Switching Gears

I don't know about you, but there's a whole lotta gear-changing going on around here. I try not to run through the list of all of the changes we've been through in the past 3.5 years because I start to feel overwhelmed. From finding out I was pregnant (halfway through my pregnancy) and then having a child (and now parenting a 3 year old!), to Rob's two job position changes (which were ridiculously stressful!) to selling our house, moving into the Airstream and living in someone's driveway (thankfully we love the owners of said driveway), to dealing with loss and heartache multiple times, to being tossed around about building a house, buying a house, buying land and now, the farmhouse I told you all about last time is hanging in the balance.

We never expected the call from Heather, our loan officer, telling us we'd been denied financing. Everything up until then had been smooth sailing and we didn't anticipate any issues. "I've been fighting for you guys for two days now," Heather informed us, "and they (underwriting) just won't budge." You see, remember that job change I just mentioned a minute ago? The super-ridiculously stressful one? Well, I guess the underwriters didn't like that we couldn't provide 2 years worth of tax returns from his current job so, even though we qualified on paper, they wouldn't approve us. We were shocked. Heather encouraged us to call some local banks because they often can provide in-house loans on more flexible terms. We called and called and called. And e-mailed. And called some more. I had never been shut-down by so many people in such a short period of time. But, like the woman in the parable Jesus told, our knock-knock-knocking eventually paid-off. Rob is meeting with a mortgage company in the morning (Monday) who says they're willing to work with us and make an exception based on the fact that Rob's been with the same company for nearly 8 years and a few other things. I'm trying not to get my hopes up but, we're really thankful to have the chance to try again and maybe buy this house.

UPDATE: Rob's meeting went very well and we expect good news by tomorrow (Friday). They were able to look at the full span of his work with the company and see his stability in spite of the job change. Thanking God for that! I'm trying not to get my hopes totally up yet though because, until we officially hear back from underwriting at this new lender, we don't yet have a deal. However, we're not anticipating a let-down this time because they were aware of the situation before it was sent to underwriting. We are also praying that we will be able to transfer the appraisal that was already done to the new lender because otherwise that's another $400+ that we will have to fork over. We would REALLY love to not have to pay for it twice! 

At this point, we *might* be able to close on the house (assuming all goes well) by late December. Um, anyone know what happens in late December? Can we say "Christmas"? Sheesh. Needless to say, the holidays could get interesting. But, what the hey?! Why not, right? Let's just go all out on the craziness. After all, I am already living with a husband, a 3 year old and a puppy in a camper, right? Right. We got this.

UPDATE: Our closing date will not change and we may even be able to close sooner, if the sellers are willing! Woo-hoo!

I have to say that I'm so thankful for a steady and level-headed husband in all of this hoopla. He keeps me from losing it completely and joining the circus. Of course, the circus probably wouldn't take me so, it would be a short trip. Anyway, we're learning to be flexible and not too attached to our own plans, which I think is both valuable and harmful... in a way. Most people can see the value in learning those lessons but, I also have to watch myself for walking in apathy as a result. It's hard when your plans keep falling through and nothing ever seems to work out the way you hoped. It's hard to walk in the valley of the shadow of death and still hang on to those promised cool waters. It's hard to feel like you're never not transitioning. It's hard to be a mom. It's hard to know which way to go sometimes. It's hard, but not impossible. We are bruised but not broken, not defeated. Surrender is not an option. And for every hard thing, I raise you two good things. I'm blessed with a family who loves and accepts me and all of my shortcomings. A son who says I'm the "best", when I know I am not. I'm blessed with a warm place to live and all of my needs provided for. I'm blessed with a hardworking husband who never gives up on me. I have it all... even when, by American standards, I have very little.

I don't know what tomorrow holds and I really don't know what this coming year will hold but, I do know that I don't have to worry about it. I know I trust the Maker and He will lead us if we will follow. I know I'm not alone in these things, and neither are you. We all have hard things and we all have choices to make. Where will we put our faith? What will motivate us? Who will we trust? We should not compare our own hard things to someone else's hard things, either. There are plenty of you whose "hard thing" looks worse than mine and so I could tell myself to man-up and deal (or not deal) but, that's not helpful to anyone. It's also not helpful to see people with seemingly less-stress (and more beach trips ;-) ) and feel all jealous or "woe-is-me".  Instead, let's just try to walk the paths set before us and find the joys that sometimes hide in the strangest places. How 'bout it?

