartment in Overland Park so that we could leave a lot of our furniture and belongings there and hopefully not have to move them twice. Brett starts his job on Tuesday and I am now working remotely (still part time). The move went pretty smoothly except for the crazy deer that was out running across the highway at 4:30 in the afternoon on a 100 degree day...

Thankfully, it was just me (and a ton of our stuff) in the car and I wasn't hurt. The officer who came by about a minute after it happened said I was lucky and that my seatbelt saved my head from bashing into the windshield (airbags didn't deploy since the hit was above the bumper). I was glad that I didn't swerve into oncoming traffic.

It was a little of a pain though because there was glass all over everything in the front seat (myself included - but I wasn't cut). So we still need to sort through that stuff. It also took us another trip to the body shop to move our stuff out of our packed full car. We will be short a car until it's fixed but it isn't a big deal since I'm working remotely now. We could get a rental but would have to drive to Manhattan to get it and drop it back off so we're still debating. All in all, we're just thankful it wasn't any worse and that we were so close to Seneca.

Limited Choices in Housing

We have been very actively looking for homes recently. In such a small town, there are very limited choices. But here is what we are considering right now.

House A: Listed at $80k, we would hope to get it for $72k
This is a three bedroom ranch with a small one car attached garage and it sets on almost 2 lots. It is in the ideal spot in town where we would want to live. The downfall is that it does not have a basement and is fairly small. We could easily build a detached double car garage on the property. It has an office space in addition to the bedrooms. The bathroom is fairly nice and has been updated and it has an additional 1/2 bathroom. The laundry room is in a porch area in the garage. The lack of basement and overall less living space (particularly dining area and family room area) are the major downfalls of this home. We would probably either add on an put a basement under the addition or live here for a while and then use it as a rental property when we decide to move elsewhere.

Update: House A has been removed from our list. I have decided I can't deal with something that small where we wouldn't have much of a dining room or a whole lot of living area. I am okay with small bedrooms but we need our living space.

House B: Listed at $145k + $20k for 2 additional lots, we would hope to get all for $150k
This is a three bedroom split level on the outer edge of town with a big kitchen and two living areas. It has a 2 car garage and a large yard. This house would not require much work or updating. The biggest downfalls are that the location isn't as central as we would like and that we were wanting to decrease our monthly expenses by having a smaller mortgage payment.

House C: Listed at $40k, we would hope to get it for $35k or less
We have not seen the inside of this house yet but it is definitely a fixer-upper. It has been rented out for a while so is probably not in very good shape. The outside definitely needs some TLC but it is in a great part of town and sets on 2 lots. It does not have a garage. It has two bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom downstairs. The bathroom and laundry is on the main level. It has an outside entrance basement. We are considering either fixing this up to live in and build a detached garage or buying the property and at some point tearing down the house to rebuild. If we did end up building, we would probably initially rent the house out or fix it up enough to live in it.

Update: House C does not seem to be a possibility. It was smaller inside than I expected and has some problems I don't think we want to deal with. It would be a tear down and build thing and I just don't want to spend that much right now. I think we should buy something reasonable and live in it for 15 years until it's paid off and then build.

Brett and I are in major disagreement on what we want to do. I choose House B and we would live there probably until we need a house without stairs. Brett would rather live in a more central area of town and have a lower monthly payment. He wants to either remodel or build to create a house that works for us and is in the right location. We had discussed buying Houses A and C where we would live in A and rent C until we could build, then turn around and rent A. But saving up enough money to build while maintaining these two homes seems too expensive. His choice (assuming House C isn't bad structurally) is probably to buy House C and just fix it up so that it is a nice home. This way we have a low mortgage payment and we can use our savings to do some remodeling.

I guess we will wait and look at House C next weekend to see if that is even a possibility. All these decisions are stressing me out!

Moving On...

