"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.