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Paint.
Hours of fun and frame worthy results.
This is a vast improvement from what this area looked like when we bought the house 4 years ago.
Last week Latte Mommy wrote this post about searching for her dream home. I would like to share my dream home experience.
A long time ago, Jeff and I owned a piece of property in California. It was a one-acre parcel in a gated community with a lake view. We planned on building our dream home on that piece of land. After much discussion of what our house would contain we bought blueprints.
Our house was three stories with bedrooms, the master suite and a sitting room on the third floor. The spacious kitchen, living room, dining room, office and spare bedroom were on the main floor . The bottom floor had a theater room and second kitchen so we could entertain by the pool without going upstairs for supplies. The house had a laundry room, bathrooms and all the normal things that a house should contain, except a playroom. This was all planned before kids, so their future needs were not considered.
We sold that property without breaking ground on the house and moved to Washington. The house I live in now is my dream home. It is not as elaborate as the one we planned, but it is perfect. I love my master suite and open floor plan. I love that Jeff has his theater room, and the girls have a play room. I love the play structure in the back yard and porch in the front. I love my kitchen with an island where my children participate in the baking. I love the window seat that we use every night for story time. I love that I have three full bathrooms. But all these things do not make it my dream home.
When we first moved here the neighborhood kids came over to ask if Belle could come out and play. I know that this is normal neighborhood behavior, but what amazed me is that Belle was 5 months old. The other kids were all over the age of 2 with the oldest being 6. Not wanting my baby to miss out on all the fun, we went outside to play.
This is a neighborhood where the kids play together while the parents gather on the sidewalk and hang out. Belle and Ariel have always been invited to play with the older kids. We have a wagon with seat belts so our girls can be the caboose of the wagon train. My girls have developed a love for bug hunts, berry picking, soccer and baseball because an older child took the time to include them. Belle, Ariel, Jeff and I have developed wonderful friendships, relationships that we treasure.
In the process of picking out a dream home it is impossible to know what kind of neighbors you will end up with. For years I had faith that God would place us amongst great neighbors. I prayed for it and believed it with all my heart. I feel fortunate that he answered that prayer, because we will never leave this house.
No. Matter. What.
Jeff had a rough day with the kids yesterday. He didn't want to rehash all the details over dinner, but he did tell me that the last straw was when walked into the bathroom and found it looked much like a scene in Dumb and Dumberer * where a melted chocolate bar gets all over the bathroom and the man of the house thinks it's poop. Except in our case it was poop.
*warning, movie clip contains profanity.
I felt bad for Jeff, but not overly sympathetic because kids sometimes do this sort of thing. It just comes with the territory, right?
After dinner we went to Target. Upon our arrival both girls needed to potty. I took them into the bathroom, while Jeff did some shopping. Both my girls are independent. They want to use individual stalls with the doors closed. I am left to stand near the sinks and help them as needed.
Ariel finished first and after washing her hands she decided that she needed to go potty again. After Belle finished, Ariel was still in the stall so I peeked through the crack in the stall to see what Ariel was doing. She had balled the bottom of her dress up in her hand and was dunking it in the toilet water.
I instantly felt more sympathy for Jeff's earlier poop experience.
These two ordeals in a single day seem like enough, but Ariel was not done with us yet.
At 9 pm our kids were tucked (so we thought) safely in bed, when we heard crying. Jeff went upstairs and found the bathroom and hall completely flooded and Ariel standing in the middle of it, dripping wet. She attempted to flush a whole roll of toilet paper. The flooding was so bad water was dripping through the ceiling and onto our downstairs carpet. Today we pulled back the carpet upstairs to view the damage.
We will have to replace the carpet and the pad. I'm thankful that Jeff has house flipping expertise, and credit lines at all the home improvement centers.
Notice that our home builder marked the floor squeak and apparent low spot where all the water flowed before he covered it with carpet. So very kind of him.
Our Home
In my last post I told you that things got a lot worse before they got better. I don't want to write about how they got worse, after all it is Thanksgiving week. Instead I want to express my gratitude for retaining the one thing I was sure I would lose, my home. This year we had two houses up for sale. The house we flipped and our home. We never wanted to sell our home. The couple of months that it was on the market went something like this:
We put a for sale sign in front of our house and said, "Okay God, our house is for sale, but we aren't going to advertise it. If you really want us to sell it you will bring someone down our street."
A couple of weeks later we hired an agent and listed the house. "Fine God, we'll advertise, but we are not going to sell it for a penny under our inflated asking price."
A month later we lowered our asking price. "Please God, just get us out of the mess. I don't care what it takes. No material possession is worth this amount of stress and heartache." A couple of weeks later someone finally made an offer on the house we flipped. In July we sold the renovated house and took our house off the market. 
I am so grateful that we were able to keep our house. Our neighbors mean so much to us. To leave this neighborhood would have been heartbreaking. Our kids have friends on this street. The stay at home moms on the street embrace and support my husband in his role as a stay at home dad. I am thankful everyday that I get to drive down this street and call it my home.
My home office:
My husband and I didn't want to waste our Formal Living Room space with fancy furniture that we would never sit on. Instead we created a sitting room/den setting. We fold down the laptop when we are being formal.
I love this desk. We bought it right before we left Sacramento. The store we got it at is called Encore Model Home Furnishing. If you live in or around Sacramento you HAVE to check this store out. Beautiful items that used to be in model homes. Great prices.
Here is the view from my seat:
Notice the empty plate. I just finished a slice of delicious Chocolate Merainge Pie. My husband is practicing his baking for Thanksgiving. I love him and hate him for it!
Happy Flaunt it Friday, I can't wait to see yours!
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