Moving Backward: from owning to renting

We had been dreaming about moving back to the country for years.  Looking at houses and waiting for one to come on the market.  Less houses mean less go on the market.  What did come up in our price range either needed a complete remodel or went so quickly we didn’t have a chance. 

I changed jobs and had a 30 minute commute to and from work.  My commute was nice.  It was the opposite direction as traffic and I got to watch the fields grow on my daily commute.  It also gave my an hour a day to listen to an audio book or sing along to the radio. 

A year and a half later, Michael changed jobs which came with way less stress but also less pay.  His job was now very close to mine and although his commute was now 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes to an hour is was still long. 

His new boss asked him is we wanted to rent out his old house.  Michael was sold instantly – I was not. 

How could we go backward?  We OWN our house, why would we go back to renting? 

Then we sat down and mapped out this potential move.  We discovered we would save about half on our housing expenses (mortgage, insurance, and utilities) and the saving on our gas – no, sorry, FUEL (we have a diesel truck and car) was going to be significant too.  We also priced out rentals in our area and discovered we could rent our current house for enough to cover the mortgage.

Ok, that sounds good but still – renting is throwing your money down the drain, right?  Kind of yes but also no.  You are trading your money for a place to live.  That’s not a bad thing at all. 

Then there was the difference in the houses.  Our house has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, brand new windows, new flooring, a new master bathroom, a 3 car garage, a decent sized backyard, and we could modify it as we pleased.  It is situated on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs.  The potential rental is a modular – a trailer without wheels, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, awkward layout, mismatched floors, a pond behind the house, and literally 5 minutes from my work.  It is in the country close to the land Michael was going to farm and close to his dad and grandma’s house.   

Yeah, you read that right my husband wanted me to move from a house to a trailer and the crazy part – we did it!  Even crazier – we couldn’t be happier about our choice! 

We moved when I was 7 months pregnant, spent the 8th and 9th month of my pregnancy getting our old house ready to rent out while getting settled in our new place.  It was crazy but looking back it was all worth it. 

I have been writing this blog post in my head for over a year now.  I still have conflicting thoughts about it!  Sometimes I feel like we took a huge step back and might not ever live in a house we own again.  I long for the days when I can tackle projects to improve the house again.  Other times I know this is the best thing for our family right now.  We get more time together since we are spending less time commuting and we live in a much more peaceful area. 

I just did the math and I spend 11.5 DAYS (24 hour periods) on the road in my year and a half commuting to and from work.  When you look at it like that – WOW!

Maybe we did move backward, but as odd as it sounds sometimes you have to move back to move forward.  (At least that is what I am telling myself!)

Master Bathroom–finally finished!!

The Master Bathroom is finally finished!! 

I have to say, it is SO NICE to wake up and not have to walk down the hall to get into the shower.  It’s the little things that make me happy!

Welcome to the new and improved master bathroom …

I’m so happy with the floors!  Take a look at the before and after here. 

The tub looks great with the new color on the walls. 

We had the shower painted, which makes it look 1,000 times better.  But, I am not 100% satisfied with it – we’ll see how it holds up with time and use! 

New shower doors which were a pain in the rear to install BTW.  New faucet and control knob. 

LOVE this towel bar!!  It is so nice to hang up our towels when we get out of the shower to dry instead of having to put them over a door knob or over the shower door.  Best $20 spent!!

The only problem with this grey color (called Driftwood Grey by Martha Stewart) is that it makes the bathroom much darker than the white that was here before.  I still love the color, but now I want to add more lights.  Want to but not going to.

The white molding looks great against the grey walls and the tan tile!

Michael’s vanity – didn’t do much here but paint the toilet paper holder and the vanity lights. 

My vanity – again, not much done here but the flooring and paint make such a huge difference!!  We also changed out the ugly old yellow outlets and switches to new white ones – small change but big impact! 

Michael was very surprised when I brought these jars home – they are not my style at all.  Very fancy and I am … let’s go with … plain – not fancy at all.

I do think they look great in the bathroom!  They are perfect for storing cotton balls, q-tips, and cotton pads (or whatever those are called) within easy reach.   

I am also a huge fan of baskets – all of my daily used face items are in this basket put some extra.  Maybe I should just find a smaller basket?  Hmmm…

Since I love Before and After pictures so much – here is the before of our bathroom (we painted it white when we moved in – it was yellow) and the after. 

Like I said above, the grey makes the room a little dark but it still looks SO MUCH BETTER!!

Molding – FINALLY!

Way back when we did the floors we were also planning to do the molding.  But, we all know how that goes!  Here it is almost all finished!!

Molding and transition strips!  Woo hoo!!

We did the laminate flooring back in Fall of 2011 (it has seriously been over 2 years!) and the tile last spring – for before and after of the tile check out this post. 

That little transition piece makes it look so finished! 

I am glad to finally check that off the running to do list!

Camo Initial

Last weekend was the opening of Duck season.  Ironically, my duck hunter hubby was bear hunting.  The weather around here hasn’t been ideal for duck hunting, but it will get there soon enough. 

This summer, I decided to make an initial with the intention of hanging it on a wreath on our door during duck season.  I don’t have the wreath I pictured, but it is still awesome sitting on a shelf in our living room. 

Here is how I made it:

The only supplies needed are a wooden initial (I got an S for Schwall), some fabric (I used an old dog bed in Michael’s camo of choice – Advantage Wetlands Max 4), some adhesive (I didn’t end up using the gorilla glue only the spray adhesive), and a hot glue gun.

