Big Kid Room...

Since Baby J has still not made his arrival and I already shared his nursery, I figured it was high time to share BD's room… better known as the "Big Kid Room"
Why do we refer to it this way?  We have every intention of letting BD and J share a room one day!
But for now… it is all hers…

____________

In true BD fashion when we moved, BD decided she no longer was sleeping in her crib... She wanted to sleep in her big girl bed. There was no delaying it, it was time to set up the big kid room!

I had all these ideas and even started a Pinterest board. But to be honest, I just could not pull it together. Nothing was working the way I wanted it to and I was finding what I had in mind. Then we were at Bed Bath and Beyond looking at the clearance bedding section... And there were two twin size bed in a bags complete with pillows and everything that fit the gender neutral color scheme I was going for (we plan to let the littles share the room when they are old enough:)). Used my two 20% coupons and we were set for under $70 for all our bedding! We added one new thing on the wall for about $25 from Target and viola... Big girl room decorated for under $100. We just used decor we already had for the rest.

This where I right the Bible versus we are working on!

I replaced the knobs on this and have big plans to refinish it… one day...

BD love the way it turned out... And yes there are toys everywhere but that is life :)!

BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'

Our Home Journey… Dwelling 6

I am back to finally share the last installment (for now) of Our Home Journey… and bum bum bum bum… our 6th home together and the first home we have bought!

Before you hear about our new home… you may want to catch up on the prior six we have lived in in the past 6 years!

Intro and Dwelling One
Dwelling Two
Dwelling Three
Dwelling Four
Dwelling Five
Dwelling Six

And now here we go… our home!

Dwelling Six

Our First Home with a Mortgage 

We had looked and looked for houses… from the beginning of October until January. Maybe that is normal?  We don't know we had never done this before.  Our budget was on the low side for the area and what we wanted/needed and we just kept walking into houses that just did not cut it.  They were either a MAJOR flip job (think everything in the house had to be replaced) or to way to far out (we knew we wanted to be central).  To boot people kept telling us we should look in this neighborhood or that neighborhood… and the the back of my mind I would say, sure with an extra $50,000-$100,000 we could go there.

Early on, before we were fully ready to buy we found a house we really liked and it was priced right! It was a flipped house with 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths, great open living space.  But we knew it would not last- too good of a deal and it was bought before we were ready to make an offer.

Right at the beginning of January I went back to looking at rentals and was about to give up.  Then Andrew and I talked, crunched numbers and decided we could boost our budget just a tiny bit and see if that made a difference.  We looked one more time and found three houses we liked!  Perfect no, but great for our family.

We decided to put an offer in on another flipped house with a good location for us and the huge blessing- 4 bedrooms/2.5 baths.  We thought there was no way we be able to get that extra bedroom, but there it was!  The only catch was the living area was small and a big space for entertaining was a top priority. We decided we could take down the wall between the kitchen and living room and it would work.

So we put in an offer and after some negotiations the house was ours.  Bought our first home and did our first renovation!  We have been here just more than two months and we are still setting up.  It is taking more time than we expected, but that is okay.  It takes time and a home is never really finished!

View from the front door of the "great room."

View of "great room" from the back.

Eat in area/dining

Kitchen

Master

Master bath (maybe the smallest bathroom you have ever seen but it is so nice to have)

Laundry- super organized right?

Main bath

"Big Kid's" room aka BD's room for now

The totally unfinished nursery and a bad picture at that… it is not actually this yellow in there.

 

And how is this for imperfection… the "back right room" /the office/guest room/who knows!

We Learned…

*People have a lot of thoughts about where you should live/how you should buy/etc… take the good advise and leave the rest.
*Keep to your budget and keep it on the low side as much as possible.  I have heard it said that you should keep it at 30% of your take home pay.  We tried to keep it at 25% or less of just Andrew's income.  The bank will give you a bigger loan than that.  Just because they will does not mean you should or you need a house that is that expensive.
*A home does not have to be perfectly ready to have guests.  We had a meeting at a house the first week we moved in.  Was everything ready?  No.  But one of the points of having a home is the fact that God calls us to be hospitable.
*If you think moving into a rental has a lot of expenses (like we did) just go ahead and buy and get ready for REALLY expensive.  From lawnmowers, to paint, to furniture, to the unexpected.  Make a priority list and take it one day (or year) at a time, it does not have to happen all at once.
*Pick the most lived in rooms and set those up first.  To be honest the office/extra bedroom and the nursery are still a disaster… but we don't need them yet so it has been fine to wait.
*Be patient things don't get set up overnight!
*And I sure there is more to come in the years (hopefully) we will be here.

