Ya so we moved.

We made it here.

And it ain't pretty.  Our dinners are coming out of Doritos bags.

I swear I will be unpacking until Mikael goes to kindergarten.  It is physically impossible to move, blog, attend soccer finales, celebrate birthdays, sell houses, and get kids to school on time.  Bear with us.

Oh ya.

And just in case you weren't feeling just a wee bit sorry for me - Jace made me do the whole Thanksgiving thing for some of his family.  At my new house.  With no kitchen stove.  Bet you didn't know you could make mash potatoes in a turkey fryer. 

Burn.

p.s.  And a child that should remain nameless managed to crack the screen on my laptop and ipod, all in one week.  I told him he owes me $690.  He told me he doesn't have it.  So I really have no idea what my pictures look like on this post or if I noticed all the yellow highlighted mispelled words due to the big black spider covering my screen.

Countdown: Day 9

We have reached a new chapter in our lives.  Pig tails.  I laughed every time I looked at this baby today.  The pig tails just might be the key to a better relationship with this little gal.  Most days I'm not laughing at this child.  She is a difficult one.  If your mother ever told you that you were a difficult baby - go apologize.  Right now.  I mean it.  Jace and I were blessed with a few really sweet, calm, fat babies and then.....Mikael.  She is cute and sometimes sweet but wow, she has changed my life.  I should probably publicly apologize for rolling my eyes (in my mind) whenever another mother said "My baby cries all the time."  Or the popular, "He's teething."  I had not a clue what sleepless nights or a teething baby was until Mikael.

But the pig tails.  They single handedly took down the wall around my heart today.

pig tails after the nap

Ezra told me her pig tails weren't cute just small.

And that sweet 7 year old Noah managed to entertain her upstairs today while I cleaned downstairs at the new Casa.  The entire time.  Huge deal.  In fact I had so much time there today, I started hunting for 2 of the wooden, original chandeliers that came with the house.  I had decided that with a little elbow grease and a coat of shiny green spray paint they would have looked vintage modern instead of hideous/dark 1970's vintage.  Wasn't it such a great, thrifty idea?  Can you just picture them in your mind?  Well, I couldn't find those lights anywhere.

Jace took them to the dump.  Just 3 days ago.  Crimeamny.

My lighting budget just went from sad to depressing.  Tomorrow I'm going to scrounge through the lights that did not make it into Jace's dump trailer to see if I can make anything else work.  That guy.  I'm thinking about gluing a couple pig tails to the top of his head tomorrow.

Countdown: Day 10

The sun is going down and the season is changing.

Moving is like childbirth.  Sometimes the anticipation of it is worse than the actual event. (If you believe in epidurals.)  I have been walking in circles.  Lying awake at night unable to convince my brain that we will be able to survive this.  Again.  There really is no way to prepare for it except to tell yourself -  "The ball is already rolling and there is no way to stop it now.  No turning back. Now breathe.  Breathe."

Childbirth?  Really Lindsay?  Really.  It's a bit dramatic but maybe this time of year when the season is changing I am reminded where I was last year.

Sept. 21, 2010.  Anxiously awaiting Mikael's arrival in a hospital bed.

Giving birth.  And I'm telling you - it feels the same.  Except my hips don't ache when I waddle.

Jace and I met up at the Casa this afternoon.  I followed him around the place with a broom and trash can as he caulked, installed shower trim fixtures, scraped windows, adjusted the new furnace, and set toilets.

On the car ride home I said, "There is no way we are going to make it.  We still have so much to do."

Jace replied, "Funny cuz I was just going to say we got so much done today.  We are so close."

Funny how a husband and wife who are seeing the same thing can have such different perspectives.  

Bit like childbirth, no?

Now a word or two about my last post.

I love Jace.  He works his tail end off for us. 

He bought 2500 pounds of rough lumber from a local sawmill for $19.74.

He was thrilled beyond words.  He told everyone he saw about his purchase.