Timing is everything.

So, remember back to the beginning of our move? Remember the reasons we bought the Airstream? All of our grand plans to build a house and buy 11 acres and live in the 'Stream while we built? Well... funny thing about plans: They Change!

They change and shift and you have to change right along with them or you get all bent out of shape! Roll with the punches, as they say. Well, after trying to buy the land and having it fall through and not really knowing where to go from there, we just sorta figured we'd just live in the Airstream where it is through the winter and then maybe move it up to my parents' property for the spring and summer and save money like crazy. We would, of course, keep our eyes open for property in the meantime but, we figured it would be spring before we really started looking again. Then, BAM! We see this house come on the market. We seriously could not believe it.

Our story with this homestead began back in 2007. We had owned our Main St. house for about a year and we were getting more into real food and fermented foods, etc... I wanted to start making kefir and so I started looking around. I found this wacky blog somehow and they were selling kefir grains. They were also selling their mini-homestead. We drove out, got the tour from the homeowners and commented on how much we would love to be able to buy their house but we just weren't in the market right then. We eventually bought the kefir grains and went on our way. Ever since then, this place has been somewhere in the back of our minds as the perfect little starter-homestead. Big enough to provide for all of our food needs and small enough to manage as newbies. It came on the market again in 2011 but, we weren't looking to move then. We had a baby and a dog and we were happy living in town.

Now, here we are, two years later and I find this house on the market again. Apparently, each time the owners went to sell (yes, the same owners we met 5 years ago) they had plans fall through. Family illness, bad financing, change-of-mind... so they just kept on living there, assuming it wasn't time to leave yet. I guess the house was being saved for us. (As long as everything continues to go smoothly.)

So, here we are. Buying a house.

It has just under 4 acres, an old barn, a milking shed, a chicken house, rabbit hutches, trees, gardens, herbs, fencing, views, privacy... it's got it all. Sure, 4 acres isn't a huge amount of land and we won't be running a large-scale farm but, I think it fits us just right.

The house is 1600+/- sqft which is almost double the size of our last house. HUGE change! It has 4 bedrooms, 1 bath and a full, dry (dry, guys, dry!) basement. It is the original farmhouse on the road and was built by the Hale family (hence, Hale Rd) in the early 40's. The house is totally outdated and will eventually need a makeover, including a new kitchen and bathroom, but for now we just plan on painting pretty much everything to freshen it all up and then live with the old stuff until we can save up some money to renovate. Lots of potential here!

There's an old, tiny cabin in the back called the "summer kitchen" where the original family lived while they built and then I guess they cooked out there in the summer sometimes after they moved into the main house. Pretty cute little place. Perfect workshop.

I could go on about all of the little gardens and everything but, I'll let you take a look at these photos instead.

Side of the house. The door goes into the "breezeway" (which is my favorite part!)
 and then into the kitchen.

Front. Will need some love but, we'll be glad to give it.

The "breezeway". Best thing ever.  

Here's the way old and outdated kitchen. One row of cabinets.
I love the bay window over the sink though!! 

Oh, hello refrigerator! Why are you all the way on the other side of the room?
No one knows. We will have to figure out how to fix this.
Wood stove = awesome.

Dining area (Dining area, people! A real one!), stairs to upper bedrooms,
doorway to family room. There's that fridge again...

Bathroom, obviously. It's not horrible... but will get an update eventually.

Upper bedroom #1.
That brick chimney will give off some nice warmth in the winter.
Huge closets.

Upper bedroom #2.
Lovely views of the pasture.

The pasture!

And if you REALLY want to see more, the homeowners have a bazillion videos on YouTube. Here's one of them. Beware, this guy just talks and talks.

