Lets back up a little bit. In 2008 we bought our first home. A townhouse in fair condition, to say it gently, for a great price. The area was great, schools rated high, and neighborhood was super friendly. The house needed quite a bit of work, previous owners were smokers, and smoked heavily inside. First impression was new carpet and paint and we should be good to go….um, not quite. We had four months to get the work done before we moved in, and 5 until our son was born. After a multitude of misfortune, when we moved in we had no interior doors, my kitchen was an empty box, we only had new carpet in the bedrooms and living room, and bare concrete in the common areas. The day we brought our son home from the hospital, the texture on the walls was still wet.
We made a goal of doing one large project a year, in the hopes of being able to put the house together soon. We were both working full time, our son in daycare, and money just wasn't abundant, so the years passed. Husband patched up my empty kitchen with 2x4s and plywood kitchen, I had a full sized range, and my cabinets were rubbermaid tubs. It was good enough, but not something I was happy about. In November 2009, we finally put tile on our bare concrete. It was starting to look better! But in January 2010 I lost my job, February we were surprised to find out we were expecting again. Having our income cut in half, and a baby on the way made any projects not possible.
We were fortunate to work through the budget and keep me home with the kids. We did one more project in 2012, putting in a closet in the master bedroom. Until then we had 2x4s to make shelved and hanging clothes possible.
For 5 years we just made do with what we had. We had warm beds, good food, and I was home with my children, and for that I am thankful….however, I have a million pictures like this:
An adorable picture of my newborn son…with bare concrete in the background, no base moldings, and exposed light switches. Most of the family pictures have some sort of make-shift home in the background. Like this one of my two beautiful children…
That would be my 2x4 kitchen and my rubbermaid "cabinets" to hold our dishes. Most people thought I was exaggerating the condition of our home, but alas, it's all true. I had such anxiety over inviting people to our house. Our friends understood, but I still felt a bit of shame cooking them dinner in a kitchen most wouldn't.
It put a lot of stress on us. Well, my husband and I, the kids grew up this way, it was "normal" to them. But there was nothing normal about this. We never wanted to be home, there was no relaxing at home, looking all around us reminded us of everything that still needed (but couldn't) be done.
Fast forward to 2013 and we were in for a surprise. The housing market started to turn! We had a long talk with a good friend of ours in the real estate business, we talked to the bank, and we discussed in great detail with each other on our options. We decided to take out all the credit available to us, and get this place fixed up to sell. It wasn't an easy decision, there was no guarantee the housing market would stay good throughout the remodel process, then we would be stuck with an enormous amount of debt!
June 2013…the start of summer, beach parties, picnics, county fairs, and backyard BBQs with friends…for normal people that is! The summer was filled with drywall dust, paint, sawdust, more visits to Lowes and Home Depot than I care for.
When the remodel was complete, the house looked amazing!! It looked like we had planned for all along. The dream we had for the house was finally a reality, and now it was time to sell. We were fortunate to list and sold in under two weeks!!
On to looking for our new home!! We looked at listing relentlessly online, we found a few gems and just as quick they were gone. We could tell it was going to be an interesting search. We planned a day of open houses, one stop putting us in Rancho Santa Margarita. It was in a great neighborhood, the yard was smaller than we were originally looking for, but there was something about it. We walked in, and instantly fell in love! The house was perfect!
It's wasn't as smooth of an escrow as we were hoping for. We were very fortunate to be moved into our new house before we closed escrow, not many owners would rent to the potential owners. We rented big truck, and moved the entire house ourselves…not recommended by the way!! Man, it's amazing how much a family can accumulate!
Once we moved in, a change came over the family instantly. We were happy, relaxed, calm, and stress-free! My husband and I started liking each other again LOL! It seems melodramatic, but that's how we felt. Stress plays with your emotions in funny ways, and for us it took a toll on our marriage. Now that that stress is behind us, we can just focus on the family. It's just what we needed!!
We have a house we can call home-sweet-home!!
That was long, I apologize but fills in the blank space in the blog. I'm looking forward to updating it more often.
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