How could he not build his chicken coop? Right now?

When it was all said and done his coop costs us $9.87.  Or something like that.

I'm thrilled for him.  Well, now that I have had time to think about it - I'm thrilled for him.

And he wins the most handsome soccer coach ever award.

And as for my priorities?

Word on the street is I have been decorating our downtown house for Thanksgiving.

So that I can take it down in 10 days.  Put it in a box.  And hang it back up at the new Casa.

Eh.

Priorities

We are suppose to be busy finishing a house.  The house we are moving into next weekend.  But things keep getting in the way.  Some of the things cause me to stomp my feet and growl when I talk.  Like the new chicken coop for example:

Remember when the chicken coop use to just be the kid's tree house?  And it looked like this?

Sometimes I may not know when to pick my battles.  And this is not one of those times.  I know you will all agree with me that my bedroom should be completed before the chicken's.  All of you except Jace and the other crazed chicken sympathizers out there.  The saddest thing of all is that 4 year old Ezra thinks Dad built him 2 tree forts now!  Who is going to break the news to him that this newly constructed "fort" is for our feathered friends only?  Not me.

Distraction #2:

Jace gets a little Phil Weston on us every Saturday morning.  He loves to win.

He is the only coach in the league running up and down the field with his players.  Yelling.  It is pretty fun to watch.

And this little guy is so fun to watch.  He has had another great season.  Our Noah never fails to surprise and impress us.  Another reason I love this kid?  Check out his Obi-Wan Kenobi costume below.

All that he needed was a robe.  He wasn't worried.  He told me after the trick or treating that "everybody knew who he was."  Sweet, because his older sister had just a few wardrobe meltdowns.  "Everyone thinks I'm a pirate!"  And I don't even have to point out what the younger sister thought of her piggy costume.  She. Was. Not. Having. It.  And Ironman there in the middle was a repeat of last year.  Love that.

Remember those boring tile pictures I promised?

Enjoy.

Master bath.  I tried to talk Jace into doing the entire bathroom in the white marble.  As you can see he didn't think that was one of my best ideas.

But I don't mind the beige tile he picked.  It's kind of growing on me.

Kid's bath.  Was hoping for dark brown subway tile.  But white will do.  It will do.  

An End In Sight

Pardon our absence.  And our photos.  We went to Utah last week.  My hands are constantly busy whether at home or out of state.  All photography responsibilities have fallen upon my 9 year old - we didn't get one photo while in Utah and our house photos have been lacking lately.  We were in Provo for Jace's Aunt Mariann's funeral last week.  I loved this woman dearly.  She was the best Mother, Grandmother, Sister, Aunt, ect.  You never heard a negative word come out of her mouth.  I was reminded how I want to be.  When I die, I want people to remember how kind I was, not how skinny I was or how well I decorated (I am neither skinny or a decorator - just in my head but you get where I going with this right?). 

We now have an official move-in date.  Veteran's Day.  Our down-town house sold while we were away and if you were stalking our Bobcat skid steer on ebay, I'm sorry to say it sold last week as well.  Darn it for you guys.  But ya for us!  Maybe we should leave the state more often.  Those Bobcat auction proceeds sure bought some purty wood floor in Salt Lake City.

See that concrete.  I know what you are thinking.  You are thinking, "Man, that is clean concrete."  Yes! Yes it is!  I have been cleaning up concrete for what seems like weeks now.  Jace grinded the top layer of concrete and the whole house was covered in concrete dust.  I swept, vacuumed, rented the "Ninja" machine to wash the floors, vacuumed some more, then mopped 4 times.  My right arm is still numb.

All that hard work is paying off.  Our concrete floors are stained and being prepped for sealer tonight.  Pictures coming soon.  

We are so close.  The end is here.  We have enough time for one more big push.  Any bets we make it to tile?  Or is Lindsay moving in with 1970's linoleum floors in the bathrooms? 

