Fresh Paint Makes a New Room

While all this house buying drama has been going on, I've been soothing my soul with prayer and painting. Three weeks ago, I decided that while life was feeling pretty out of control and crazy, I would start a rather huge project to take my mind off of matters. The project did indeed turn out to be huge but well worth it now that we are nearing the end.

Here is the before, less the little bits of furniture we had thrown in there and carpet rolled up.

I've become very friendly with Kilz primer. It's more of a love/hate relationship. I love what it does, but I hate dealing with it! I probably killed a couple of important brain cells while using it. I used the ceiling paint that goes on purple and dries white, what fun:) Touch up was a bit easier with it and the kids loved that I was painting the ceiling purple.

Once I had the banister painted white and the walls and trim done, the stairway and stairs screamed out for a face lift as well. They didn't look bad, until you put the bright white next to them:)

We knew the toughest part of the job was going to be the floor paint, not that painting the floor is hard, but that you can no longer walk in that area for at least 24 hours after painting. Did I mention that it's kind of a like our hallway up there? You have to walk through it to get to the bedrooms and the bathroom? Are you seeing my dilemma? We shipped the kiddos off to Grandma's house for the weekend and we packed ourselves up and moved our residence downstairs for the weekend. Then we started prepping. I started to, more like attempted to, get the carpet runner off the stairs. The old nails that they used kept breaking and so I frustratingly left the job for Chad:)

Once Chad got his big man tools out, the carpet came us easily, I need some more tools:)

While Chad was carpet wrestling, I sanded the entire floor and stairs. Once the dust settled, I washed everything up and then let dry.

After a movie, it was time to paint. It was eight pm and I was ready to start...it shouldn't take too long. At 1 AM I handed off the baton, a.k.a. paintbrush, to Chad. I hobbled down the stairs and he finished up the stair painting.

Now we wait. I am so curious to see what the upstairs looks like in the daylight but we have to wait 24 hours before we can step on the floor/stairs. My body is creaking and I'm not sure if it's from sleeping on the air mattress or from five hours of crawling around on the wooden floor painting. I do know that I'll be rigging up some type of knee pad system for tonight and the all important second coat of paint. Wish me luck!

Bugs, Rot and Destruction

So we finally heard back on the house on Windy City Rd, the property that was the original dream property. Early this week we got an email from the bank's realtor with news that the sale had fallen through and that the house was again available, this time for a cash sale. First of all, we don't have that kind of cash and second, why did the second sale fall through? The email stated that there were some issues...

Our trusty realtor responded back with "Do you have any idea what the multiple issues would cost?"

And this is the response we got back...

Lots of money: Inadequate crawl space. All supports are bug munched and rotting. Inadequate support structure and so it will take some time for a contractor to quote the full impact. Likely that if bodies cant get in the crawl and the supports are not supporting, this might be a tear down. Major rehab or reconstruction is going to be the answer.

And God is good. He protected us and made it perfectly clear that though the property was great, the house would fall down around us. That would deffinately not be good:)

I, of course, called the ex-boyfriend's mother and let her know everything too. That's just want nice people do:)

What did we learn from this? God is good all the time. And that I'm a pretty good painter. And that lowes only sells one type of tintable floor paint and they won't tint it the color I want. And that our local Restore is awesome! More to come about the Restore and painting and maybe even houses:)

Let us buy a house already!

So we haven't heard anything more about the house out near Molalla. Well, we've heard something, just not from our Realtor. It turns out that the offer that outbid us, that first devastating offer, was made by a man and his wife who live in the area, who just happens to be an ex-boyfriend from high school and a childhood friend of Chad's. Did anyone just laugh out loud in disbelief? Well I sure did when I heard:) Chad can say, "Brandon may have gotten the house, but I got the girl." And I'm sure that he thinks of me as a wonderful prize, most of the time, maybe once a week:)

While all of this bidding against the ex-boyfriend was going on, we found a house online here in Yamhill County that I immediately fell in love with. Dream house kind of stuff. The property was smaller (three acres) but already cross-fenced for the future horse and livestock. We took a look at the house on Thursday and it caused my heart to stutter in adoration. I was so far gone that I didn't even check to see if each room had a heating vent, and seriously this was a big deal previously. After praying about it and seeing the house for a second time, which we included the kids in, we made an offer on Sunday afternoon.

And then we found out it was another multiple offer situation! This house in not bank owned nor a short sale. It's just a beautiful home in the country that is priced well. So Monday afternoon finally comes and we get the long awaited call from the Realtor. Bad news, they didn't counter offer, they didn't think it over, they just sent an offer rejection email to our Realtor. Are you starting to see a pattern here? The pattern where we are those poor schmucks that house sellers just love, we help push up the price without any work on there part. Just let us buy your house already!!

It turns out that the listing is still active, our Realtor is checking on this. The other deal may have fallen through or maybe they were hit by a bus. You just never know. (I'm not hoping for the other bidders to be hit by a bus...I'm just saying, it could happen). So we wait to see what our Realtor can dig up and we keep praying. Praying for patience for that perfect home, praying for the intelligence to make a wise choice for our family, and mostly praying for good eyesight so that we can see God's plan as it comes.

I thought about giving a link to the listing so you all could gaze at my dream house. But I couldn't guarantee that you wouldn't run out and make an offer and beat us down again if the opportunity arose. And then I'd probably have to wish bad things upon you, Like an out of control bus:)

NEW INFO: House went sale pending. So our only chance is if the sale falls through for some reason. I'm not sure what to pray for...do I pray that someone else has a difficult situation or that their dreams get crushed in order for mine to be fulfilled? Probably not. I'll pray that God's will be done and that His peace fills my heart.