The acreage sega

So since this is kind of a long story I thought I'd intersperse it with a few pics...

This is my favorite part of the house...there is about a 3 foot balcony over the stairs that you can access from the master bedroom- I can totally see me decorating this space seasonally

So the story goes...On Wednesday morning we had called the realtor to ask more questions about the septic tank and water pumps and things. That evening we got a call back telling us that the realtor knew there was another offer coming in from another agency, and if we were serious about the place we would have to move quickly and put together an offer.

This is the bigger of the two kids bedrooms- it is bigger but with the pink walls I'm thinking that Nathan will want the other room

I was really upset by the Wednesday night call, wondering if this was a bad sales tactic. Chris (after about 8 phone calls back and forth, even though he was at work at the time) made a verbal offer and agreed to meet the realtor the next day to write it up.I wasn't happy about writing an offer under pressure, so I insisted we go back to the property first and take another look- that's why I have all the pictures.

This is the smaller of the two bedroom, but it's already painted blue and is the room with a closet so I think this will be Nathan's bedroom at first.

So we looked around the property and made sure we were still in love with it! And heard the rest of the story from the Realtor- saying his boss who is listing the property got a call that another agency wanted to present an offer late Wednesday night. But since it was late the owner didn't want to discuss the offer until after work the next day. Our realtor realized that if we actually were serious about the property our offer would have to be presented at the same time, giving us less than 24 hours!

This is the Master_ I'm so excited that there is actually enough room for an actual bedroom set- our bedroom in Lethbridge was squished for space when we had all our furniture in it!

So we decided that it was definitely the property for us~ and we wrote our offer! It was a had few hours waiting to hear back...

But in the end

they accepted our offer as it was written

so assuming that all the conditions can be met we will be the EXCITED owners soon!!!!

The last 24 hours or so have been exhausting and stressful!
now that it's over I'm headed for Bed.
Everything did work out, and I'll post the whole story tomorrow...right now I'm too tired to go into it, so I'll just give you a couple of hints....

I'm sure you can guess...but I'll save the news for tomorrow!

computer screens

Did you know that you're supposed to clean the outside of your computer screen? YOU'RE ALSO SUPPOSED TO CLEAN THE INSIDE OF IT TOO! Not many people know about this or know how to do it.
To see how to do it click
HERE

sketchbook again

I started this sketchbook when I was out in Caroline with the in-laws (trying to be "creative" without making any mess)
theses are the first few sketches and when I realized my drawing skills were pretty rusty...so I made a promise to myself to fill the 100 page sketchbook.
Although it's moving a lot slower than I had hoped I've done 38 pages. I'm pretty excited about the fashion era pen and ink or colored pencil I'm doing right now...I haven't got pics of them yet, and I thought I should show you where I'm "starting" or "starting again" from I guess...
so here's the first few in the book

keep your fingers crossed

I'm so excited about the place we found.

I've spent half the day on the net searching out the town, and the surrounding towns. As well as all the stupid stuff like utilities and Internet and garbage disposal. As well as checking the pricing of everything else in the area to make sure we're not out to lunch on the actual value of the property (so far it seems like an awesome deal- which is either awesome news for us or makes you worry that somethings wrong with the place)

I've talked to both sets of parents and made a list of questions that we need to give the realtor. Since we've never dealt with septic tanks or well water...so we've been asking all sorts of questions to try and get an idea of what we need to know.

I can't believe how excited I am about this place. I keep trying to keep calm and not get to excited until we actually make an offer, and then of course it still has to be accepted before I can start planning out the furniture placement and all the really fun stuff~ ahhh the fact I'm already talking furniture placement has got to tell you how much I have my heart set on this place!!! LOL

I found it!!!

3 Bedroom

1 and 1/2 story

2 bath

close to 1800 square feet

on

get this

29 acres (yikes)

I think I'm in love

seriously I think, I hope, I pray we've found HOME!!!!

Super Grandpa wins again!

So my Dad has been in love with Fiero's forever, or since they first came out. He's owned 4 now, I think (the first one was my fault but that's another story) and he "upgrades" a little each time he buys one. He's latest baby is an "official Indy Pace car Fiero"

He belongs to his local chapter of the Fiero club, and this year 6 of the guys decided to but their cars in the World of Wheels show.

