do we sell the house?

post by casey.

jacob and I have always thought this house would be our Forever Home. And it might still be. Maybe moving a couple times while I was growing up...a few times in my youth and a few times even before I remember...maybe that has enabled me to look at a house as just a safe place to 'call' home. I think I could call home any where I was with my family. Unfortunately, when I say Family...I mean that IF we were to ever more beyond the City limits, my mom and dad and Courts and her 10 kids and Pigg and Mal and her 4 kids/ETC. would have to move right along with us;).

i've looked into selling the house before. Our ultimate goal is to build a very small, energy efficient home on the land near his parents. Outside of town feels but very much the convenience and in town location. Ultimately, we can't afford to do that any time soon. Which is frustrating because I'd love to build a 1800sqft house and throw a few kids in shared rooms and have a tiny master with the space saved for a roomy closet and luxurious bathroom and walls of windows and solar panels on the roof...I haven't given it much thought at all;).

we shelved that idea a year or more ago when we realized it would take some pretty creative planning to make happen on our budget and that in the end...we'd be house poor. I wasn't willing to compromise travel. I'd rather stay where we're at, 'fixer-upper' + small mortgage and be able to travel, than to live in a finished home but not be able to DO anything.

Who are you...BIG house or LITTLE house?! Do you want all.the.space? Or like us, do you find that since moving UP and to a bigger home, you still find that you're ALL in the same place at the same time anyways?! 

when Jacob came home the other night and suggested that we look again at selling it all and starting over...we got to talking and realized that where we're at right now is...exactly where we should be:). We may not have cabinets in our kitchen. We may not have a floor in our bathroom. There may be wet spots on our ceilings where the old roof leaked. 

It's no where near 'done' but it really is perfect for us right now and we do, very much, love this house:). 

okay...babies and toddlers don't give me the luxury of being much more wordy on this blog posts and you KNOW I have so much more to say;). But what I will say is that we're staying put...for now. After a long talk, we kinda figured out that our impatience in being here and wanting to go somewhere else was less about the new place and more about starting over and starting fresh and being able to minimize and all the reasons we were listing for wanting to leave this house were things that we could change and do. Right now. And so we went to bed having stayed up way too late, talking about our plans and making lists - literally, my favorite nights with my husband:). 

over the last week I've sold more stuff and we've cleaned out rooms and started a bunch of projects and thrown things and hauled things out and downsized and organized and it feels so good!

had we had this conversation a year ago, I don't think much would have changed. For whatever reason, the other night, we were ready to take some action. Timing is always everything:). And so going forward, we are trying to motivate ourselves to do the things that we CAN do. Stop looking at what we 'want' 10 years from now or even tomorrow and concentrate on what we can do TODAY! And hell, there's A LOT that can be done today:).

now, here are some photos from earlier this summer when we went to Mead Wildlife Area and ran the trails and the misquotes had there way with us on the way through the woods and the kids got to pet some turtles and I got to run from a snake;).

i haven't forgotten the difficulty of the summer and adjusting to all the kids being home and the fighting and boredom and the missed naps and having to feed my kids - holy shit, that actually might be the worst..having to feed them all the times in a day;)...but even with all that, we really are having the best time and I think our summers together (and late night plan-making) and last minute adventures, will always be my favorite:).

i'm hungry and that may be all you get out of this.

a few things...unrelated to what I had planned on complaining talking about in this post...

i'm frakinnnnnnnn' hungry. Borderline, hangryyyyyyyy. I already ate supper but it was...unfulfilling;). So here I sit, at 1044PM...mostly, trying not to get pissed off and ask Jacob to go get me food and then have him refuse and then for me to hate him forever. The end.

And don't ask me why I don't just "Go To Bed" - at 1044PM - or I'll ask youuuuuuu for your address and come take all your food. And kill you. The end;).

just caught Theo in the bathroom - she's gotten out of bed no less than 1 BAJILLIONNNNNN times tonight! ARG!. But while she was in there, she dumped an entire bottle of baby wash out into the tub. And we're kinda on a fucking budgettttttt up in here...so that kinda shit just really pisses.me.off. I'll give her some credit for pointing it out to me and immediately apologizing - was she smirking while delivering that apology or is that my hangry-ness coming through?! 

nothing good happens after 11PM around these parts;)

