Moving Forward...

Our house is gone. We closed on October 13th, so we spent the weekend before clearing out the house, and cleaning. The night before we brought the girls back over to help with a little last minute cleaning, and for them to say good-bye. They took pictures of everything, and when our big camera died, I gave my cell phone to Lexi so she could keep taking pictures. She took this one of Lilly. It describes perfectly what our mood was that night. As glad as I am to be rid of that house, it was our home for the last 11 years, and the only one our girls have ever known.

Shortly after moving in, my grandma went into the hospital for surgery, and ended up with a blood infection that she couldn't recover from. It sucks to move so close, only to have her gone just 2 weeks later. I still don't think it has set in completely, but I hate that she'll never know whether or not we will get the rehab house we are looking at. At this rate I'm not sure we'll ever know either! We are currently waiting on the appraisal, which should have been in last Friday, but we've yet to see it.

Moving in to tiny barn hasn't been easy, but we've managed these past few weeks. We are currently fighting off a little sickness, which is hard when you live in less that 480 square feet with 6 people. There's no place to rest in the quiet, and when one is up coughing, everyone is up! We got through Halloween, although we had no inside decorations. We still have a lot of organizing to do in tiny barn. We'll probably have it done by the time we move out lol! If you can't tell, we were Doctor Who themed this year

And here's me with one of our chickens that are left. Whenever we move, building a bigger chicken coop is one of the first things on the list, so not only can we get our two remaining chickens back, but get more too!

It's Been Awhile...

I know, I suck at blogging, but I've made it a goal to get better. I'm going to have Luke teach me how to run Photoshop, so I can get my own pictures sized for the blog, and I'm going to start carrying around a better camera, instead of relying on my phone.

The house is still for sale...sort of. It was a sold, and then it wasn't. It's a very long story that I won't get involved with, because we are getting legal advice as to how to proceed, which means I shouldn't disclose anything until we get things figured out. Trust me though, it's a mess. On top of that mess we had yet another offer come in on the house, and this one seems solid, so hopefully by the middle of October we will be out of this house and moving on with life!

In the meantime, we had a plan to do some tiny house living while we were in between houses. My dad purchased a 12'x40' prebuilt barn, and we have been busy finishing the inside so we had someplace to sleep, work, and homeschool while we were searching for a new house. Even though our house is still for sale, we are still working on finishing up what we have named "Tiny Barn", and we will move into it whenever we get it completed.

As far as homeschooling goes, Lexi and Lilly are finishing up their accelerated 3rd grade math this week, and we are busy gathering up last minute photos and work to put into portfolios that will be looked over this weekend. I was a terrible parent last year, and never had portfolios checked, so we will be getting our 1st grade portfolios, and our 2nd-3rd grade portfolios graded for Lexi and Lilly. Avery is still young enough that I don't need to report her to the school district. She's made it most of the way through the kindergarten curriculum, so next week we will be starting 4th grade for Lexi and Lilly, and 1st grade for Avery.

Tiny Updates...

There has been so much going on this summer, that I still haven't gotten Lexi and Lilly's birthday party put up, or any holidays for that matter. Luke has been busy with weddings, and I've been busy trying to organize and pack up this house. We still haven't sold the house, and we are actually considering renting in out. No matter what we do with the house though, it is time for a change. We currently have a plan that involves my dad buying a barn/shed to put in his backyard. We will finish off the inside, install a small bathroom/kitchen, and move in. It will be extremely tight to fit a family of 6 in to a rectangle that is probably no bigger than 12 feet x 36 feet, but in the long run we will save money, pay down debt quicker, and that will make it easier for us to buy the house of our dreams!

With that current goal in mind, Pinterest has become a major inspiration for minimalist living, tiny homes, loft bedrooms, and how small can I make a bathroom ideas! Hopefully things will slow down enough in the next week or so for me to get caught up with blog pictures, and then it will probably get super crazy as we move!

Everything's a Little Bit Crazy...

Not only do I have Easter to post, but also Lexi and Lilly's birthday party, but it seems life has thrown us for some loops this month...

We've been prepping the house for an open house. Most of our work has been brightening up our dungeon basement that leaks when it rains. It'll never be waterproof, but any water resistance we can give it will certainly help. We've also had multiple showings the past two weeks, so we are in a perpetual state of cleaning around here.

In bigger news, I quit my job! It was super part-time, didn't contribute much but stress, and education for the girls comes first, so I'm now a complete stay at home mom again!

Preparing to move and get another home loan is the top thing on our minds, so building up savings, reducing debt, and budgeting have been circulating around here too. Now that I don't have to worry about if or when I work, I want to focus on our food budget. We eat out far too much, and I don't cook a lot of variety.

As for savings and debt, taxes have come around. Not knowing when the house will sell, it eats me up to see money in savings that could payoff a debt that gains interest, so yesterday we paid off a credit card!!! It saves us $160 a month, and we hope to snowball at least $90 of it to our next debt in line while saving some, and redistributing the rest.

House Showings

Selling a house is insane! I don't know how real estate agents sleep dealing with clients all day! We've lived in our house for 10 years, and we've gone from renting the upstairs to friends, to turning the house into a single family home and bringing our 4 daughters here to grow up. Now it's time for change. We don't want to raise our girls in the city, so the house is for sale!

We've been on the market since October, and we had a buyer in December which kept our house off the market until mid February, when he got word he may get deployed, and didn't want to deal with having a new house and being overseas for a year.

Now we are back on the active market, and even though more than half of our stuff is in storage, it's still just as stressful keeping this place clean. Dishes, papers, candy wrappers, toys, laundry... I cannot wait until we finally sell!

This week we are focusing on getting ready for an open house (plus Lexi and Lilly's party). It's supposed to rain most of the week, so we are cleaning out the basement. We hope to put up some waterproof basement paint to help with the leaky spots (it's gonna leak, it's old, like 1869 old!)

On a better note, the weather is supposed to be in the 60's! Spring is finally starting to arrive in Ohio!!