As many of you know we lived in military housing just outside of base. It was fine for our needs at the time and honestly moving is such a pain in the butt that it would have taken a really awesome dream house to get me out of there.
Base housing had all kinds of issues though. We couldn't paint. The house was brand new when we moved in to it back in 2010. So we had primed walls, but not painted walls. White primer walls. With two, then three, then four little children. Add in the cheapest carpet possible in that pale tan. You can't keep that carpet clean and looking new. It's not meant to last more than a year at most. Housing wants us to keep it looking new for at least seven years. No. I'm not joking. Not joking at all. There was no way to keep the walls clean. It was drywall with texture and primer.
Nightmare.
But it was our home. I did my best. We had four and a half really good years in that house. It's the longest we have lived in one home in our entire marriage.
Then the military decided we would move to Texas. We put in our notice and got our list of what had to be done to move out. They wanted the place to look like new. No really. Like new.
They did a pre-inspection and told us that the carpet downstairs was some of the worst they have seen. Excessive wear and tear. The walls were filthy (not really, but well you could tell we had been living there and that there wasn't real paint on the walls). There were some holes in a few doors (they said they would just replace the doors at $90 a door, at our expense naturally). They wanted the yard spotless. The garage floor spotless. The appliances spotless. You get the picture.
So. I do what us women do. After the movers packed all our stuff I cleaned. I had friends come help me clean (and let me tell you I have some of the most wonderful friends in the world). And then my mom arrived and the cleaning kicked into high gear, because my mom is seriously Queen Amazing of Totally Awesome Amazing-ville. No seriously. I don't kid about her amazing-ness. Anyone who knows her will back me up.
Once the house was empty my friends Beth and Nicole came over and helped my mom and me wrap things up. I have to say that by midnight we had that house looking amazing and as close to new as it was every going to be without being, well, new.
I need to add that my amazing husband took care of the carpets. We were told they would have to replace them unless their carpet specialist said he could save what we had. Brady busted out our carpet cleaner and got busy. Their carpet specialist told us they looked really good. Minor fixes needed. Go Brady. I figure he saved us easily $300.
At final inspection we got double lucky. They inspector was late because he had just come from a really, really bad final inspection. He said if it was up to him he would just burn it down and start over. Eeek! By comparison our house looked awesome. Even better my mom patched the doors and our inspector ended up having to ask if his notes were wrong and didn't we have holes in the doors? He couldn't find the patches so he told us that was good enough for him.
In the end we owed a measly $170ish (which is really really good considering a cleaning crew would have charged us close to $400 to guarantee passing). I was so very happy. We handed over our keys and closed the door on the Nebraska phase of our military adventure.
Two long days of driving later we arrived in Texas. Let me just say that drivers in Texas are some of the most insane drivers I have ever encountered. Off the road they are friendly and generous. Once they get behind the wheel they are like the nasty, snarling love child of California drivers and New York Cabbies. After living in laid back and easy going Nebraska for so long, it was a shock and quite terrifying driving the roads of Texas. Thankfully I grew up driving the roads of Las Vegas. I have rebounded quickly.
Previous to moving down south-er, we had put in an application and lots of monies on a home rental in the hopes that we would be able to move in ASAP. We had been here two days without hearing a peep from either our Realtor or the management company handling the rental. We were told it would take, maximum, two days to process our application and either approve us or not. By our second day here they had been "processing" us for almost a week. Considering Brady has one of the highest security clearances you can get with the government we were pretty sure we weren't the problem. After finally getting an email back from our Realtor (who didn't know what was up) we called the management company and talked with them. Apparently we were approved but for some reason the home owner had some legal issues to clear up before we could move in to the house.
Why was the house listed for rent if we couldn't actually rent it yet? Good question. We still don't know what was going on, but our Realtor convinced us to give them another day. So we did. We prayed a lot. The next day we heard nothing from either our Realtor or the management company. By that evening we were more than a little annoyed. The next morning I started looking up more rentals on my phone. It sucks looking up stuff like that on your phone even with good Wifi. By late morning, after attempting to talk with our Realtor with no luck, we contacted the management company and told them we were withdrawing our application and wanted our money back. We couldn't wait for them to get their crap together. We needed to get the kids back in school and be out of limbo. Temporary housing at Lackland had given us a room with a pull out bed, kitchen, bathroom and one queen bed that was supposed to house all six of us. Thank the heavens my mom was traveling with us and she got a really good room at a hotel and the girls all stayed with her. Not ideal. We had been living that way for a week.
