Catch up #2 - house hopes

Another "major event" of March was someone coming to look at our house. The holidays made everything slow down so December through February were months of silence and we had almost given up hope that we would sell it. Then one Monday morning our realtor called and asked if I had gotten her email. I said, "no" and she said, "Well, someone wants to look at the house today, sometime between 10:00am  and 4:00pm. I started cleaning like a maniac and called my husband to come fix the floor in our bedroom.

The night before he had watered our fig tree (which we kept inside during the winter) and it had overflowed onto the floor. When we did our laminate wood floors, there were certain places where we cut the planks a wee bit short and it didn't line up all the way to the baseboard (which we have since filled in with wood filler). The water had actually gotten underneath the flooring so he had to take a chunk of the floor apart to let it dry. Luckily he was not doing a delivery route and was able to come right over and get it fixed in no time.

Here is our house from the outside:

 Here is the outside of our house from the back. I took this during sunset, so it makes the paint look like a different shade of green.

 

Here is our lovely "barn". See the numbers on it? We didn't number the rooms. Whoever lived here before us did that. We use #4 for storing firewood. #2 we currently park our truck in and store other stuff in. #1 is currently empty. That's Julian's car poking out but he doesn't live with us anymore. 

Here is the other side of the barn. #6 is the kids playhouse. #3 is the entrance to where we keep firewood (which on the other side is numbered as #4). To the right of the ladder is the entrance to our chicken coop where we currently only have one surviving rooster.

We have 13 fruit trees that were planted 3 years ago. So, technically they should bear fruit this year but they are still on the small side. We have apple, pear, apricot, peach, nectarine and plum.

If you have kids, I highly recommend a sand box. The kids have all kinds of fun exercising their imaginations all in this little box. What's even cooler is that underneath that box there is a big tank that collects grey water from the bathtub. The water then gets pumped underground to water our trees. 

And...here is our garage. Since taking this picture we have fixed that little window there and we plan on putting on real garage doors. It's all closed off so that's why we are parking in the barn. 

So, let's imagine that you walked in the front door (which most people don't - we usually come in through the laundry room). But, here on the left is the living room. Right ahead is the dining room and to the right of that is the kitchen.

We want to put some rock work behind the wood stove to give it that "finished" look, but our realtor said some people may want to take the wood stove out. So, we figure, what's the point in spending the money on something that may be a turn-off to someone who wants to buy the house.

Down the hall, the first room is David's office.

Next on the right is the kids room.

At the end of the hall is the bathroom. This house does not have a traditional "master bathroom" that is connected to the master bedroom. A turn-off for some people, but it's not a big deal to us.

The only room on the left is the master bedroom. We love the bay windows, but one thing we need to get is some blinds. On some nights the moon is super bright and in the day, the sun shines in so well that our bedspread and pillows are getting faded.

There is no "walk in closet" but there is a "his" and "hers" closet that are big enough for us.

If you walk back down the hall, past the living room and dining room is our guest room.

This is actually the largest room, with the largest closet in the whole house. It used to be the garage and it was turned into a room.

This is our guest bathroom. I had to take this off the realtor's site cause I didn't want to take another one and upload it.

 Lastly, our laundry room.

There you have it. Our house. If you know anyone who wants to move out into the desert, let them know there is a lovely house they can look at.

So, when the lady came to look at our house we had barely finished a lunch of pasta with home-made sauce and garlic bread. BAD choice of food for the day. She was VERY sensitive to the smell of garlic and went through the house really fast.

She liked it well enough though that she said she would be back with her husband later that week. But, the day he was supposed to come, their realtor had a family emergency and they cancelled.

That was a bit discouraging but it's in the Lord's hands. If he wants us to sell our house, He'll make it happen.

catch up #1 - Getting firewood

This is old news, but I've got pictures to commemorate, so I might as well use them :)

Back on February 17th we got one chord of firewood. Then on March 3rd, we spent another Sunday getting more. The second time, we brought Julian along. His help made my load lighter and he gained valuable experience using a chainsaw to add to his skill set of manliness.

I'll be honest, there's something really attractive about a man who can climb a tree and use a chainsaw safely. It just screams "manly." Okay, I think the other attractive part is that he is willing to spend his only day of the week to relax to go in the forest with his family to get dirty, sweat, do something that will save a bunch of money on an electric bill and be an example to his children of how hard work can be fun and rewarding.

 

Yes, this is what a "forest" looks like when you live in the desert. Several years ago the Forest Management people said you could only cut "dead and down" but after a huge fire swept through this area, they changed it to include "dead and standing."

The kids helped some, but they spent the larger bulk of time having fun in the dirt. Orion brought the tractor Grandpa gave him and had fun moving dirt piles.


We left around 8:00 am, got to the forest about 9:00 and stopped for lunch at about noon. David, Julian and I ate BBQ gluten burgers (similar to a sloppy Joe) with potato salad and the kids had PB&J's with oranges.  I guess they didn't wipe their faces very well after lunch because at the end of the day, it looked like they had eaten dirt sandwiches. We worked till around 4:00 and got home at 5:00, in time to unload, take a shower and eat supper by 6:30. Nothing feels so good as a good shower after all that work...oh wait, a good massage feels pretty good too.

Thanks again Julian for your help.