Dad's car is the one on the right- the pace car that was released to the public (2000 cars were sold as official Indy pace cars I believe) and the one on the left has been modified to look like the actual car the ran the Indy track- I was able to pick up the differences between the 2- like the white stripe down the side and the air intake over the roof, while I was on the phone tonight with Dad, he was impressed!
Dad- Proud of his Baby
The guys in the club built the whole "display" the fence posts with the "wire" (which is actually spray painted rope), the road, the astro turf grass and the best part is the yellow duct tape centre line on the road.~ the spent quite a few weekends finding the supplies and building the props for their display. I think it came out well!
And~ Tah Dah!!! The award!
Yay.
although he says that he had no expectations going into the show, he was awarded
"Outstanding in Class"
which is basically second place in his category
pretty good consider his class was for 2 seater sports cars, and included corvettes and prowlers. But the judges are looking for the condition of the car, not the type of car

SO....YAY GRANDPA ZOOM!!!!

The Acreage Search Begins

We met with a Realtor this afternoon and got to see 2 properties...so our acreage hunt had officially started!!!! YAYThe first on was at the high end of our range, and had so many out building that were a little scared the maintenance required will be too much for us. But at the same time, it's a property that has the potential to grow with us instead of being out grown! ~ We need to do some serious thinking about what the purpose of an acreage is for us, and whether we want to create some extra income by allowing storage on the land or renting out whole buildings or if this is just a family place????questions, questions and a little soul searching.

~this was however Nathan's favorite- mostly because it had a kitty, that wanted to play with him! The kitten (again it was young, like the kitty from a few days ago) allowed Nathan to follow her around, and he was petting it nicely. I ducked into check out the barn and when I came out Nathan had decided to "cuddle" the cat. He had picked up kitty and had the poor thing upside down by the hips. He wasn't hurting it, obviously, because the cat let him pick her up another 4 or 5 times and would just go limp in his arms no matter what angle he picked her up. It was pretty funny to watch because the kitten was obviously quite an armful for him. I wish I'd had my camera but it was in the van at the time! Darn

The second property is actually considered by the county to be a dog kennel, which we thought may or may not be an interesting source of income too, if we're willing to do the work.
But as soon as we walked through the house I knew it was the wrong place for us. There was nothing really wrong other than having a small kitchen...but you know when a layout of a house feels funny, and you have such a hard time imagining your stuff in there that you just know a place could never be home???

I'm so Cheesy

I'm so corny sometimes it kills me...

We managed to get Nathan to bed at a decent hour last night (no small feat when Daddy's off- somehow his bedtime always gets missed by hours)

I'd noticed earlier in the day I still had some Pillsbury Valentines cookies in the bottom of the fridge...So we had a late night date~

Yes! Cookies and Ice Cream by Candlelight qualify as a Date when you have no babysitter!!!

A day of wonderful surprises

Well, before I say anything about what a great day I had today...I have to tell you after last night, I needed it to be an extra special day!

because...

last night I came awfully close to burning the house down!!!

no exaggeration

I was watching Mantracker (surprise) and decided I was hungry and would make something to eat before I headed for bed...so I put a pot of water on the stove to boil to make some mac and cheese.

then I sat back down and watched the last 15 minutes of the show. Upon which, I decided I still had a little bit of energy and would go back upstairs to take a look at the office.

An hour later...

I'm about to go back downstairs to make sure all the lights and stuff are off, and I start to think..."there's a really funny smell in the house". It smelled like some one was cooking ham over wood...a very distinct woody smell, mixed with something really sweet.

Wanna know why?

when I got downstairs and the smell was getting worse...it suddenly struck me...oh god the water!!!

not only was the water gone, and the pot scorched...but the pot was sitting almost right against the wood panel beside the stove...and it was getting hot enough that it was scorching the wood and the varnish on the wood was smoking!!!



Everything turned out fine in the end (although I did place a very panicked phone call to Chris- who came home from work to make sure I hadn't burned down the house)

but I managed to turn off the burner, spray some water on the wall, cool down the stove top and get the windows open and the fan going.

So now, other than being out a pot, and I'll probably have to sand down the wood and try to match the stain...everything ended all right.



And...

I guess that's part of the reason all the little things that happened today, seemed so nice and extra ordinary!!



