Home Sweet Home?

We moved in on July 7. We were so excited, overwhelmed and ready to be under on roof again. That day we realized our kitchen sink would not drain. Everything else was going great, except our kitchen sink. There were things here and there we noticed that we didn't catch the other times we were in the house like a few places of molding missing, some places on the decks that need to be fixed, etc, but all of that we were semi-prepared for. The kitchen sink was the biggest problem it seemed.

We called a plumber the next day and had him take a look under the house to see what the heck was going on. He said it appeared that someone very stupid installed a disposal and since they were not knowledgeable enough to flip the disposal the right direction for the pipe they installed their own pipe that was not vented. Thus, making our sink not drain and our dishwasher back up into our sink... headache. Well, we had the home warranty and this plumber said it would cost $60 to fix it. He climbed under the house to be sure that was the only issue and came up saying, "That is the worst plumbing I've ever seen...." Um, what?! What does that mean?
He said it was cheap pipe, sliced together wrong, not bracketed to the house, etc. (Sounds terrible to me) So I panic. $60 is the same price to have the home warranty come out also and there were a few other very minor things that needed fixing, I figured hey, let's use the home warranty and maybe they'll take care of this 'worst pipe we've ever seen' situation too.

Well, bring on one of the grumpiest plumbers I've EVER met, a 10-minute glance at my house and America Home Shield denied our claim saying that this should have been caught by a home inspector, thus they were not fixing anything. Anyone surprised?

I was VERY upset about this for a day or so until I talked to N's nanny who explained to me that the devil was trying to get in. I had been telling EVERYONE how much our house was a God thing and just such a blessing and showing all the ways God has been talking to us through this process. After realizing this, I let it go. I was so thankful for this revelation because the next day at 3am I was getting up for Seattle. I did not want this stress choking me during my trip. I walked back into my house after that conversation declaring my house to be a house of the Lord, for him to take over my house and use it for his service.

Fast forward to returning home from Seattle. I decided to call the home inspector who did not catch any of these issues to ask him if he really even looked under our house (to which he says he did....), BUT he was apologetic and came back out to our house to check out the issue. He was nice considering I cried most of the conversation. After he came out and looked he told Ben that he would try to help us out with this issue and wanted to have his plumber come out also. We explained we were having our own out and he was fine with that, just asked that we call once we get an estimate to repair all the plumbing under the house. (I was really starting to feel God working through this issue.)

Well then we had Lowe's come to deliver our refrigerator and they backed over our sprinkler system hub and busted a water line... we didn't notice for about 2 hours until our yard was a flood. Keep in mind, I had asked the Lord to take over my house and get the devil out, I didn't mention my yard, lol! Apparently that was as close as the devil could get.

Funny thing - our plumber pulled in about 20 minutes after we noticed it because he was coming to give us an estimate. How often does that happen. This was all way after 5pm too. So, Lowe's is going to pay him what it cost for him to repair our water line, and he will fix ALL of our plumbing under the whole house for $1500, with the inspector paying half. While this is A LOT of money, I am thankful it is not 5 times this considering there is a lot of pipe to be repaired.

All of this could be a MILLION times worse. I just praise the Lord for working every step of the way through this whole purchase.

We still have a lot to do to make this house our own, but things are coming together! Can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us.

Seattle

5 days after we moved into our house I left for Seattle. My college roommate was getting married and my other roommate and I decided to head up there for her wedding. This trip was planned far more in advance than the whole moving situation, so off I went leaving N and B with a half-unpacked house. The nursery and play room were ready though and N's amazing nanny helped Ben while he was at work and even sent dinner home each night. She is SO sweet.

Seattle was a lot of fun. If only Ben and N were in Seattle, I would have loved to have stayed longer. Thursday we arrived and made a quick trip to lunch and mimosas with the bride-to-be, then headed to get ready and meet the rest of the group for a bachelorette party at a dinner theater called, Teatro Zin-Zanni. It was AMAZING!!!! It was a 5-course meal that included an awesome theatrical show that wasn't only just acting, but also a ton of dancing, singing and acrobatics (the kind on trapeze and ropes!) And it wasn't like this was a large place. This was all happening just a few feet from us or above our heads. Seriously, if you ever go to Seattle, San Francisco or Costa Mesa (?) you must go!
After that we hit up a karaoke venue and happened to see bicycle lacrosse, I mean, wow... talk about muscle, I couldn't even manage to do either of those separately, much less together in competition with other people.

The rest of the trip was filled with wedding fun, a duck tour of the city, some super fancy fu-fu food (I'm more of a grilled cheese kinda person), the largest crab legs I'd ever seen, and lots of fun. I really enjoyed the trip, but was so ready to come home to my family and new house.