We appreciate your prayers for everything to go smoothly as we still have to get through inspections and the appraisal before we can close. Closing is set for December 10th, as of right now. Just in time for Christmas! :-)

"Now, what in the world are you guys going to do with the Airstream??" you might ask. Well, I'll tell ya. As it stands right now, we plan to keep it. I just love it so much and I don't want to part with it. It's the perfect guest house and although the house will have a guest bedroom, they'll also have the option of a whole Airstream to themselves. We are also considering renting it out eventually for weekends and Tech games, etc... If we do that, we'll set it up somewhere more private on the property for a nice little getaway. Check out these! Rob and I have always wanted to run a bed and breakfast so, maybe this is the twist on the traditional recipe. ;-)

Anyway, I'm sure there's lots more I could say and will say in the coming months but, for now, we're excited and ready for our next adventure! Cheers!

Things rarely go according to plan.

The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.
~ Proverbs 16:9 (NASB)

First off, I can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote on here. A lot has happened since we moved in nearly two months ago. I can't believe it's been two months! In some ways, it feels like forever ago... like we've been living in the Airstream for much longer. We're pretty comfortable in here and it feels natural, for the most part. When I think about moving out of here someday I actually get a little sad. There's something just so nice about being so simple. I don't have a big house to clean. I don't have a ton of stuff laying around that I don't use or really even want. When I think about my 300 sqft storage unit that's packed to the hilt with my things, I just want to burn it all (or at least most of it) and start over. Being a pack rat who is terrible at throwing/giving things away, that's a big deal! I think living in here has given Rob and I a new perspective on what we really need and, surprise surprise!, it's not much. I've even been tempted to get rid of more stuff out of the camper because, in the past 2 months, I haven't even touched it. If I'm not using it, why do I have it? 

When we finally do have a house again and all of our stuff is back out of storage, I'm going to be very selective about what comes out of a box and into my house and what just goes to a yard sale/Goodwill. I don't want to have things in my house that don't have a purpose or a meaning. And don't even get me started on Will's toys. He currently has about 1/5 of his books and toys here in the camper and we haven't even missed the rest. I'm so grateful for the people who have gifted him the things he has so, don't get me wrong but, I think I'm going to have to limit the toys in the future. Besides, since our plan is to have land and animals, etc... he'll have plenty to do outside! (And so will we!)

Ok. I'll be done with my "stuff" rant now. ;-)

Back to the Airstream... 

We finally have hot water! It took 6 weeks but, we've got it now! Very exciting. It's a propane, on-demand water heater and it's working really well so far. Doing dishes in the Airstream is challenging enough as it is and it's nice not to have to boil water in the kettle first. I swear, I will never complain about doing dishes in a "real" kitchen again. (Never say never! ;-) ) Even without a dishwasher, a full-sized kitchen with actual counter-space makes doing the washing so. much. easier. However, we've got a pretty good system down in here and it works fine. I just have to stay on top of it all or it gets out of hand VERY easily. Right now I'm lookin' at 2 bowls, 3 plates and a pan that are dirty and I better wash them soon or I'll have no room on the counter. Discipline, discipline, discipline. I guess that's good for me. 

Rob is also working on installing the bathroom sink & faucet and building the vanity. We've had to custom build it because it's such a weird, small space and the countertop has to go around the water heater, which is hung on the wall. I think it's turning out really well and I can't wait for it to be functional! After that, we still have to install the composting toilet (Yes, I said composting toilet!) and get the shower working. I'll write more about those as they happen. 

Here are some photos of the progress. 

The water heater and custom vanity in process.

The vanity will be fitted with beadboard when it's done.

This is the vent for the water heater. 

Ok. Not a project picture but, that little bar with hooks from Ikea has saved my kitchen. Love it!

The custom wooden countertop. "Looks like Utah!" ... almost.

The 'Stream chillin' in its spot next to the house.

Lots of sanding and then several coats of poly.

A dry fit test. Looks pretty good!

I love this bowl. You can't beat $30 and a great story!

I'd also like to say that living in a very small space with a puppy hasn't been too bad. I actually am convinced that it has made potty training easier, has prevented him from chewing on things he shouldn't (at least, not for more than a few seconds) and has helped us to be more in tune with him in general. He is now nearly 15 weeks old which means we've had him for 7 weeks already! For those of you who aren't also FB friends with me, his name was finally chosen after having him home for 10 days and the vote was: Benson. He's still very nippy and he barks too much for my liking, even at 15wks. We're working on those things though. He's also in a really great obedience class. He's so smart and I'm hoping to get him involved in agility classes, even if only for fun!

This was Benson at 8 weeks, the day we brought him home.

