So far...

Oh my! Welcome to crazyville!! This post might be all over the place so bear with me!

We have been in our house for one month exactly! Want to know what we have accomplished on our MONSTER To-Do list? It is laughable...totally laughable.

• I have spent HOURS cleaning the disgusting layer of filth on everything (do you follow me on instagram? mandamil is my username. have you seen the refrigerator door? GROSS!)
• We have replaced the outside solar powered lights by our front door. And that got done only because Chad was at Costco and found some that are more our style and that actually work.
• Chad has replaced several of the dark brown light switches with white or maybe they were just REALLY dirty!
• And he has put a new door knob on our bedroom door that locks. (One kid pop in during woo-hoo put that on the top of the priority list! At what age do they learn to knock and wait until you say they can enter? Because the 12 year old still doesn't understand that concept!)

I am not sure how it happened but the first room that is receiving any updating attention is the bathroom. I have busted out the priming of our bathroom vanity and Chad has taken stuff off the bathroom walls (ie. the towel bars that ran the entire perimeter of the space) and patched the dry wall and sanded some areas, but we are no where near being done with the tiniest of all our rooms. We still need to...

• sand the primer layer on the vanity and drawers for a nice, smooth finish
• paint the vanity and drawers
• sand the walls
• paint the ceiling
• paint the walls
• replace the itsy bitsy ceiling fan (yes, you heard that right) but have no idea with what...there is zero ventilation in there and the fan supposedly helps with that?
• find and put up new towel hooks instead of bars...i cannot tell you how many hooks i have looked at...my head is spinning
• find new shower curtain that is WAY longer than what we have now...I want it to the ceiling...may have to bust out the sewing machine for this one
• find artwork for the walls that is fun and beachy but not too themey

Yikes, just looking at the to-do for this tiny room makes this non-DIYer break into hives.  I will leave you with a few BEFORE shots of the bathroom when we first looked at the house so you can feel the pain of what needs to be transformed...unfortunately, we do not have a pic of the teeny tiny ceiling fan...

Colors..what to do...what to do..I don't have a single clue..

Chad and I have lived in our current home for ten years. All we needed to do when we moved in was paint and replace some carpet. All the walls were white...a blank slate.

 I picked the colors and we went to town. The living room was beige. The kitchen was a pale blue. Eli's room has this weird texture on the walls so we did a blue wash so it looked like the sky. Madeline's room was pink below the chair rail and white on top, glow under the door pink! Those colors were changed throughout the years. Mad's room became our room and we painted it green on the bottom. The bathroom lost it's original tulip wallpaper and went tangerine orange(it was crazy), then navy blue a couple years later. After about 7 years we landed on what our walls are now...we painted all the trim in our house white and the living room went from beige to grey. The kitchen and bathroom became a pale pale robin's egg blue. Our bedroom is cream including the chair rail so it disappears into the wall. Madeline's room upstairs is all white paneling. Our whole house is EXACTLY the colors I love.

So here lies the dilemma. My current house is full of colors I love. Do I keep those colors for the new house or go nuts and completely change it up? I am a girl who loves change...so I am leaning towards switching it up. Chad and I went out on my birthday to Lowe's to look at paint swatches and I found three colors for the main living areas.

RainPuddle: living room and hall

RainDrop: Kitchen

SnowCap White: trim and doors

I really like those colors especially the kitchen color with our future plans for the kitchen cabinets. (I can't wait to share those plans but I need to wait until we get in the house so I can take and post more pics.) But am I totally sold on those colors? No, I am not. I could be but not sure I am ready to commit. Especially considering there are SO many colors out there!!! Like all of these...that I really like as much as the ones above...  

cityfarmhouse.com

design-seeds.com

design-seeds.com

design-seeds.com

I have not even thought about colors for the bathroom, bedrooms, downstairs, or sunroom. All I know is that all the trim is going white. That should keep up busy for awhile. Ha! 

How do you approach picking colors for your house? What do you think about the colors I have chosen? Any ideas I might not have thought of? 

The house part 2: Interior floor plan

You have seen the exterior and the future plans for the exterior. Let's move inside, shall we? I have some interior pics but don't want to overwhelm you with all those details quite yet. This post will be about the floor plan. Thanks to Young House Love, I found a free floor plan builder online to make it easier to visualize.

Here is the first floor...

And here is the basement...which I couldn't get as close to actual scale as the first floor. The stairs are a bit wonky on both floors but it gives you a great idea of what we are dealing with. 

We have big plans to put an addition on to the back of the house. Our original thought was to do a big master bedroom with master bath and walk-in closet with a full basement addition. After talking about it and mulling it over, we are looking into adding the master bed and bath without the basement but with added living space on the upper floor. I am torn between the two ideas. Obviously, the budget needs to be considered and we haven't talked to our remodeler about the second idea to even see if that is doable.

Until we figure all that out and get it done, we will be using the family room downstairs as a bedroom and the sunroom will be Chad's office. After the remodel, his office will move to the basement...whether it be in the family room now or the new part of the basement.

There you have the house as it is now. I am super excited to share each room with you as it is now and to show you the plans we have for the future!

The House Part 1: Exterior

Now that we know where we are going to live (YAY!!!)...let's talk about what we are going to do to this not cute, outdated house. Let's start with the outside...it is a great place to start but these things will not be done first. The inside is our top priority. 

Here she is!!

 Built in 1963. We are the 3rd owners. The original owner/builder sold it just 4 years ago to a young couple that didn't do much to update it. We have a lot of work to do. 

