Daughters Bedroom

My daughter is 15 years old. 

She has been a full time RV'er since she was 6 years old. 

Yes, she has been without a bedroom and her furniture since 2004.

To say that she is excited to have her own bedroom would be an understatement. 

She is over the moon. 

It has been interesting to unpack the things that she "HAD" to keep when she was 6. 

There were many things that we kept simply because it was very hard,

emotionally, for her to give them up. 

I now have a 15 year old daughter with a 6 year olds bedroom. 

It is amusing. 

Though we still have to do some work on her walls and install new carpet and paint, 

she has a bedroom. 

Little did we realize that 3 of the 10 Billy bookcases would be hers. 

Missy

Plumbing and Kitchen

We have done a ton of plumbing.

The floor of the water heater compartment had to be replaced

before we could put the new water heater in.

That done, we were able to put the water heater in and enjoy stupidly

long showers that have never run out of water.

Oh, Yeah!!!

The kitchen has grown as well as shrunk.

We finally gutted the kitchen of its parts and pieces 

and added more temporary shelving to make it work.

We found a stove on Craigslist to go with the mark down fridge

from Homedepot.

Can't beat $60 for a working stove. 

Our other Craigslist score was a single bowl stainless sink, in a cabinet

with a beautiful faucet.

Then we found out that it belonged to a friend from church.

That was fun. 

The kitchen works very well for us right now. 

We will be dealing with wiring and sheetrock replacement

when we are ready to install cabinets, but that wont be for a while. 

The fun part was hauling off the nasty kitchen parts. 

We are getting there....it is just slow. 

Missy 

Ikea Love

I love Ikea. 

I just do. 

I love the huge store, the crazy people, the meatballs...

I love it all. 

Except the couches. :-) 

Since my first trip to Ikea in Houston, TX in 2004 I have been hooked. 

I always said that when we got a house it was going to look like an Ikea showroom.

(Actually I think I said it was going to look like an Ikea puked in my living room.) 

Soooo.....since I have a house now.....Wahoo!!! Trips to Ikea have been in my past

and are in my future. Oh Yeah!!! 

First trip was January 1, 2013. 

My good Texan (and southern) mama always said that whatever you did on January 1 

was what you would do all year. 

Ikea and Abuelos Mexican food for me, thank you very much. 

Second trip was late February.

I now have no money. sigh.... 

My 15 yr old daughter is becoming quite proficient at assembling flat pack boxes. 

I now have 10 Billy Bookcases,

 an Entertainment center Expedit,

 a 2x4 Expedit, a full bathroom for my daughter and a lot of other fun smaller toys. 

On the second trip we were looking in the "scratch and dent" section for a board to make

a hack on the entertainment center. 

There was this huge (yes, HUGE) cart of disassembled pieces for $10. 

I grabbed it, not really knowing what I was getting. 

As we were loading I realized we had a treasure trove of fun. 

I found the exact piece (from another entertainment center) that I needed for my hack. 

There were also 3 extra Billy shelves that were on my list...$45.00 savings right there. 

I got a perfect table top that I was going to buy as well as 2 Pax sides that will be used instead

as desk tops for the office. 

SCORE!!!

It takes me 3 days to get everything off the truck and in the house and then typically

about 3 weeks to get it all assembled.

Buying the whole house full of furniture is exhausting but so much fun.

Missy

Ugh. The Tired and Sick edition

We finally did the actual move into the house.
We moved the rig over on the 31st of December.
It was such a thrill to finally leave the lunatic at the rv park.
On the flip side it was sort of strange when we moved the bed
into the house and realized we really were NOT rvers any longer.

Mid January we were finally in the house.
It took a while and a water heater to make that work.

Our biggest issue we have had with everything has been that we have all been sick.
You know those 4 flu virus's going around?
Did you know you can have all 4 varieties?
Did you know that the flu shot does not really work on any of them?
Yeah, we know.

Between the upper respiratory ones and the throw up ones, we have
been having a grand time this year.
We have managed to get some stuff done but not nearly as much as we want.

Stay tuned. I promise to get well and get some updates going around here.
As soon as my fever breaks.....again.

Missy

Working Hard

 Does this look like a kitchen to you? 

I hope so, because it is mine for a while. 

We have been extremely busy since we closed on the house.

Two weeks of non stop going. 

And Christmas.

And illness. 

Yeah, lots of fun. 

So we are gutting the kitchen this week and this is going to be my kitchen cabinets for a bit. 

We have moved in, such as it is. 

This is everything we own in Az that is not in our RV. 

We still have to go back to Tx to get the rest of our stuff. 

There is not much there either. 

We have been doing minor projects around the house. 

A new thermostat... 

A pretty new toilet. 

New valves through the house, gas and water. 

Removing closet doors... 

The important things cannot be overstated.. 

Internet. 

And the best of all. 

Friday

This Friday we are closing on our new home. 

2 weeks and 2 days from originally seeing it.

I cannot call it "Our Forever Home" as we don't know what God has in store for us. 

I can call it "Our Roots Home"

This home will give us roots like we have not had in many years. 

It will give us a church family that we love very much. 

It will give our daughter a bedroom that she has not had since she was 6. 

She is now 15. 

We are excited and ready to go.

I think.

Missy

 Good thing we are not scared of a challenge.

It looks like we finally have the project that we have been looking for.

I found a listing on Craigslist, made the call and decided to go for it. 

Looks like it will be a whopping 13 days from finding the listing to final closing. 

God always works that way with us. We have to wait..and wait. 

Then He moves very quickly. 

Don't you just love this kitchen? 

No appliances but we have a 2 canister water filter? Okay, whatever. 

This old girl has solid bones but has a serious need for a spa.

She is an older single wide with a nice add on. 

 And she sits on a sweet 1/3 of an acre in town.

It is hard to think about a single wide having grown up in Texas. 

We really look down on manufactured homes of any kind but it is different out here. 

The only real questions is: Why in the world would you paint any house pink?

Missy