Catch Up

Intro and Dwelling One
Dwelling Two
Dwelling Three
Dwelling Four
Dwelling Five
Dwelling Six

All that being said come visit us friends! We would love to show you around! :)

BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'

Our Home Journey… Dwelling Five

So I took a short hiatus from the series… we moved into our new house and things have been crazy.  It is like when your plate is already full and you add a big transition… BOOM madness!
Anyways… if you want to catch up you can here…
Intro and Dwelling One
Dwelling Two
Dwelling Three
Dwelling Four
Dwelling Five
Dwelling Six

If you want to hear about our new and exciting home you will have to check back next week for pictures and other fun! :)  Because this weeks is about...

Dwelling Five

The In-law's House

Yep, you heard right, our fifth home has been Andrew's parent's house.  We knew the time in Statesboro would end and were still unsure where God had us next.  Surely we would know by May, or at least June… maybe July??? We had to move out the end of July… and we did not know where we were moving.  The last week in July we had two interviews and knew we were moving somewhere the next week.  Has that ever happened to you?  Packing boxes before you even knew where you are moving?  Slightly stressful and takes a leap of faith.

Well, we prayed and felt called back to Andrew's home church and in the quick transition we temporarily moved in with Andrew's parents.  Little did we know temporary would turn into 7 months.  Our initial plan was to live there until end of September/ beginning of October while we looked for a place to rent.  Once we started looking for a place to rent we started pondering buying.  One thing lead to another… and while we started looking in October we did not move out until February!

First, I have to say we are blessed, blessed, blessed with Andrew's parents.  When people asked me how it was to live with the in-laws I would say, "We are in as good of a situation as it could be!"  Of course we were in their space and we did not have our own, but it worked.

We mainly resided in one bedroom, though BD did sleep in another room which helped.  But I never felt like we quite mastered living in that one small space.  I feel like our piles had piles… just no where to put anything.  And I felt bad because all our stuff took over the bonus room and crowded every nook.  Our couches and big furniture even lived in their dining room.

Yes… our stuff.. piled up EVERYWHERE!

There were no decorations to speak of… it was just survival mode.  By the time left we had random boxes open left and right… it was a mess.  I feel like this was the one place I never quite figured out how to organize.

***To be honest… I feel like I am still processing this.  We really just moved 2 weeks ago. Still trying to take it all in.:)***
*Living with family for a while is okay.  I used to think that this was a huge no-no, but I really learned family is there to give and support.  It is a balance, we accepted the help but hopefully did not take advantage.
*You can be flexible with your own pet peeves.  I know there were things we did that drove my in-laws-crazy, but they lived with it.  And there were things that I would do differently, but ultimately it was not my home and I wanted to respect the way they did things.

Come back next week and see our new house!!! :)

Catch Up

Intro and Dwelling One
Dwelling Two
Dwelling Three
Dwelling Four
Dwelling Five
Dwelling Six

BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'

Our Home Journey… Dwelling Four

Just a little journey through our 6 homes in 6 years! :)

Can't believe I am already on house four in this journey!  The timing is crazy though because at this rate I will talk about dwelling five next week and six right after we close on the house we are buying!!!  But anyways…

It is time to tell you about...

Dwelling Four

The Apartment with the Indoor/Outdoor Carpet

We were loving our brand new apartment.  But Andrew's graduation was coming and knew we would have exactly two weeks to leave when that happened. The job search was in full swing.  Let me make clear that this was a job search and not a one year internship search.  But after a few months, it was clear where God was pointing us… a one year internship at Georgia Southern.  It felt surprising that this where we were lead to go… Andrew had already done on internship… we were done with that.  But it was clear and we made the move trusting that God would provide.