We will be living in Seneca two weeks from today. Brett accepted a job nearby in Sabetha which is about 15 minutes away. I have made arrangements to work my three days/week remotely for a while. And my mom is going to take Kyler at her daycare on those days. Although we have been house hunting there for a while, we haven't found anything that we want and is priced reasonably in town. So we are planning to live with my parents until we find a home. We will keep our apartment in KC until then to house our furniture and things we don't need.

I am pretty set on only buying a home in Seneca, south of the highway. This way we can go on walks and bike rides around town where lots of family and friends live. South of the highway is important for when Kyler is walking and riding his bike around town on his own and with friends. I don't want to worry about him having to cross the highway to get anywhere (and the pool, schools, parks, etc. are all south of the highway). Ideally, we would live close to my parents as they are in a very convenient location to the schools, park, and pool. And we need to have a large yard for the dogs and probably a deck.

Regarding my work situation, I would like to be employed with my company through the beginning of January. This is when I am fully vested in my 401(k). And it would be a good time to switch to Brett's company health insurance so that we don't have to worry about paying a deductible for just the couple final months of the year. Also, if I want to start finding work around Seneca, it will be a good time as businesses will be closing out their books for the year and people will start thinking about who will be preparing their tax returns. I am not sure what exactly I want to do but I do know that I want to work part time and hopefully sort of set my own hours.

This Week's Menu

Since we moved to an apartment and I have a tiny kitchen, I can't keep my pantry as stocked as I would like to. So I have been coming up with weekly menus and then I just go and buy the things I need for the week. It also saves quite a bit of money when it comes to perishable goods since I only get what we need for the week. Here is this week's menu:

Monday
Jalapeno popper sandwiches with taco salad (lettuce, taco meat, shredded cheese, tortilla strips, hot sauce/ranch/salsa) and fresh fruit (peaches and strawberries), banana cookies

Tuesday
Loaded mashed potato casserole with salad and fresh fruit

Wednesday
Lunch - Chicken nuggets with macaroni and cheese, fresh fruit
Dinner - Chicken pillows, corn on the cob, fresh fruit

Thursday
Tater tot casserole with fresh fruit

We will be away from home the rest of the weekend so I am off the hook for cooking those days.

DIY Play Kitchen

I am starting on a new project. It will probably take a while to get it done, but we have at least gotten started. It is a DIY play kitchen made from a used entertainment center. I found a bunch of examples online and just had to make one for Kyler. He is always in my pantry and tupperware storage areas so this will be a lot of fun for him.

I hope my kitchen looks similar to this one found here.

I found an entertainment center on Craigslist for $10 that should work out perfect. It is in good shape, it's not very heavy (made of the cheap particle board stuff and not solid oak - good for us since we'll hopefully be moving in 6 months or so), and it's just the right size. It has a series of shelves up one side which will eventually get a door and become the refrigerator. There is the open place for the TV which will become the sink and stove. And then there is storage underneath with two cabinet doors. The plan is for the side under the stove to become the oven.

We visited our local Habitat for Humanity Restore store and picked up a few additional items for the kitchen. I found a small square sink with faucet that we got for $12. It needs cleaned up but will provide much more of a "real" look than using a metal mixing bowl. I also bought some round wooden knobs to paint and use as oven knobs and a couple of pulls for the refrigerator/freezer doors ($6 total). I am going to use either old CDs/DVDs painted black for the burners or things like sour cream lids. I also got a couple pints of paint - one white and one light blue ($1 each) - to paint the appliances and cabinets.

This kitchen is very cool but too big and fancy for my skill level.

I still need to find some additional items - a pice of ply wood to put on the back of the space where the TV once was, an outdoor print to use as a window, some fabric to make curtains around the window, something to make a small chalkboard out of, an old phone, an old clock, some hooks for utensils, wood and hinges for the refrigerator door, and some tinted Plexiglas to make an oven door. I may even add a microwave in the top corner of the TV space but that will probably be a later addition. I also thought it might be fun to add a "real" tile backsplash - and it would be good practice. But that would be another later on project.

Oh, and we need some play dishes and food - there is some cool stuff out there. I will probably splurge and buy a pots and pans set and then just wait and buy used dishes and food. And I might steal some of Kyler's pantry space for my own pantry food since my kitchen is so tiny! He'll think that is cool.

