Water... Lots of Water

As explained in my last post, we had the pleasure of dealing with lots of junk along with some of the treasures left behind by our sellers. I guess the trash vs. treasure debate was still open on this beauty...

This is a water bed (Treasure? ;)

This is a water bed with a very pregnant Sarah on it (Maybe Jonah will like the soothing waves??)

And this is a water bed with a metal ceiling support rod stabbed through it! (Trash now!!)

Soooo, Jake and I had to stop the little argument we were having and work together to solve the very immediate water problem. Tried the patch sticker, which doesn't work very well when water is running out of the hole you are trying to patch. Plan B: I went and found the draining thing, and went outside to find a hose. After dragging a disgusting old hose through the house to hook it up to the faucet magic drain thing, Jake worked on hooking it to the faucet.

Unfortunately, he was a little tough on the poor thing, and stripped the plastic threads right out, leaving us with more problem solving to do! Electrical tape to the rescue!

We ran the pump for a few hours and were making very slow headway, until Farmer Joe came over with a motorized pump to speed up the process. Yay for farmers who have random machines for everything!

Overall we spent several hours dealing with the waterbed...

but we've come a long way! The house has officially been sorted and is empty of the trash and donate-able items we don't want, with the treasures stacked in one room ready to find a new use with the Fultons!

Including...

This TV was trash... but there was a donate-able one. Bailey-Boo was my shadow as usual :)   

Hellooooo BEAUTIFUL mirror! Sorry about the crazy reflection!

Obsessed with this cool old high chair! SO classic!

All sorts of little goodes! Old suit cases, a tea cart, card tables, vases, lamps, picture frames, and a coffee percolator :)  

For some reason I think this bird mobile is cool! 

Who wouldn't love this armoire! Katie was checking for Narnia... ;) 

AND this is where I need help!! I think this box is cool, but it is so HUGE I don't know how to re-purpose it. It's WAY too tall to be a coffee table or bench... let me know if you think of anything!

A House Full of Surprises

Thursday, January 2, 2012 we got the keys! These keys by the way, included 2 actual skeleton keys that work our front doors! Seriously?? But that was only the beginning of the madness we found in our old farm house.

We knew the seller would be leaving what they didn't want, but we had no idea what that would be. Among other things our house included:

• a deer pelt on the wall
• matching deer hooves we could always use as hooks ;) 
• enough nicotine to stain the walls around anything that was hanging on the walls (see the leaf?)

• various kitchen appliances (anyone need a 30 year old waffle iron??) 
• couches, beds, dressers and more random furniture in all their 70s glory
• a waterbed.. not drained (more on this later!)
• strange nick-nacks of every kind

But we had some treasures mixed in as well: 

• a cool old piano made in 1900 (seriously needs tuned!!) 
• a beautiful turned wood high chair
• a shelf full of vases
• a retro canister set that I love

• an old school map from 1910 (framing this for the play room)
• silverware stamped from 1884
• and a box of letters, some from as far back as 1881!

We have truckloads of trash, plenty to donate to goodwill, and lots of cleaning to do before we even start renovating, but I feel like we're making headway! 

Starting a New Chapter with 6 Acres and Lots of Love.

Today I had one of those moments. The kind when you realize you are going through your day, and suddenly, you realize you are making the memories that you will always want to look back upon.

I want to remember the ups and downs of my blessed and amazing life in full color with all the crazy details... and this little blog will be a great dumping ground for all of it.

So where to start?

December 2011: Sometimes you make plans, and then God makes sure you know who's really in charge. :)  on December __ 2011 I had a normal day planned. Work, dentist, miss my sweet husby who was on a business trip, and relax... but normal took a turn for: huge life decisions made in moment of insanity faith!

Jake heard about a property we needed to check out. Now granted, we had given up the house search after being repeatedly disappointed with something about every place we saw, so we had decided to work on being content in the cute little house we were renting on the family farm... but this place was it. Jake knew he loved it, and we hadn't even seen the inside, but wow! The lot. 6 acres of rolling hills, a little spring fed pond, an old 2 story farmhouse, and a huge old bank barn that looked like it was straight out of the b&w barn photography book on our coffee table... it was perfect AND right in our price range!

Then the incredible series of coincidences, or God's miracles, began to work, and I drove up to the house with Amy only to realize that Joe's old buddy from high school was the realtor! We called him up to talk about the place and quickly learned that we weren't the only ones who loved this house. The place had only been on the market for days, yet even in the sluggish economy it had already been shown 3 times, with 7 more showings the next day. People were telling Steve, our realtor, that they were going to put in an offer for the full price that next day after they saw it! With that knowledge, we had a decision to make: wait to see the house like everyone else, then decide on making an offer, maybe waiting until Jake was home from Minnesota, or decide to jump on in...

Well you obviously know what we did! We offered on the house - that night - and thanks to a 9 p.m. contract signing, our offer was accepted by 10! That's right, we hadn't seen the inside, or even so much as walked around the property.

Well as usual, when God opens doors and screams for you to walk through them, everything about the house was better than we could have imagined! That is, until we saw that the foundation was bulging on one side, the roof needed replaced, there was no heating up stairs, and the whole place would have to be extensively remodeled... But that 6 acres! And the trim work! And the amazing tall ceilings!

But a budget is a budget, and despite my hormone fueled tears over the thought of losing the place, we decided to let the seller know that unless he took off 20,000 dollars... we had to walk away. And we knew someone else could pay full price without blinking, so we considered it a loss before we even made the call.

Then God did one of those amazing things He does, and somehow, our offer was accepted!! The house, the 6 acres, the pond, the barn - it was ours!

Which brings me to today - January 4, 2012, and that new chapter I want to savor. Oh and did I mention that we are also super excited for the arrival of baby Jonah?? Yep! Talk about an exciting year! New babies make day dreams about new homes SO much more fun! :)