Scenic Crest

We bought a house! For years, it's been a dream of ours to move out to the Hill Country. We've looked and looked and looked. In July we decided to start looking in earnest and that we wanted to sell our house. We looked at quite a few houses. Even put an offer on one and then--after an eye opening inspection--backed out of that one. 

We came to look at this house, even though it was pretty far out of our price range. (Seems like it was around $265k.) As soon as we stepped up to the porch and saw the views and the house, we knew we were in trouble. After one walk through the house, we desperately wanted it, and left sad because we knew we couldn't get it.

We put the Sierra Trail house on the market. I kept my eye on this house over several weeks. I prayed. The price started dropping. But they weren't accepting offers that were contingent on the sale of our house. Houses like this do not stay on the market long and we just knew it would sell any day. Again, the price dropped more and we talked to Donna, our realtor, and she suggested putting in an offer since it looked like Sierra Trail would sell. So we did! Turns out they had one more offer, so we had to give our highest offer and wait. We offered more than she recommended, but we did not want to lose the house. We won and were THRILLED! 

Meanwhile we closed on Sierra Trail and moved in with the Sizemore's for a few weeks. Everything kept going wrong with the Scenic Crest house because it'd been vacant for quite a while and because it was bank owned and because things kept not working and breaking. It was a nightmare! Donna kept suggesting we back out of the house, but we just couldn't. There were several times it looked like the whole thing was going to fall through. However, at the end of the day, we ended up getting the house for $225,000 (exactly where we wanted to be), and all of the "major issues" turned out to not be such a big deal once we got in and settled.

We love our house, and as we pull into the driveway each day, we are still in wonder--"I can't believe we get to live here!"

Here are the photos from the listing. We've got a lot of work to do, but we are so excited!

Backdated. Written 2021.

Saying Goodbye to Sierra Trail

We moved into our house at 11310 Sierra Trail in the spring of 2010. We bought it for $128,000. We sold it in September of 2018 for $205,000 in five days. While we are excited for the hill country and small town living, we've grown to love this house, and finally had it almost exactly the way we liked it. Ha ha. 

Here are the photos from our listing. (Note that the super green grass is photoshopped. Ha!)

Backdated. Written in 2021.

Kitchen Remodel

Since we moved in, we've always wanted to remodel our builders grade kitchen, but (as you know) kitchen remodels are expensive. So it's never gotten done.

But the first week of September (the week after I started working full-time), we discovered water leaking out from under the siding on the back of the house. And when Aaron pulled off the siding to investigate, he discovered a water leak that had been going on for who knows how long. So we got the leak repaired and then a day or two later, Aaron swore he smelled mold. I told him it was his imagination. But lo and behold, when he got under the cabinets, he found this...

So, we took out that whole wall of cabinets and called the insurance company. Getting this kitchen back up and running took September all the way to Thanksgiving due to the fact that 1) we did it all ourselves, 2) we never really seemed to be home, and 3) the rare times we were home, we didn't exactly have the energy to get it done.But it eventually DID get done, and we love it! 

I'll try to add some more pictures soon with our completed sitting room at the end, but for now, you get the idea.

Life Simpler

I'm a big fan of things, habits, and practices that make life simpler. Who couldn't use more of that, huh?
I feel like I've been on the journey of trying to become more efficient and organized for years, and I'll probably never really get there, but this week, three things I believe got me closer!

1. Laundry Chute
Aaron and I saw a house with a laundry chute a couple of years ago when we were looking at houses to buy. We thought it was so cool and tucked it away in our brains until a couple of weeks ago, when it was mentioned again. Well this weekend, Aaron and my dad cut a big hole in the floor of our closet and in the ceiling of our laundry room, and then Aaron built the chute, complete with door. Now my kids fight over who gets "dirty clothes duty". So far no one has jumped through, though I did see a pair of Carson feet dangling into the laundry room yesterday.

2. Roomba 
My mom picked up this fabulous wonder-machine at a garage sale for $15 and gave it to us. I adore it. I use it every day. I sit on the couch and read magazines as it vacuums my floors and under my furniture. It's glorious.

3. Get Rid of Stuff
I've filled up my trunk twice now with stuff to donate and give away. Much of it, I'd been piling up for months, and I just decided it was time  to clear it all out. I also went through my closet and got rid of a lot of the stuff that I never wear. I was inspired by the blog Small Notebook that my friend, Amanda, told me about. It feels GOOD.

I'd love to hear about any of the things that help you simplify, organize, or be more efficient!

Summer Clubhouse

I've been thinking for a couple of months about ways to get the kids playing outside more during the summer. I'd been trying to think of ways to build a "clubhouse" of sorts for free or cheap with mostly items we had. I was kinda stumped until one day I realized that a couple of years ago, my Grandpa gave us an old little tent. So today I set it up in the back yard for the kiddos. I'm going to add some extra touches, but it was fun hanging out in this little corner of the yard this afternoon!

Garden Update 6/14/12

Well, summer has arrived and the garden looks a little different than last time. First off our little corner with the cucumbers, blackberries, and flowers (I have no idea what kind I planted) has taken off! Aaron found me some pallets a couple of months ago and I decided to use them as a trellis for the cucumbers. So far they seem to like it!

In our raised bed, we finally had to pull the pumpkins after harvesting about five of them. I think I may have sorta killed them when I trimmed them back (they were taking over our yard!) and they weren't doing so good. We'll be planting them again in July in preparation for Halloween. The tomatoes are taking off! We had so many tomatoes I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I've made several batches of homemade salsa lately,and it's been yummy! (I'll put the recipe below.) I pulled all but one of the brussel sprout plants, and I almost pulled that one up today, but lo and behold, there are sprouts nearly ready to harvest. Not sure if they'll be good or not this late in season, but we can try!

Fresh Salsa

Ingredients: 6-8 medium sized tomatoes
1 jalepeno, diced
2-4 cloves of garlic, diced
1/2 to full bunch of cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1/2-1 lemon
Cumin, Salt, and Garlic Powder to taste

Instructions: Bring water to boil in a large pot. Once water is boiling, add tomatoes and boil for three minutes, then remove from water and let cool. While cooling, combine remaining ingredients in bowl. Once the tomatoes have cooled, peel skin from tomatoes, then pulse in food processor until tomatoes reach desired consistency (I like to leave it a little chunky), then add to other ingredients and refrigerate! Lasts up to 1 week in the refrigerator.