I will try to post about what we did and how we did it as we get going. And eventually there will be some before and after pictures. I just hope it looks cute like the ones I've seen online, and not like an amateur did it! 

Food Matters

Last night I watched a documentary that is instant streaming on Netflix right now. It is called "Food Matters" and it was actually really good. The basic premise is that we are unhealthy as a society because we haven't given our bodies the appropriate nutrients. Many of us have vitamin deficiencies and if you really think about it you can see why. How many people (adults especially) follow the food pyramid guidelines and really get enough fruits and vegetables in our diets? Even those who do are eating produce from supermarkets where the food is not as fresh as it should be. The documentary says that a large percent of nutrients are lost due to the time it takes to ship the produce.

To keep our family healthy, I want to try to start doing better about getting all of our vitamins and minerals. I am hoping to do a better job of serving fruits and veggies with every meal and we will probably start taking multivitamins too. I generally try to make sure Kyler gets a fruit and vegetable with every meal but Brett and I are definitely lacking in that.

I would recommend watching this documentary if you get the chance. They make a good (and alarming) case for why this isn't a well-known thing. They also offer several potential remedies for things like depression, cancer, and heart disease that involve high doses of certain vitamins. I am a little skeptical in that I don't think this is a cure-all, although I do think the number of these diseases would be much less if we were all getting the nutrients we need. I also think there is a place for medicine and doctors but they are probably right in that we are over-using them and shouldn't be taking a pill (with adverse side effects) for everything. Instead, we should be treating our bodies better so that pill isn't even necessary. They didn't mention this in the documentary but I think the problem is more with people being lazy than the medical field prescribing pills and treatments to cover up the original problem.

Overall, this did open my mind a little to more holistic approaches to medicine. I agree that as a society we are over-medicating ourselves and that we don't maintain a healthy diet. If there are more natural and healthier ways to treat a problem, I would much rather take that route because there is little chance of them causing harm even if they don't work.

SOLD!

The house is officially no longer ours. We have until Saturday at 5:00 to be out. Brett cashed the check last night and we started moving into our new apartment today. The past few days were sort of a rollercoaster ride in terms of where we were moving to. We had found the apartment last Monday but then Brett asked his company if he would be put on a project in San Antonio and if so, could we move there? We waited all weekend until yesterday afternoon around the same time as the closing on the house and they couldn't make a definite decision so we are staying in KC for the near future.

Our apartment is about 15 minutes from our house, closer to Brett's office. Brett called and found the place and it is roomy. There is a bedroom and bathroom upstairs along with the kitchen, dining room, and living room. In the basement, there is a family room with a bar, lots of storage and laundry room, and another bedroom and bathroom. Kyler will go to another daycare. It is a Kinder Care and is a smaller facility than he is currently in. I am really excited for him to start there next week. The director and staff were very nice when I went in for a tour.

The next step is to find a house in my hometown. We are wanting a place in town, close to the schools so that our kids can ride their bikes around, walk to school, the park, Grandma and Papa's, etc. There isn't much on the market currently so we'll have to see if we can find something. Our current lease is 8 months and we can always renew in 7 month intervals if we need more time.

What Next?

We are scheduled to close on the house on May 31st and turn over the keys on June 4th. We are still not sure where we are headed after that. I have been looking for apartments for the past few weeks and we haven't found anything that matches exactly what we want. I think we are going to have to settle for something in between. We really want a place with two living areas (like a finished basement) and a garage. We need a place that allows pets and we have a budget of around $1,000. The kicker is that we are looking for a short-term lease (preferably 3-month but will make do with a 6-month). As I said, this has proven to be impossible. I have even contact a couple of apartment search professionals. No dice. So we are thinking of taking a townhome with a finished basement that has no garage and a 6-month lease. The cons are that there is no garage, the kitchen is tiny, and it isn't the nicest property. The pros are that is has a ton of space and it's pretty cheap for the amount of space.