Side note: I was amazed and mostly confused about the level of recycling, composting they do! Compostable water bottles, trash bags, etc. it was serious business! We don't even have recycling pickup.

Anyway, next trip I hope will be with N and Ben to Charleston. Any thoughts?

Happy Birthday!!!!

Our sweet boy turned ONE on Sunday. Two days after we moved into our new home. We had a party the week before in anticipation of moving and some family being out of town. It was very low key, a swimming pool, some friends, family and cake. What else do you need?

At 12 months, N is:
- not walking on his own just yet
- has taken 3 or 4 steps though!
- doing a three-leg crawl a lot, which may mean we are getting closer
- working on losing the bottle, but we go through days where we want nothing to do with the bottle, and then days where he won't drink anything if its not in a bottle, I'm waiting to hear what our doctor says next week to full transition. Right now we just keep pushing the sippy cups.
- on whole milk and loves it!
- says mama to me a lot and byebye (ba-ba) while waving, so I'm pretty sure there's meaning behind both of those :)
- waves a lot
- eats EVERYTHING except apples, lol
- still sleeps at least 12 hours at night, mostly from 6:30 - 7ish
- loves other kids SO MUCH
- but loves dogs even more, I really wish our two dogs liked him. They seem to still hope he's just a visitor
- still riding rear-facing in the car, but in a bigger car seat. He seems very content backwards and since it came out that kids are safer backwards until two, we aren't rushing to turn him around. I doubt we'll make it until two, but as long as he's happy as could be, I see no reason to rock the boat.
- wants to go EVERYWHERE, he is 90 mph a lot of the day. He would love to play with all things not baby toys. plugs, fans, stairs, phones, you know... dangerous expensive items.

 

LOVE this shirt, from etsy :) (I'll try to find the link)

 

We had pictures taken a few weeks ago and got them all back last week in hopes that I would print a large one for his birthday party. So far they haven't made it off the disc, however I do LOVE them. Here are some of my favorites:

 

All the cousins ^ hilarious!

Post-move update coming soon, maybe while I'm traveling to SEATTLE on Thursday!!! YAY! Pray for safe travels and that I can emotionally survive missing my baby for that long. :)

God Bless This House

I love this sweet face (even if he has spaghetti still on his mouth).

Do you remember last post when I told you that we saw a house right after I had gotten done praying about 'where the heck are we going to live?!'.

Well, that house is the house. We went and saw it a couple Tuesdays ago and were very impressed. It is an older home that was redone and then the owners had to move across the country. One thing after another has shown us this is the house God wanted us to live in:

We never even saw it because it was out of our price range until I prayed asking God to please show me where we should live.

The sellers lowered the price $25K the DAY we went to look at it, which meant it was now in our price range!! The new price hadn't even been reflected on the internet yet, so we put an offer in on the new price which wasn't even advertised yet. They accepted our price leaving us with enough left over to help us do some baby-proofing on the decks, stairs, redneck pool, etc.

Anyways so the past 3 weeks have been CRAZY, unscheduled and loud! We took a trip to Orange Beach, Alabama to see the beach and some hot air balloons.

 

I LOVE HOT AIR BALLOONS!

 

Ben's mom came with us

 

We closed on our old house leaving us officially homeless. I moved in with my parents with N, while the buyer of our old house allowed Ben to stay there another week so he could get to work. (All of our stuff was already in the POD so there was no way I was staying in an empty house with an 11 month old.

 

Visiting with Pop-Pop

 

N and my mom's pug

In the meantime we've played with cousins a lot, had an early birthday party and spent time with friends we haven't been able to see in a long time. Its been a good time, but I'm over it. My parent's house, while a huge blessing to be able to stay here, is so loud, busy, crazy! I'm ready to be home.

We have missed having our husband/dad with us terribly! I am SO incredibly ready to live under the same roof with him again.

 

N and his cousins on his new truck

Today we found out we have closing scheduled for Friday!!! I have spent a lot of time praying over this. Friday will be 3 weeks since we applied for our mortgage, so its wonderful if it goes through then. Pray with me that we will be able to get in our new home then.

 

N and Lola.

Without further adieu - our new home. (This video was taken to show my mom while she was on vacation in Italy, ignore my silly commentary and stair counting... I wanted her to get the full effect, hah! If you care enough, its a long video... 8 minutes :)


My favorite parts of the house:
On 6 acres
10 minutes from work (HALLELUIAH!!!!)
4 decks!!! A private deck off the master. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

I have really prayed this house can be a house that will help us serve the Lord, build lasting relationships with neighbors and friends, have family visit and grow our family. I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for us!

If you watched the video, it does have a few quirks: A-frame, interesting staircase, no formal dining room, laundry off a hallway... but I'm okay handling those for everything else. We definitely have some growing to do! :)

 

June 2012 trip to Orange Beach :)