A New Home

 

 

After months and months of waiting, two broken contracts, and a lot of prayer, we finally sold our old home in Dec 2012 and moved in with my parents.  We were determined to patiently wait for our new home to appear in the local real estate listings, since at the time there wasn't anything available that met our size / location / price range requirements.

Much to our surprise, we didn't have to wait long.  Through a friend of a friend, my dad learned of a home that was getting ready to be put on the market.  The owner graciously offered to let us come and see the house before he listed it with a realtor.  We went to see the house without knowing a lot about it.

It was an older home, built in 1920, with wide woodworking throughout and a floor plan that we loved.  The kitchen was recently updated, and the roof was newer as well as the vinyl fencing outside.  That said, the home also had some challenges...The entire downstairs (excepting the kitchen) was blue carpet.  Country blue.  There was only one bath and it was downstairs.  And the bedroom and the yard were small.  Regardless, we really liked it.  Once we heard the asking price, we loved it!
We came back later that evening with my parents, my sister, and a family friend and walked all around the house again, and the next day my husband let the owner know we would take it.  We closed in January, and then the fun really began!

Although the house had been well-maintained, there were still some updates we had to make.  The biggest was installing central heat and air.  Next we ripped out that old blue carpet to reveal heart pine flooring throughout the entire house! The floors were sanded and refinished, the entire house painted - with the exception of the kitchen and old bathroom, and upstairs closets were remodeled.  We added a half bath upstairs, a full bath downstairs, moved the laundry up from the basement to the first floor...it seemed our projects would never end! 

But finally we were finished and here we are, snug in our new home!  We absolutely love it!

What else is new?

.....actually there are lots of new things going on for us right now- the fact that I am woefully behind on blog posts not being one of them. So here is a little catching up!

School:  Bella and I wrapped up our first semester of Kindergarten this past Saturday.  Can I get
 a Hallelujah?  And I have to admit that even though it went well (at least in my opinion!) we were both ready for We are still about 19 or 20 days ahead as far as our curriculum goes, which leaves
us plenty of wiggle room for the spring.  Bella is doing well in all her subjects.  She has memorized several Bible verses and is familiar with most the major characters in the Bible.  She has learned her math addition facts up to a 6, can tell time to the hour, count by 5s and 10s, and we are working on differentiating between those pesky dimes and nickels!  She is reading well, we are up to two-vowel words and working on some special sounds.  She can name all the continents on the map and we are working on the oceans and some of the Seas.

In our deficit column would have to be arts / crafts...sometimes I am really well prepared for this, some days we just paint!

For our last day of school this fall we had "Disney Review Day"....Beauty and the Beast Phonics worksheets, 101 Dalmations math worksheets, and orienteering on our map of Disney using a compass rose.  It was fun!  We followed up with a field trip...not to Disney though!  I took Bella, Abby, and my niece to Candlelight Christmas at Rocky Mount.  They got to learn about how Christmas was celebrated in 1791, and they even tasted ginger bread! (Not the cookie, the bread!)

Out of the Old, into the New
As many of you know we have had our home on the market for quite some time.  I am very, very happy to report that after two broken contracts, the third time was the charm and on Dec 17 we closed!  We are thrilled to be officially homeless! My parents graciously took the four of us in, rearranged their belongings and their privacy, and so we have a place to stay rent free!

I have honestly been surprised at how little any of us miss the old house...My husband was a bit nostalgic about it being "where we brought them home from the hospital"....call me cold but that hasn't bothered me!  I miss them being babies, not so much where they were babies!  And the girls haven't asked to go home at all....which is really a no brainer considering they loooove being with Nana and Pappaw.  Our old home was very nice, and I was so thankful for it, but I was so ready to move for so long, I can honestly say I do not miss it.

Now, on to the new!  We were prepared to stay here and wait out the perfect home -knowing that this time of year there isn't a lot on the market.  But, through a friend of a friend of my dads, we may have already found our next new home!  I don't want to jinx it, so no more on that now.  I will try to update when I know more or if things become official

School on Vacation? Oh, yes we did!

 I have to admit, one of the things I looked forward to the most about vacation was a break from homeschooling!  Even though I love doing it, it takes a lot of time and discipline (and this is just Kindergarten, for crying out loud!).  So I was so happy to spend my evenings reading (for fun!), doing crochet, or just hanging out with my family- no organizing flash cards, cutting out game pieces, getting worksheets in order, rounding up math manipulates...

But then, at the same time, I had this nagging feeling in my head...we were missing so many school days!  I know, its a sickness...but I got to searching online and found a way we could kill two birds - or rather butterflies- with one stone!

Field Trip!

On Wednesday we visited the Coastal Discovery Museum for a Butterfly Discovery Walk.  I had called ahead and made reservations, so our group consisted of me, the hubby, Bella, Abby, Rachel (my sister!), Ashlyn (my niece), and my Mom. 

Our tour guide, Larry, started out the Walk by talking - in simplified terms- about the anatomy of the butterfly, and some of the differances between butterflies and moths ( for insance, a moth builds a cocoon ; a butterfly builds a chrysalis) , and the process of metamorphosis.

Larry demostrates how a butterfly's eyes allow it to see in all directions at once!

Then we all got to go inside the butterfly enclosure.  There were four species of butterflies at this time, including the Monarch and the Frittalary.  Our guide pointed out the caterpillar eggs- tiny white specks that are about 1-2 millimeters in size! Once we had walked through the enclosure, we got to look a the different caterpillars themselves.