There are a couple of reasons for the short term lease. First, our end goal in all this is to move to my hometown by the time Kyler starts school. We have about 4 years before then. However, there isn't much for housing on the market there and we want to buy a place that really fits our wants and needs rather than getting into something for a few years and then selling and buying all over again. So we are just waiting and watching for something we really like. After seeing the housing prices there (it is surprisingly high), we are now considering purchasing some land in town and building a new home. The second reason for the short term lease is that we are considering a move out of state prior to Kyler starting school. It is sort of our last chance to do something like this so we are keeping that option open. This would depend on Brett's employment opportunities.

So as you can see, we have no idea what's next. Heck, we don't even know for sure that the house sale is going to go through. Our crazy buyers scheduled another walk through tomorrow for some reason. It seems pretty strange to us and even to our realtor. So we plan to put down a deposit on a place but not sign a lease agreement or move until after closing. This will work out considering we have not started packing yet (I packed a box of toys, got rid of a bed, and sold a computer desk so far). I know, yikes!

House for Sale

I thought I would include a little update on how the house is doing on the market. We listed it around April 4th so it has been on the market a few weeks now. We have had quite a few showings mostly in the first week or so. It has slowed down but we are hoping the weather has something to do with that.

And we got an offer after it was on the market about a week. However, for being on the market such a short time the offer was much lower than our expectations. We did some negotiating but couldn't come to an agreement so we moved on. Then today we got a call from our realtor saying they came back with another offer. It was still on the low side so we came down a little more on our end. We could probably come to an agreement if we had to but we are afraid because of how much negotiating they are doing now, they are going to try to get a lot out of us after the inspection. We're pretty sure there won't be anything big but we don't want to chance it because it looks bad if you turn down an offer after inspection. At this point we are ready to stop dealing with these buyers.

Update 4/22/11: We ended up going down a tiny bit more but including "as is" language. We don't know of anything wrong with the house and we don't want them to use anything in the inspection as a point of negotiation because we are at our bottom dollar now. So if after the inspection they do try to renegotiate we are just going to say no and let them cancel the contract. It isn't ideal to have a cancelled contract but at least we will have had the house inspected and know what to expect from our next offer if that is the case. The showings keep coming (because we aren't technically under contract until all signatures are in). We had one this afternoon and another in the morning. I will be glad to be done with showings if we do close on this offer! Now we just need to start looking for a new place to live. Anyone know of any townhomes or apartments with fenced in yards? We are hoping to stay between our current location and around Corporate Woods/Metcalf.


Update 4/25/11: Our inspection was this afternoon. While we had to be out of the house for over three hours, Kyler and I checked out some apartments and town homes in the area. I found a town house that I really like but the shortest lease option is 6 months so I don't think we're going to take it. I am really nervous about the inspection even though we don't know of anything major that would be wrong. I just think these people are going to try to have us do stuff or decrease the price again and we are going to have to cancel the contract. I guess whatever happens will happen and we will just keep on keep truckin'.


Update 3/4/11: Well we finally settled all the negotiations. We ended up giving in on another $1,000. Our rationale is that we will make up that money in 2-3 months living in an apartment and have a lower monthly mortgage/rent payment. Plus it means no more showings or negotiations. So now we close on the 31st and have to be out June 4th at 5:00 - exactly one month from today. I've continued researching apartment options and we are now focusing on places that have very short term (1 month) leases. We are toying with the idea of now moving out of state for a few years before settling in Seneca when Kyler starts school. So depending on employment opportunities that may arise, we might be moving again very soon.

Updating the Kitchen - After

Okay, here are the long awaited "after" pictures of our kitchen.

Scroll to a previous blog post for the "before" shots.

We are planning on buying a microwave that actually matches the other appliances.

Here's what we did:

- Took down wallpaper and painted

- Replaced laminate countertop

- Replaced porcelain sink with a composite granite

- Replaced faucet and cabinet hardware with "oil rubbed bronze" finish

- New tile backsplash with accent pieces

- Repainted cabinets

So we now have a "for sale" sign in the yard and our house will be posted on the MLS tomorrow. Hopefully we have some showings and interested buyers soon!