The interesting thing about this job was that it came with housing.  A one bedroom apartment complete with cinderblock walls, and an old kitchen and washer and dryer.  That was not even the worst… the worst was the indoor/outdoor carpet that graced the floors of the apartment.  I am sure the carpet was filled with dust and allergens no matter how much we vacuumed.  And yep… BD crawled all over those floors… and gasp, survived!  The apartment sounds like every girls home making dream, right?

But all things considered again we made the space work.  No, it was not perfect but I do believe we made quite cute and cozy. Better than that we came to know the value of location.  The apartment was part of the building where Andrew worked.  You could not get more convenient than this!  And for me it was a dream to live where we were doing ministry.  I would be able to put BD down for a nap or for the night and go to worship or lead a Bible study.  Students were able to come to the apartment (no matter what its state) and really do life with us.  It was an amazing place to live.

The apartment included one large bedroom.  We devoted half to our space.


And half to the nursery.  We eventually even put up some old doors as dividers and it really felt like two rooms!

We had one good sized bathroom with odd paint color.

 The living room worked well  for us because it was a pretty big space.

And the kitchen even had a little eat in area.

And of course the week after we moved out they installed laminate wood flooring.  The irony.

We learned…

*One baby and one bedroom can work (but it does help for the bedroom to be a little bigger).

*Location, Location, Location.

*Live as close as possible to where you do ministry and among the people you do ministry with!

*Babies don't need their own room.

*Bring people into your home, even when it is a little messy (aka lived in).

*Bring people into the everyday activities of your home- the cooking, laundry and all that jazz… you really get a chance to do life with people that way.

*When you can't change things about a space (nasty carpet and cinderblock walls in my case)  just accept them.  Make your house your home in spite of them!

*Don't be afraid to take a "step back" in your living situation- you don't have to own a house or even rent a beautiful apartment for it to be home!

  

Catch Up

Intro and Dwelling One
Dwelling Two
Dwelling Three
Dwelling Four
Dwelling Five
Dwelling Six

What have your learned from your past homes???

BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'

Our Home Journey… Dwelling Three

Just a little journey through our 6 homes in 6 years! :)

Now it is time to tell you about...

Dwelling Three

The Short Lived Brand New Apartment 

We actually lived the longest amount of time in dwelling two… Two years and four months to be exact.  Then we found out the exciting news... that we were pregnant again after our miscarriage!!!  We knew they would not let us stay in the married with out kids dorms, even though we would only be there a couple of months after the baby was born (Andrew was graduating and we would have to move out then).

The timeline looked like this...

They would have us move in October of 2012

Baby was due March of 2013

Andrew would graduate in May of 2013 and we would be required to move out

So basically we moved into this apartment for all of seven months, only two of which we had a baby.  But to be honest… it was totally worth it!  We were going from our ancient 500 square foot "apartment" to a legit 2 bedroom, 2 full bath apartment that was brand new… as in no one had lived in it before!  Soak in the tub all you want Stasia, it is not dirty from years of use and neglect, in fact you are the only one who has ever used it!

So we pseudo packed up our things and moved a quarter of a mile down the street (for real).  

The house had a decent sized living room.  

As small kitchen, but a kitchen none the less

A master bedroom with room to spare

An "on suite" (okay, I am just acting glamorous now :))

A second bedroom that we decorated as a nursery, but BD never actually slept in (she was two months old when we moved and still sleeping in our room).

 A second bathroom- oh the convenience!

A laundry room (no more coin laundry!!!!)


And even a hallway (our first ever)

This place was not as big as our first, but huge in comparison to the last apartment.  We loved having the space, really we did.  It made the move worth it even though it was just for a few months.  And one thing you might notice looking at the pictures is that we decorated even though we were only there for a short period of time.  We decided that it did not matter that were there for a short period, we wanted to make it home for us and guests!

This place was super special too, because it is where we brought BD home to from the hospital.

We learned…

*While we knew tons of space was not a necessity, we learned having a little more was super nice.

*And two bathrooms is like a dream.

*Even if you are only going to live someplace for a short period, make it home! 

* You can make a home your own, even without paint, easy simple changes make a difference!

*Linoleum floors *still* are the pits (but *still* not the worst… I will share that with you at a later date).

*Having a baby changes the home… in a good way.  

Catch Up

Intro and Dwelling One
Dwelling Two
Dwelling Three
Dwelling Four
Dwelling Five
Dwelling Six

BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'