Eventually we want her to look like this...

(pardon the quality...I used Sherwin Williams Paint Color Visualizer )

With something like this added to the entry and a pergola topped front porch to the right of the front door...plus I love this garage door. 

I included the pic below to see the pergola front porch better. 

Plus we will update the landscaping and the front steps and the retaining wall and replacing windows...the list goes on and on. 

So? What do you think?!?!?

House post #5: Decision

It was a Sunday morning (April 14) and we were at our new church, Westwind, in Waukee. The new worship leader was preaching for the first time that morning and I was super excited to hear him speak. We have been going through the book of Ecclesiastes...(exciting stuff, folks) and he was speaking on Chapter 5:8-20. It was about the dangers of chasing wealth at the expense of living a happy and fulfilled life with a pure heart(my paraphrase). Near the end of his sermon he shared an illustration about a guide in Alaska who was taking an Amish man on a moose hunt. They were on the hunt for a prize winning, massive moose named Rosco that lives in a valley. The day after Norm, the Amish guy, got into town they set off to find Rosco. It wasn't long before they saw Rosco in the valley in perfect daylight as if the gods had opened up the heavens and had him perfectly positioned for them to see him. They are super excited and Rocky, the guide, needs to get Norm about 600 yards closer to get a shot off to kill this prized moose. About 100 yards into the stalk, another bull moose jumps out in front of them. Rocky looks at Norm and says, "Norm, put your gun down. We are going to get Rosco. I have never seen a moose this big. We are going to get him." Norm looks at Rocky and says, "What the Lord giveth me, I will taketh." Norm has been dreaming of this prize moose, has spent thousands and thousands of dollars to get all the way to Alaska to hunt this moose, has hired a guide used by the rich and famous, it is so close and in his sights and he is after it, and right as he gets close, the Lord brings something else in front of him. Rocky tries to argue with him but Norm says again, "What the Lord has given me, I will take."

If you are a God fearing, Jesus loving, Holy Spirit listening individual...I do not have to tell you that that story hit me like a TON of bricks. Here was our prize moose, the new build in Van Meter. It is right in our sights. It is something Chad and I have dreamed about for years. We are in pursuit. Then WHAM! There is the acreage in Waukee. While the location could not be more perfect in more ways than I can explain here, the house itself is nothing to look at and outdated. But God clearly put it in our path (see #3) using the strangest of circumstances that could not be ignored.

After hearing that sermon illustration and really seeking God's truth in all of this...I knew. The acreage in Waukee is where we are supposed to be.

House post #4: Wrestling

The new development of this older home in Waukee really threw Chad and I for a loop. We were in the active process of getting our dream house plan ironed out with a builder and we had found a near perfect lot. We didn't have a ton of time to mull it over and pray about it. We were closing on our current home in less than 6 weeks. Where were we going to live?

It was all I could think about for days and many sleepless nights. I had a mental pros and cons list going on both options.

Build Pros:
Everything is NEW.
It is EXACTLY the house we would want.
More than enough space.
Everything on my want list is included.
The lot is bigger than Waukee lots for less money.

Build Cons:
It would be 6 months before we could move in.
We would have to live in an apartment anyway. The live with friends offer fell through because they might sell their house. That is $8,000.
The location is further out of town than we wanted. While closer to the farm than we are now, further from everything else.
It was at the tippy top of our budget and our budget would be tight.


Waukee house Pros:
The location is PERFECT in every way!
Very very affordable.
A remodel/addition is still under the build budget.
2 1/4 acres to run and skip and jump.
Our dear friends are ACROSS the STREET!
The property is beautiful...lots of trees, fruit trees, lilac bushes, flowers everywhere.

Waukee house Cons:
It is old.
It is outdated.
It is small.
It is not cute on the outside.
It does not have any of the things on my want list.


After several days of obsessing over my feelings and thoughts, talking with Chad about his thoughts and feelings, I was pretty convinced I knew which direction was best for us. But there was still that part of me (a pretty big part of me) that knew I was giving up a lot of what I really wanted and ultimately, what I thought I deserved.

And then God weighed in...

House post #3: Changes

Remember the woman that wanted the dogs but her husband said no because they are going to put their house on the market in a few weeks? Remember that they live on an acreage outside of Waukee? Here is where the chain of events takes a crazy turn...

Chad was talking to her via email about the dogs and when he told me they couldn't take the dogs because they were wanting to move...I jumped in and said, "Ask her about their house!" So Chad went back to his email and got all the info we wanted. How many bedrooms? Baths? How much land? Where is it? How much do you want for it?

It is an older home, a split foyer built in 1963. It has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. 2 1/4 acres. On Ute Ave. Cheap.

Let's take a moment to review why we wanted to be in Waukee. We are part of a garden co-op on our dear friend's land. We are the beekeepers of the bees on their land. We are there ALL the time.

The more info we got, the more excited I was. Sure, having an older home wasn't what I was thinking. Yes, we need 3 bedrooms. Yes, we want more than one bathroom. 2 1/4 acres?!? YES, PLEASE! Chad has ALWAYS dreamed of living on an acreage. ALWAYS! Where exactly on Ute are you? (Ute is a pretty long road.) Oh, wait! WHAT? Your address is DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET from our friends? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?! Their driveway is across the street from our friend's driveway. RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET!!! It is a house that I have never noticed before! You only want how much? Oh my word! We could add on a great master bedroom and master bath and STILL be less money than building!!

 But wait, we can build our dream house just 11 minutes away...

What to do...what to do...