Sorry I have been MIA

I am finally coming up for air. It has been a crazy week. We closed on our new house, and we have been non-stop trying to get it livable. Yes, you read that right. The dump house was really not livable.

Right after we closed I walked thru it and I felt the tears burning the back of my eyes. Right about then one of my friends showed up and helped me pull up my big girl panties and get busy scrubbing, ripping out carpet, ripping off wallpaper, and scrubbing some more.

I can’t even begin to explain how gross the house was. Gross.

My mom called me a few nights after I got here and said, “why aren’t you returning my texts?? Why haven’t you called?” I could barely string words together I was so tired. And overwhelmed. I drove up here last Wednesday with 4 kids and one dog pulling a small U-haul trailer with our clothes and other small items by myself. There was rain most of the way, fog so thick I couldn’t see, and then a snow storm when we finally hit Ohio. By the time Andy showed up the following Monday I was ready to to cry, call it quits, find a new house…. you name it. But the day he arrived we had sorta turned a corner. My friends and I had ripped out all of the disgusting carpet (probably 50’s original and former owner was a smoker) and pulled up all the tack strips. Some bloody fingers resulting. We had the carpet replaced in the rooms that didn’t have hardwood floors (a temporary solution until we blow this house apart). Slowly it was starting to look like a house we could actually fix.

And the details are this

We found a house on our favorite street in our old hood. It’s almost 2 acres. It’s a small 3 bedroom brick ranch. And the previous owner raised 6 kids here. One of them a Buckeye football player. It is the smallest, probably ugliest house on the street. But it’s a box- and we saw potential.

We are living like we are camping. With minimum belongings. We left most of our stuff in Chapel Hill to stage the house there- which is isn’t even on the market yet. So it’s….. interesting.

But the kids are thrilled. They are happy to be home. And after the initial shock of our new house wore off they climbed on board. Saw the vision.

We have so much help from family and friends.

We plan to add a 2nd story and bump out the back of this house. And move walls, and do the basement. The boys are begging to do the basement first. They have no place to hang out. Unfortunately our hands are pretty much tied until we sell our other house. Which could take a long time. So we are all practicing patience.

I haven’t really taken any pictures- I will get on that soon.

Austin’s going away card from friends in Chapel Hill

Cole too

We crossed into Ohio and it started snowing like crazy

We headed a friends house where Cole turned into “Thor”

Eva was happy to have her other Mama’s back

A friend of a friend was moving and selling her riding lawn mower for cheap so we snatched it up. I thought Blake was going to pee his pants when my friend started riding it down the street.

Austin’s friends started helping right away. This is just a glimpse at how the house looks…

But I started feeling better when the orange and green carpet was gone. And some windows got covered

when it got dark we turned off the lights and told ghost stories for the kids

And finally- my Shiloh girl loves the front window and checking out her front yard. She loves to watch the snow fall.

I will give better updates soon but this is my first time to even turn on my computer in over a week. I am having a hard time returning emails and texts- its just a bit chaotic with getting the kids signed up for school, sports, finding clothes, buying warm clothes- nobody has a jacket that will fit…. you get the idea. To top if off the house is old. And small. So everything we brought is still in the garage. Baby steps.