I took Nathan out to the dollar store this afternoon, and as I was leaned across the backseat buckling him in I saw movement on the floor.

I guess a neighbors kitten had somewhere he needed to go, because he hopped up in the van with us to go for a ride.

It was such a beautiful little kitten~ probably about 6 months, I was very tempted to take him with us and claim to Chris he had followed us home

you know

"he followed me home, can I keep him?"

instead I scooped him off the floor ad petted him, and showed him to Nathan...."look a kitty"

"kitty"

"kitty"

"kitty"says a little voice while hands flail trying to grab for the kitten.

that lasted about 3 kitties before the little kitten decided that maybe this wasn't such a great plan!

But I just thought the whole thing was really cool, that this kitten had decided to jump into the van, to say hello, or go for a ride whatever!



We headed to the dollar store after that, and I literally paid a dollar for these little imitation crocs for Nathan- Not a cool as a Kitty...but I've got him convinced they are cool shoes he wore them for about an hour around the house before bed- and of course Mommy is thrilled whenever you can get kids clothing cheap!!!

but the coolest surprise of my day was waiting when we go home...

this is what I got in the mail this afternoon...

a beautiful photo card- which is stitched around the edges in red thread, I don't think you can see the thread in the pic. and this amazing wall hanging Angel image...

Both my words and my picture can not do it justice...it is absolutely gorgeous and delicate looking up close...

they were from Nancy at all pulped out, she is an amazing photographer and mixed media artist...and I was just floored that she had sent something so breathtaking! She asked for my address about a week ago saying she wanted to send a handmade card and something special...but I never dreamed it would be something this special!!! Thank you Nancy!!!


wow this is a long post- I guess I had a lot to say...but I also really needed to share some of my little "blessing" today~

the project update

Last night I managed to get all the file boxes sorted out into categories (which scrapbook the pics or articles were going into) and but each pile in an envelope so that I wouldn't have to resort once Nathan got up!!!

And this Afternoon, I ripped the magazines apart, while he played and sometimes came over to look at pictures with me.

But the whole pile of magazines is ready for the recycle bin which feels good.

Once Nathan went down for a nap, I slipped out to Walmart (Daddy was home, napping too!)

I managed to (with a lot of effort) find another scrapbook similar to the ones I already have...

It only has 20 pages with didn't thrill me


But it at least had the post bindings that I really like because then I can at least add pages if I have too.


but It is also only 10 x10 significantly smaller than the others I have as you can see in the picture...and 10 inches isn't going to fit any full page out of a magazine...which really irritated me. But it was a pain in the butt to ind this in the first place. All of the store have switched over to only carrying "scrapbooks" that are filled with those sheet protector pages, and I had a really hard time finding anything that had paper in it.

oh...and just to irritate me more...Walmart no longer carries rubber cement...which is the type of glue I have always used, and its way more expensive ~ to the tune of like 2 dollars more a jar at Michael's...blah

The project

So this is what I'm up against4 scrapbooks of my life (left)

4 (and probably more) scrapbooks of Inspiration (centre)

3 file boxes of Papers that need to be glued into these scrapbooks (upper centre)

and the pile of Magazines I've been crating around because they have something interesting in them (right)

The pile of Magazines - that need to be dismantled

The 4 inspiration books

One of the Grey scrapbooks is a Shoe inspiration book

another grey scrapbook is a fashion collection

one is all shoe related articles

and the last has exceptionally cool purse pics

(of course I also have a ton of cool architecture, and home decor pics that have to go somewhere so I'm thinking I may have at least one more of these little books by the end)

There are 3 "LIFE" scrapbooks that need to be updated, and I need to buy a new one for the this chapter in my life.

Some shots of the state of of the "life" scrapbooks - tickets and memorabilia from events

Articles of interest, and drawings and musings in my life

more

And the book from my NY trip- I still have to photocopy my journal pages to add to all this- oh and put it back together

and this scrapbook is my oldest started at about 16 and going all the way through college...there are so many pages it was no long staying together, so there's stuff to add and some repair work to do

and all the stuff that has to go somewhere in these pages...

so this is the first "project" to come out of the office~ not that I'm done the office, but I thought that if I don't have to find places for the boxes of papers and the magazines, I'll be reducing the clutter and need for space!~wish me luck:)