What a week (or so) this has been!

We have been CRAZY busy lately. It is really no fun at all. Both Brett and I are extremely busy with work. Every day is a struggle to try to decide who has time to watch Kyler in the evenings after day care. Then that person will be further behind for work or will have to stay up late working.

Beyond that, we are working to get our house on the market. We finally got our kitchen done. I'll post some "after" pictures when I get it all cleaned up and put back together tomorrow. Now we are working on some last minute things like staining/painting trim and putting some things back together. We still have a lot of cleaning to do - mainly the garage. All of this is very difficult to get done since someone has to watch Kyler at all times. He is down to taking one nap some days and when he is up, you can't take your eye off him or he will be opening drawers or cruising toward an outlet or the stairs. Plus, when there are small construction projects going on around the house there aren't many baby proof areas. And on top of that, I have had to work most Saturdays.

So to help ease our stress, we enrolled Kyler into full time day care. Now I have been working on one of my days "off" and cleaning/working on the house the other day. This weekend we even had to ship Kyler off to a babysitter on Saturday. We were feeling like neglectful parents after not really seeing him for 6 days straight. The good thing is that he loves it and our crazy busy time should be coming to an end in the next week or so.

Yesterday things got even worse. I was on my way to work and as I was waiting on a light to get on the interstate I looked down and saw that traffic was pretty much at a stand still. They are doing road work and had all but one lane closed. So I had to sit in traffic even on a Saturday. (I had to heading home from work at 9:30 pm on a Friday night as well.) As I am sitting in traffic, I see a cop behind me with his lights on. He was pulling me over because my tags were expired "back in March" (a.k.a 48 hours ago). Turns out this is a misdemeanor charge and I have to go to court. All because we are too busy to even realize we needed to pay auto tags and taxes. Ugh!

Luckily, my personality is such that I can pretty much laugh it off and let the stress roll off my shoulders at times. Tonight we needed a couple of supplies but waited too long and everything but the dreaded Wal-Marts was closed. We decided to go there (we NEVER shop there). I feel like we were warned, it started lightning and sprinkling as we went in, we got there and they didn't even have 3/4 of what we needed, and then we heard it hailing as we were inside (while both our vehicles were sitting outdoors). We decided to put back the one thing they did have and buy it elsewhere in the morning. That should tell you how much we don't like to support Wal-Mart. :)

The Cabinet Fiasco

I never imagined it would take so long to get "after" pictures of our kitchen. Everything except our cabinets has been done for a while now. We thought the cabinets would be done and hung (and they were, sort of) this past weekend. But now we are back to square one.

We had wanted to glaze our cabinets with a somewhat dark color so that they weren't so white in contrast to our new faucet, knobs, and light fixture which are all an oil-rubbed bronze finish. We really just wanted the glaze to show up in the edges and decorative inset in the cabinet doors. The lady we hired to do the glazing turned out to be a nightmare. She put the glaze on way too thick over the entire cabinets and on top of that they were very smudged and not professional looking. We thought it was bad and Brett talked to her about making them lighter but she really didn't follow through. He had even showed her pictures as examples of what we wanted before she started. I thought that maybe once we got them all hung and the hardware on they wouldn't look so bad so Brett's poor dad got them all up last weekend. Unfortunately that didn't really help and even our realtor came over and said that we would have to change them.

I meant to take pictures before we took the doors back off but Brett was too fast for me. Here you can sort of see them in the background. They look a lot darker in person and there are a lot of smudges, lines, and imperfections.

So now we are having this same lady come back tomorrow and Friday to get rid of this disaster. She is going to paint them back to the original color. We will only have to pay her the second half of her fee if we approve of the job she does. I am really hoping it isn't sloppy but I don't have a great feeling about it. We just want to get this done so we can get the house on the market next week!