Downtown house - On the Market

I know what you are thinking.  If she is trying to sell the house why start with the before picture?  Well, I'll tell you.  This was a sad little house in the middle of town - in a great neighborhood (poor neighbors, right?) exactly one year ago.  Jace and I immediately saw this house's potential.  If you have been driving by this house for years on your way to Little League or dropping kids off at school - you probably never noticed it or if you did it just made your heart sad.

BEFORE:

  AFTER:

Is your heart singing now?  A happy song?  

After lots of work this sad little house is now adorable with it's laid back, California cool charm.

And just like the exterior, the inside was in desperate need of a make over.

And a make over it got.

We tore down walls, bumped out closets, and ripped out the fireplace to make room for our new living room.

We should all quit lying to ourselves.  We live on our computers these days.  We can't bank, cook, decorate, blog, shop, or communicate without them.  Every house I touch I plan for an office space.  Even my little houses.  I love the function of this space.

The only thing in good shape when we bought this house was the kitchen cabinets.  We savaged all we could, rearranged, and painted them.

Inspiration for the kitchen was found here.

Just know that nothing was left untouched or undone.  Jace did the hard work for you.

We have loved living in our little downtown house.  We absolutely love the location (kids walk to and from school!).  We absolutely love the neighbors.  We will be sad to leave it all. 

But we have another house calling our names.  Another sad house in need of our services.

The Baums are moving on.  Again.

My downtown house is for sale.  Spread the word.  Come enjoy small town life in this charming, perfectly priced house.

Click here or email here for more info.

De Nuevo Casa

Or is it De Casa Nuevo?

We rushed home from Hawaii with our fingers, arms, and legs crossed that this new house deal would actually go thru.  And it did!  We haven't even taken a breath since vacation.  We've been signing the dotted lines and ripping our new house apart:

We've had our eye on this beauty for awhile now.  1 year actually.  It was this month last year we packed up our life in Chandler and headed home.  I was going to miss by Chandler barn home desperately and this house was the only thing that was going to make it better.  I would dream at night of moving straight in and tearing it apart.

But since most banks don't know a good offer from a hole in the ground (and have never heard of little Snowflake, AZ) this house has been put thru the ringer this year.  Lot boundary disputes, floods, hidden septic tanks, frozen pipes, ect.  But hallelujah!  It's timing and price could not have been better for the Baums.

We are thrilled most days about our purchase and overwhelmed to tears on others.  It is one big mambajamba.  This redo may take a little more time (and $).  Count on after pictures to come ....ssslloowwwly.

The house was built in 1975 for a family of 9 children.  Almost everyone in town is familiar with house. They all had a best friend, cousin, or uncle live there.  They all played pool in the pool house in high school.  They all had secret clubs in the tree house or kissed a boy in the barn.

Everyone is town also knows how much work Jace and I have in front of us.  But come on!  This is seriously the nicest house Jace ever bought me.  Hands down.  And we have a nasty habit of telling ourselves at the beginning of every house that - "this one will be easy...nothing like the last one."  Ask me again in a couple months where this one ranks on the difficulty scale.  I'm sure we will be singing a different tune.

Jace and I consider the house just a good bonus.  We really bought this house because of land it sits on.  Mature trees, paved road, private well, 5.3 acres - 1 acre landscaped, detached garage, barn - all in town!  I don't have to move to Concho after all!  My marriage is saved!  The house is the ultimate compromise for both of us.

The style of the house is spanish or mission style.  I'm excited to take it on.  We have never done this style of house before.  We plan on staying true to it's spanish roots but lightening it up and modernizing it.

And hec.  Haven't you heard 1970's retro is back?  It's all the rage.  Maybe if I wait around another year the wood paneled walls will be back in style.

So excuse the blogging absence and the dirty tennis shoes on my feet and my dirty orphan children....the Baums are back in the swing of things.

Say a prayer for us.  And for rain.  My state is on fire and my trees are dying.

:)