SOOOOO what I was going to say was that we miss Jacob on the weekends:( Summer is the hardest. Not because he's working. We know that he's gotta work and no one's mad about that. But his hours are so wonky. He always has to be to work by 730AM-ish and then from there...it depends. During the week we can count on him being home anywhere between 5-7PM but on the weekends...we just assume he'll be working morning till late night on Saturdays and cross our fingers and toes that he'll have off on Sunday. Unless it's June Dairy Month...then we won't see him for a good part of Sunday either:/ 

wah wahhhhhhh wah. I know;) We have it sooooo harddddddd;). Not really. Obviously:). We just miss him and we miss him missing out on these weekend adventures:/ We're so fortunate that this summer we have a lot of low-cost/local/family plans. Family, meaning immediate family - minus Jacob. So I always feel like there are at least a few extra helping hands/eyes around:). And we are booked up with a lot of Cabin/Lake House/Camping weekends that won't cost a thang' - see above about that tightttttt budget;). It's just a bummer to be collecting these memories and photos, all without our favorite guy. 

with all that said...Jacob appreciates me keeping busy and keeping the kids busy and there are a lot of times that we're still off adventuring when Jacob does get done with work. And so he is able to get a bit of, much needed, down-time in. We're very fortunate that he works so hard for us and even with all that working he does, he does his best to help me in any way he can - except for on Friday, when I was trying to sell a bike trailer and there was a part missing and he was being a useless dick about it and long story short, he was a dick and later apologized for being a dick;).

I'M STILL HUNGRYYYYYYYYYYY. 1058PM.

thank you to Jacob's cousin, Jessica, for snapping this adorable photo of myself and Rocky! I just love it!!!:)

and thank you to the Smith's (Jess, you'll always be a Smith to me;) for hosting us at their Lake House! We attended a Surprise Retirement Party for Jacob's aunt, Linda, who's the most generous, hardworking person! I was so happy to be there and celebrate this milestone with her and the family! She worked for the Marshfield Hospital for 40 years! :)

what's the opposite of a Green Thumb?

Frenchtown Greenhouse

how to make your yard look pretty 101:

go to the greenhouse with a relatively small budget.

BLOW the budget on just 2 large and beautiful hanging plants!

return to the greenhouse with more money that you don't have and blow through a 2nd budget.

plant the plants. 

regret never having replaced the gutters when you re-roofed, 3 years ago, cause now you have to replant several plants that were washed out with the rain:/

regret having told your sister, who is also your Insurance Agent, about the gutter situation...cause apparently gutters are a must for your insurance?!;/

plant the plants...again.

recruit your sister/Insurance Agent to come help you do all.the.things.

- if you're looking for the BEST INSURANCE AGENT EVER...hit me up for information:)

and that's really it! Not so hard and there mayyyyyy even be a few steps in there, that are required of me but that YOU can skip;)

thank gawdddd for Aunt Pigg...nothing would have gotten accomplished without her here to motivate us:) THANK YOU, PIGG!!!:)

gardener attire;)

break for the sprinkler:)

greenhouse outside of Lindsey, WI - we believe it was L&L Greenhouse

and I couldn't have done it without the...wait. Nope...I could have done it much faster and more efficiently without their help but then who would be there to interrupt me a gazillion times and throw the wood chips into the yard and remind me that I have no patience for such things anddddd keep me humble?;)

now here is what I'm working with...what my husband referred to as a turd;) But with a couple flowers and a full day of weeding...she looks prettyyyyyy improved:)

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

so.many.weeds.

DURING

AFTER

i've since finished the wood chips but don't have a final photo. BUT this is it and I just think the little bit that we did, made all the difference! I'm really happy with how it turned out! Someday, years from now, we hope to restore or replace the siding and so we just wanted an inexpensive and simple fix to the landscaping...for now:)

and a BEFORE and AFTER right next to each other....

there are also some areas that I haven't gotten an AFTER photo of...this is the before of another corner of the house. Believe it or not, there's a little sidewalk under that mess and you can clearly see it now!:)

BEFORE

this is the opposite side of the house (N side). Jacob worked on weeding. We have no plans for this but to keep it grass, at this point.

AFTER

so there you have it! This project definitely motivated me to keep moving along with some of the things we can DIY on this house - and we are not much for DIY-ing, unfortunately. But I'd like to paint more windows/trim and just keep cleaning things up:) We're also trying to keep the To Do List empty this summer...just chill and do what we want, if anything, and for a minimal cost:)

we hope you accomplish some of those Home Improvement Projects on your list and if you don't...we hope you don't sweat it!:)