Updating the Kitchen - Before

Since we are putting our house on the market, we decided to update our kitchen. It wasn't awful like it hadn't been updated since the '70's when the house was built. But it definitely needed some updating. Here are some "before" pictures. This is basically what it looked like when we moved in except that we changed out the shiny brass knobs with satin nickel (which have since been removed and sold) and replaced the light fixture above the sink (it was groovy, baby).

So far we have removed the cabinet knobs, wallpaper, window treatment, and tile backsplash. We also replaced the countertop with a different laminate one that wasn't so white. We got a new sink made of composite granite, and also got a new faucet in an oil rubbed bronze finish.

We are going to have a new tile backsplash installed this week and will also have the walls painted. We are trying to find someone to touch up and glaze the cabinets to give them more of an antique look. And we purchased some oil rubbed bronze knobs to match the new faucet. Hopefully we can get someone in to do the cabinets and then I can get some "after" pictures up.

Oh, and sorry about all the stuff on the counter. That's a normal look for our kitchen but will obviously not be when we are showing the house. I have already cleaned out my cabinets so the toaster, toaster oven, magic bullet knockoff, and teapot are put away and out of sight. A lot of the other stuff pictured was just out due to us using it that day so our counters will be very clutter-free for the showings.

Minimize

I have come to realize that my life is too full. Too full of the unimportant things, that is. Some things in my life I just can't get enough of (like B and Vegas Baby). Okay, that's probably a lie. There are times when I need a break from them too but when I'm gone for a millisecond I already miss them and start wondering how they are surviving without me. So it is better just to stick it out and avoid that guilty feeling that apparently moms get (I don't remember feeling that way before I was a mom). Shoot, I'm getting side-tracked on my loves and off-subject.

Anyway, back to my life being too full of the unimportant things. I am feeling like there is too much of that stuff in the way from really enjoying every moment with said loves. The biggest time and energy suckers are our jobs and work around the house. Besides getting burned out and unhappy, we get so busy with those things that we don't sit back and enjoy the things we're working for. And then even if we weren't busy with those things, other distractions get in the way like watching television or being on the computer (yes, I know I'm on the computer now and also procrastinating as there are multiple areas of housekeeping needing done this very moment but alas I am burned out).

Shouldn't we be playing and conversing and enjoying each other's company? And being outside when the weather is nice, enjoying the fresh air? Instead, our typical evening consists of me trying to get dinner for us and the baby, entertaining baby, bathing baby, throwing in laundry that someone needs for the next day, cleaning up the kitchen, and putting baby to bed while Brett is working from home on the computer or trying to get stuff done around the house and trying to squeeze in some time with the ever-changing baby. Then after the baby is in bed we might be able to watch a show or two that we TiVo'd and both like. But after that it is right back to work or time for bed so one of us can get to work early the next day and the other can take baby to daycare.

I regret to inform you that we got some things wrong before we figured some things out. Such is life. And we are learning from our mistakes. We are slowly trying to change but as you can imagine changing your entire lifestyle is pretty tough. It will take a while and we will have to let go of some of our "addictions" like the computer (you caught me red handed).

So here's what we are doing - MINIMIZING. We are working on getting our house on the market and sold. It will be on the market sometime in March. Hopefully the first half of March but we are procrastinators and perpetually late (especially me and my time estimates) which is why we didn't meet our original goal of February. Once our house is sold we will have some freedom due to having less monthly expenses such as mortgage and utilities. We are planning on renting a modest but nice apartment that we can enjoy but not get consumed in (and it won't be too big that I can't keep it clean!). We will sell or give away a lot of our furniture now that we realize our house is much bigger than we need or want it to be. We have already cut our cable and are just getting antenna stations. Once our budget has shrunk I will more easily be able to stay at home full-time and take care of all the day-to-day things. B won't have to come home and worry about what he's going to eat or how to get the lawn mowed before dark. Instead, we can grill out, play outside with Vegas Baby, go for walks, or sit in and play games or watch movies or just talk and relax when the weather is bad. There won't be as much housework and hopefully less work work too.