And here's my ragamuffin now. 15 weeks old. 

He's so scruffy! Chewin' an antler out in the yard. :-)

Oh yeah, and now for some pretty big news. News we weren't anticipating happening but, things don't always go according to plan. We placed an offer on a house and it has been accepted. WHAT?! That's right. It looks like we are buying a house! I have to admit, my head is spinning a little bit. I'm going to devote my next post to this news and the interesting and fun facts surrounding it, as well as let you know what's in the future for the Airstream. Look for that post in the next day or two! 

Our first few days.

Wow. It's kinda surreal sitting here, in the Airstream, listening to the rain making that tinny sound as it hits the aluminum. This is my home now. All 240(ish)sqft of it. We're really doing this. It is happening.

There's been a lot of drama and stress the last few weeks with the delayed closing. Our last day in the house we spent 10 hours moving the last bit of stuff (which I swear multiplied like rabbits as we packed it up) and cleaning (BIG thanks go to my sister for helping!) and signing papers for the closing since we would not be in town. We then drove 8 hours to PA, getting in at 2:30am the same day! Well, I guess that would be considered the next day... but you get the idea. And then it took another hour to get our son to back sleep once we got to Rob's parents so, 19 straight hours of insanity. I hope I never have to pack to move and pack for vacation in the same day ever again. Talk about crazy! You can't find anything, you don't remember what went where and you pretty much don't even care. You just want to be DONE. We had a good time in PA though and enjoyed our time with Matt (Rob's brother), who was in from Thailand, and our last day there we took a little ride on his parents' sailboat, which was lovely. I needed a little sunshine in my life.

When we came home, we came home to the Airstream. Well, sort of. We spent the first night at my parents since there were boxes and piles of things that had been thrown in during the move that were preventing us from even having a place to sit, let alone sleep. We spent the next day cleaning and organizing and by the end of the day we had made some good progress. There was no running water yet so I wanted to wait another day to sleep here but, Rob wanted to stay and we did. I wasn't exactly happy about it so Mrs. Grumpy Pants (that's me, in case you were wondering) was hanging around for most of the night. Here we are, 4 days later and we still don't have water. 1975 pluming is stupid and nothing at all like what we have today. Rob has tried and tried to make it work but it looks like we're going to have to scrap the leaky drain connection and start fresh. I'm not grumpy anymore about it (mostly) but it is kind of a pain to haul my dishes in the house to wash them and I can't even rinse my hands in here if I cut up an orange or something, which is... sticky. It's not so bad though, really, and James and Laura have been so amazingly gracious to us and are letting me add my dishes to the dishwasher and come in and out for drinking water, etc... SO thankful we're starting our journey here in their driveway. The 'Stream just isn't ready to stand on her own 2 fe... 4 tires.

I neglected to take photos of the first day or two but I snapped a few while cooking dinner today. The following give a glimpse into my life now.

Rain, sweet potatoes, bacon grease... not so bad. 

Note the stack of dishes... :-/

Kitchen!

My boy watching Mighty Machines.

Will's room. Also home to all of our clothes (except hanging ones).

The curtain-door I made for Will's room. It's actually working pretty well. 

Yep. The bathroom is a disaster!! Someday, this space will be lovely... but until then, it looks like this. 

:-( More bathroom randomness. (Note the new toilet!)

I am not complaining that I have a box of fresh tomatoes, eggs from my girls
and a bag of our home-grown garlic taking up my counter space. 

My spices, oils, etc!

I have to say that living small doesn't really bother me too much and I think things are going to start calming down a little bit soon. Because the camper feels so connected to the outside and we always have the windows and door open (the weather has been Amazing!), William has been just running outside all the time. Sometimes he asks, sometimes he doesn't. It's been a real struggle for me but, I can feel myself adjusting little by little. Today was slightly more normal feeling, which was nice. Will and I ran around in the (light) rain to burn off some energy this afternoon and then watched some Mighty Machines on Netflix. After I finally got him down for bed, the rain picked up. I'd like to go shower but, a) it's raining and I have to go walk to the house to shower and b) it's dark. Hmm... Maybe I'll go over later.

