...And It Needed Help

     Thanks to a bunch of friends and vehicle loaning, we were able to clean this up.  So this is what you would have seen back in September when you first open the front door.  To your immediate right is the door to the kitchen.  The white row of block to the wall is a "chimney" like none I have ever seen.  The door beyond that was the existing downstairs bathroom (Which will be turned into a proper laundry room).

     I know you want to see what the kitchen looked like when we got there, I always want to see the kitchen first!  Oh yeah and that little black hole in the wall is the chimney for a stove.  (we hope to eventually put in a small fire place here.
     So I loved the arched door (even though I didn't realize this whole wall was going to have to come off to rewire the place! Ha, ha)


     Here is what you would have seen walking into the kitchen.  Believe it or not, we found a window under the tiles behind the sink.  There is also a window on the front of the house in the kitchen.  When they are replaced it will be a nice sunny little kitchen.  All of the cupboards were removed and the dry wall removed for the remodeling to be done properly.

     In the back of the kitchen, they had this odd arrangement for the washer and dryer.  They were kind of kaddy-corner   Behind this wall is the bathroom that will be the future  laundry room.  Also keep in mind as you look at these, I was expecting to move in quickly and use this kitchen.  The Lord had other plans for us though.  Not long after these pics were taken, it rained really hard-- you know, one of those gully-washers.  Wow.  We walked in and the kitchen and all under the chimney was a pool.  That is when we found out the floor is not level.  (when are they ever in old houses?)

     Although these pictures are months old, I just want to keep a proper record of what it all looked like (so that when it does start looking good we can all be pleasantly amazed instead of horrified.)

Front door and window

front door and both windows

Front door where water came in

narrow steps leading upstairs Kinda spooky

this is gone forever!

skinny bathroom door too

see how high the dirt comes up on the house

Bushes are gone now too :(

this is from the upstairs bathroom in two places

So We bought a House...

     So buying a house doesn't always mean you will be moving in a month.  We purchased our first house this past August 2011, which to us has been a most momentous occasion- but not nearly momentous enough for our friends.  You see, when we bought it, it was cheep.  I mean really cheep in all senses of the word.  So I guess what I mean to say is we bought some land (about 2.2 acres) and a house shell.  Well, it didn't look that way when we bought it...  Ok, ok, I guess I should start at the beginning.

   Having rented for the first three years of our marriage, (and two children later)  my husband and I were definitely keeping an eye out for the perfect deal.  We were spending lots of time in prayer and on Zillow.  Our goal is to be out of debt in 5 to 10 years. With that in mind -and the fact that we didn't have much of a savings to talk about- we went house hunting.  For a while we kind of lost our focus and gave in to the whole mortgage thing.  

    Then one night I caught a glimpse of a new posting for less than 20 Grand!  (Suddenly our spirits soared again with the possibility that we might not have to have our children pay for the rest of our mortgage!) It is in a really great neighborhood, but it is not the gem of the area. No, it is more like a diamond in the rough. When we looked at it before purchasing, there was trash in it everywhere.  (seven truck loads of trash we found out later)  It was difficult to make an assessment then, but we jumped at the chance to own it.  After coming up with the funds,  signing papers that we had the funds, putting in a bid, signing papers, finding out we had won it, and signing more papers, we finally owned a house.  W.O.W.  That was big.

     What was even bigger was how much work we were going to have to do to make it livable.  We had no idea people could live in a house that water rushed under the front door in a storm ( I am surprised it wasn't listed with an indoor swimming pool), or that the wiring was jimmy-rigged, or with windows boarded up. .  Thankfully, the floor is tile over slab foundation.  Not only that, but the house is built with cement blocks.  Another blessing is that the roof seems to be intact without any leaks.  It looks very much like a large version of the houses that my husband grew up around in Mexico.  That is how it came to be  lovingly dubbed "La Casa Grande."


     Next time I hope to show you what the inside looked like after all the trash was gone.