Part of being an adult is figuring out how to do really annoying things. Things like turn your money orders written out to someone else back into your money. It can be done. It's annoying and thank heavens we were in San Antonio where there is an actual physical branch of our bank or we would have had a much more difficult time of things.
After figuring that part out Brady and I found a McDonalds (free wifi and a play place for Owen) and started making calls. One of the houses on our list was still available. In fact we could drive to their offices and apply right there, pay the application fee with our debit card and go see the house if we wanted. After double checking that the schools were good (better than good actually, the elementary is one of the best rated in the city) we drove out to their office. They were friendly and very helpful. Let us use a computer to fill out applications, paid the fee and we followed one of their Reps out to the house.
We drove up to see this...
It's an older home. As old as I am actually. It was remodeled in the 1990s. It's not terribly big. Only about 2100 sf but the space is well used. The back yard is huge with mature trees.
As we walked through the house the Rep told us that we had already been approved (we filled out an application and were approved within 30 minutes of filling it out) and that if we liked the house we could sign a lease the next day (Friday) and move in on Monday.
It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. At that point we had been homeless for almost two weeks, the kids had been out of school for a week, and we had been getting no help from our Realtor at all. After spending almost three weeks on trying to get that first house, playing phone tag with our Realtor and all but worrying myself into an early grave, Brady and I had accomplished in one day what our Realtor said would take at least a week more. I know that the Lord was helping us. I know there was no way that we could have found this house, perfect for our needs, with an amazing school for the kids, in what is turning out to be an awesome ward at church without his help.
So we moved in on Monday the 10th of November. Our shipment of household goods arrived on the 13th and as of the 21st we are unpacked and put away. Somethings are still a little chaotic as we don't have the same space we had before, but I think we are coping nicely. Thanks to my super amazing mom we built some desks to suit our computer needs and got some beds for everyone.
As a quick detour, I need to say a very public thank you to my mom. While we probably could have done a lot of this on our own, she made everything easier. My parents generosity really knows no bounds and I am so thankful that I am their daughter. I am thankful for the monetary help they give (they spoil us honestly) but even more than that I am so thankful for the time and physical help they give us. My mom can do anything and has taught me that I can really do anything I put my mind to, and my dad is always will to help or just hold down the fort while my mom spends sometimes weeks helping us get from point A to point B.
And a big thank you to my sister Cecily and her son Tyson. I know life was really not cool without Grandma in the house, but thank you for letting us have her as long as we needed her. :)
Now some pictures of our house. Please ignore any messes as things are still a bit up in the air in some rooms!
This first one is the view from the front door. There is a coat closet to the immediate right (not in the picture) and stairs to the left. We have a fire place and that is where we decided to mount the TV. Brady's desk (that he built big enough to house the kids computer as well) is also to the right.
Then there is most of the living room and the back door.
It's all one big great room technically.
Those empty shelves above the piano will actually stay empty. We put them up for the cats (as they prefer heights) and they use them daily and sleep up in that corner above the book shelf often.
The view into my kitchen. Not very big, but I actually have better counter space here than I did back in our last house.
Then we have the powder room and the door to the pantry and garage.
Good sized pantry with deep shelves that the cats are always dying to get into.
The only real negative about the house (and it's not much of one) is that the laundry is in the garage. It's got it's own little nook though and it's not that big of a deal in the long run.
And here is a picture of the tree swing my mom picked up for the kids. She also bought us a pick nick table.
A view down the stairs...
Owen and Cadence's room with the new bunk bed.
Rory and Beckah's room with their new bunk bed.
The kids bathroom upstairs.
The new toy room with our new futon/couch (saves us so much room and turns into a bed! So much win!).
A view from the futon in the toy room. The kids WiiU and DVD player are in the closet (we took off all the doors to the closets as they were super old. Gave us lots of space.
And the master bedroom where my computer, sewing stuff, and all the random crap that doesn't have homes yet live.
And the master bathroom is through that door with the walk in closet to the left.
And that's the tour! Nothing special, but I'm really happy with it. Having a house and the kids in school again has been a big part in making Texas feel like home.
The kids are loving their school. I'm always so impressed by how well they accept new things. Especially big things like moving in the middle of the school year to a new state. They have looked at it as an adventure. They were excited about a new school. No fear at all from them. They just jumped right in and their teachers are loving them. Cadence took a very hard, major test for the district her second day of school and still managed to score in the top 10% of her class. Rory is reading and now that she has figured it out she is way ahead of her classmates and so proud of herself.
I'm happy to say that so far Texas is suiting us. Now if I could just get my sense of direction working again, life will be just about perfect.