In other news, we STILL haven't picked a name for our puppy and we get to pick him up in 9 days! I admit that it's probably going to feel a little cramped as we adjust to another body in here but, once he's potty trained and sleeping through the night and we can ditch the crate I think it'll be much better. Yes, we have to fit a crate in here. No, I'm not exactly sure how. We will make it work. I was showing Will how to use the clicker for training the dog today. He was loving that. Though, I don't think I'll actually let him use it for a while, since I don't need a confused dog! :-)

Thanks for reading this long post! Feel free to contact us with questions, encouragements, ideas, dog names, etc... :-)

Alrighty. Now to bring you all up to speed on our current status. 

The kitchen is coming along nicely. The cabinets are painted and the sink is in! The countertop is still the original green but, not for long. I was seriously tempted to leave it but, it simply isn't an option with the cabinet color. We bought the countertop paint from Rustoleum and will be working on that next week (since we now have more time before we move). If you ask Rob about putting the sink in, he may make a face. It wasn't easy. You'll see in the photo below that he had to slide his upper body into the small opening under the sink to hook up everything and put the clamps on. He was very glad to be done with that part of things. The new faucet was a Craigslist score for $40. It was a floor model and was in great shape. I may have to move it into the new house when it comes time. It's so nice! Check it out: 

I painted the cabinet, as I've said, and picking a color was really hard. In the end, I wasn't able to get the color I had in my mind but, we like what we got. Beachy, coastal, fun. Definitely a welcome bit of color in an otherwise neutral area. What do you think about leaving that one strip white vs painting it, too? I can't decide if it's too retro from me.

And then there's the big news: the floors are in and they look fantastic! When we got the floorboards from Lumber Liquidators we were a) surprised they were single boards (not in boxes), b) slightly disappointed that there was a fair amount with defects that had to be cut off, and c) realizing how soft pine really is! We had to make 2 trips to Salem (about an hour roundtrip) to get it all because we stupidly though we could just put 250 sqft of pine boards in my van. My van is a beast... but not a truck. Oh well. And yes, my son slept through it all. Driving. Loading. Everything. We got home and he asked me when we were going to go get the wood. I said, look around kid. You slept through the whole thing! Haha. 

 Once the guys get to work putting it in it really started looking good. I'm totally in love now. It really looks great. It's got that cool beachy feel to it since we left it natural (only used clear poly) and it's nice and clean looking. It was definitely several days of work for Rob and we were SO thankful for James, who came to help get Rob going since he knew what he was doing and Rob had never done it before. I really think the floors make the Airstream look "legit"! 

                                      

Before poly.

After!

Before poly.

After!

Rob's parents come down again to help us out and while they were here Rob and his dad installed all new gas lines. I guess they just decided to play it safe and replace right off the bat. It was an all-day job but, by the end of the day we had a working heat furnace and stovetop! The oven doesn't work yet and we're not sure if it's just the burner or what. We still haven't gotten around to checking that and I can definitely live without it for a while. The water heater doesn't work either and that's more of a problem. No hot water for showers is a deal-breaker. We're going to have to take it apart and clean it and see if we (Rob) can tell what's going on and if we can't fix it we're going to buy a new, tankless water heater. We found this one and it's pretty cheap! I was sketched out at first but, it looks like this company has been making these for a long time with decent reviews so, we might go for it. Here are some shots of the new lines going in. 

I also want to mention that Rob built shelves into the closets so we would have more efficient storage. Yay! Storage space is crucial! I'm really hoping I'll be able to store everything I need in there... not that I have a choice or anything. I think we'll be good, though. See that shelf liner below? That roll is a whopping 4ft of liner. FOUR feet! What a rip-off! It was nice because it was wide enough to cover the shelves but, it cost the same as the other rolls of liner I bought and they had 24ft! You better believe I won't be buying anymore of that white one. Seriously. AND I have to tape/glue it down since it's not self-adhesive. Bah. I will be glad to have nice clean shelves to put my things on though. I'm probably going to get out there and finish putting it in tomorrow. I was going to do it tonight but, I think I'm going to sew the hallway curtain and clean-up in the house some instead. I'll post about the hall curtain when it's done. 

Well, that's pretty much it folks. For now. This week we'll be doing more to get ready to move in so, hopefully there will be some good progress there. If you live local, feel free to contact me to come see it. It's really shaping up! See ya next time!