Bella gets up close and personal with a caterpillar!

Hmmm...is this the "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"?

Next, we got to see some chrysalis's . Some had already hatched, others weren't quite ready. It was amazing to look through the paper-thin chrysalis and the see the color of a Monarch butterfly's wing folded within.

 

 

Some of the carnivorous plants, including the Venus Flytrap, planted outside
the butterfly enclosure.

The girls really enjoyed the afternoon, especially getting to be around so many butterflies! And I really enjoyed knowing we were having fun- and learning, too!

Oh, if we could only stay at the beach...

 

Yesterday we returned from our annual fall trip to Hilton Head Island, SC.  We spent seven nights and eight days relaxing, unwinding, eating seafood, playing the in ocean, riding bikes, and spending time with loved ones! 

 

Bella plays in the waves!
 

 

Abby runs everywhere she goes!

Bella and Kenneth playing miniature golf.

Me, Kenneth, Bella, Abby, and my niece Ashlyn on the beach. 

Me and "Big Pappaw"- the name our girls gave my mom's father.
We celebrated his 82nd birthday while we were at the beach.

On the top of the Harbour Town Lightouse- a tradition!

And apparently I spoke too soon....

This is a post I would really, really rather not write, because just thinking about it makes my stomach unhappy.  But as blogs can't be entirely happy news, here goes:

I posted earlier this month that we had a contract on our house. (again!). On the 6th of this month we had our home inspection.  The inspector was very very thorough,  spending about three hours going over our house, appliances, water heater, roof, attic, basement, etc...It made me a little nervous!  Thankfully, he only found a few minor issues, for instance one loose shingle. 

The next day, Kenneth was literally on his way to our realtors office with a signed, accepted offer on a house we liked in Erwin.  It was an older home and needed some updates, but had a huge fenced yard, great location, and -better yet- a great mortgage!

Before Kenneth could even get to the realtors office, she called him to let us know that (once again!!!) our buyer was backing out.  Yes, for the second time, a buyer backed out on us.  We were dumbfounded.  The buyer's realtor said the decision had nothing to do with the home inspection (duh!) but that the buyer was "financially unable to purchase".  Which doesnt make a lot of sense since she had a preapproval letter from her bank...

So, once again, I was devastated.  It didn't help that our realtor told us she'd never had this happen to anyone twice.  Great.  Aren't we the lucky ones.  And I was really angry at the buyer, because she had listed several things she wanted done to the home before closing, such as the porch painted, the t.v. wall mount taken down (and holes filled and painted!), front porch stained, etc.  So my husband has been coming home fron 12 hour shifts and working really hard to get all this done. 

This is one of those things I do not understand, a seemingly answered prayer that is suddenly taken away. And while I am still very frustrated and disappointed, I am trying to remember that all things work together for good for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.  So somewhere, someday, I believe I will understand why this happened!

So, the house is still on the market.  I am trying to look at the bright side:  the porch is freshly stained and painted, the deck is freshly stained, the home is obviously sound as it as been inspected (twice!) in the last six months.

But it does tick me off every time I walk by the flat screen tv sitting on my sofa table, where I usually sit my fall decorations.

A good start

I'm happy to report that Bella's Kindergarten year is off to a good start!  We began school on Aug 3, and completed 21 school days for the month.  She is doing excellent with all her subjects thus far...my biggest difficulty has been getting her to make her bed without grumbling and complaining!

Since pretty much all of the material we've covered so far has been a review, she is zipping through her curriculum.  I've been doing 2 lessons a day in math and phonics on most days. Which gives us some wiggle room if we need to slow down once we get into harder material.  We are already about 14 days ahead, and when you take into account that our curriculum has only 170 days in it, while the state requires 180....well we've got lots of time for field trips and supplemental activities!

Our kindergarten year has definately been more of an adjustment for me than for Bella... The workbooks and materials we used last year required virtually no preparation.  This year I spend part of almost every day pulling the appropriate flashcards, gathering worksheets, cutting out game pieces, getting out art supplies, preparing the dry erase board, etc.  It takes a lot of time....but I really enjoy it!

Here are some pictures from our first month of Kindergarten!

The dry erase board, ready for the next mornings' phonics / handwriting
lessons!

Abby participates in art time, making egg carton caterpillars!

Sand art!

The girls inspect our "Closer Look" board, an idea I got from pinterest:
Petri dishes attached to a wooden board- fill with small objects
and give the kids magnifiying glasses!

My sweet Kindergartener!

Making Butt Caterpillars during art time!

SOLD!

After many, many months of being on the market, we finally got a contract on our house this past week! We are thrilled, but I have to admit it hasn't fully sunk in yet, and I don't think it will until I actually begin packing...which will need to be soon, as the movers will be here in approximately 19 days.
   I am tired just thinking about it.  But it will be a great opportunity to get rid of lots of things we don't need / use.  And Lord knows I won't miss the short-notice home showings so often bestowed upon us by the realtors- the last one was exactly 53 minutes. And yes, my husband and I can have our house swept, mopped, swiffered, vacuumed, dusted, de-cluttered, and Cloroxed from one end to the other in that time frame!  We are professionals at this point.
  Our closing is on the 28th of this month, so now we have to get through appraisals, inspections, etc. Then, Lord willing, we will  be homeless -temporarily- and on the lookout for our next home!