Put the initial on some newspaper in a well ventilated area.  Underneath the initial put some square thumb tacks or chunks of cardboard so it doesn’t stick.  

Follow the directions on the spray adhesive bottle.  My bottle said to spray it on then let it dry for 10 minutes. 

Position your fabric and press firmly. 

Let dry then cut out the general shape.

I let mine sit a week or three while I figured out how to finish it. 

Hot glue the edges and onto the back – you will need to do a small section at a time.  Depending on your initial, you will need to do some cutting to have a smooth edge.  Keep your scissors handy. 

I didn’t take pictures, but I also painted the back brown – it makes it look more finished but nobody is going to look at the back, so that is optional. 

The finished S!

I just realized the S is upside down in these pictures (notice the tulles are growing down) but it still looks amazing! 

Very simple and I can now make an initial with anything I want on it for only a couple of dollars!

What do you think?

Mother’s Day Lunch

Hello all! I hope you had an amazing Mother’s Day!  We had both our mothers over for a nice simple lunch.

I found the pink gingham in my fabric stash and used our new green placemats.  I need to get some other colored linens, but I have plenty of green!

I used some candle holders full of branches from the backyard for a low and simple centerpiece. 

Our pretty new glasses look fantastic with a strawberry and some lemonade.

My mother in law bought these chargers for her daughter’s birthday and stopped on the way over to get a few more.  I LOVE them!!  They add that perfect touch to the table!  As I was getting some last minute groceries I spotted the Ghirardelli Raspberry Squares and I think they add a perfect little touch to the place setting. 

On to the food – I love to eat.  Pretty much my favorite thing to do.  I thought a while about what to serve, Mother’s Day always seems to go with brunch but brunch can be so heavy and it has been hot lately, so I wanted something light.  I finally decided on a salad bar.  Think this might be a new Mother’s Day traditional because I loved it (and I think my ma and MIL did too)!

Red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, egg, cheese, avocado, snap peas, carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms …

kidney beans, bacon, sunflower seeds, raisins (in the back), chicken, croutons, and croissants

It was a great lunch and nice to spend some quality time with our moms!

They are amazing and I am thankful to have them both around. 

What did you do for Mother’s Day?

Remodeled Entryway!

Since we moved into our house I have wanted to get rid of the tile in our entry way.  

I didn’t like the ugly blue flowers at all. 

After we took out the carpet and put in laminate, the urge to change the tile intensified.

 

So, one weekend we tore out the tile.  It required some muscle, but came up pretty easily. In some spots they must have used super dooper mortar so they were time consuming to get up, but it was all worth it. 

Then the clean up began. 

After I swept and vacuumed and mopped the concrete floor we left it until the next weekend.  Then, I painted the floor with RedGard which prevents cracks and waterproofs the floor.

We probably didn’t NEED this, but it was recommended to us when we tiled the entry way in the duplex and we have used it on all our tiling since (which has been only a few times, but still) and we haven’t had any problems.  I think it is worth the $50 investment.  We’ll use the rest of the can on the bathrooms and in the laundry room.

It goes on pink then dries red. 

Once the RedGard dried, I placed the tiles out to see what we need to cut and how it will look.  It worked out perfect – we only had to cut 3 tiles in half! 

I really like the offset look – I think it looks so much better than lining up all the corners.  It is worth the little bit of extra effort!

We mixed up the thin set and set the tiles.   

We let that dry and put in the grout. 

The grout is still a little wet in this picture, so you can see it a little better.  

I LOVE it!!

I also LOVE before and after pictures, so here is one:

We still need to put up the molding and the transition strip between the tile and the laminate, but I am happy, happy, happy!

And … the best part?  This cost less than $150!  Worth every penny! 

I can’t wait to see what it will look like with molding and maybe even a painted front door! 

  

What do you think?  Have you done any projects around your house?

I’d love to hear about them!

Laundry Room Tour

I took a little break from the house tour so I could do some posts about the ag unit my class just finished.  So, here we are again!  Here is our laundry room - I know, so exciting!  The main reason I wanted to do this house tour is so I can see the before and after (hopefully there will be an after) pictures.  I have so many plans for the laundry room - it is just a matter of finding the time and energy to do them!  But, here is the laundry room as it is now . . .

It is not really a dedicated room but a pass through from the garage into the house.  But, that works perfectly for us!

Our washing machine and dryer.

Our cats eat on top of the dryer.  I love/hate that . . . love that the dogs can't eat all of the cat food and that it is out of the way.  Hate that the cats make a HUGE MESS when they eat and the cat food drops behind the dryer and is all over the top of the dryer.  Our cat Charlie thinks it is fun to get food in his mouth then move his head and chew (with his mouth open so the food falls over the place) where the food can fall out and make a big mess.   

 There are cabinets above the washer and dryer - the green tape is a project I want to do. 

The floor - plain but functional. 

We have this amazing organizer behind the door that houses the brooms and such.  That was $7 well spent!

On the opposite wall of the washer and dryer is a little storage space.  When we bought the house there were wood shelves that were gross and sagging and blinds (the cheap kind you put on windows - great for windows but bad for a laundry room) - I guess to "hide" the stuff on the shelves, so we took those out.  Seriously - I could see a curtain but blinds?  We put up closet shelving.  One length worked perfectly for this space - we need to add a bar or two in the middle to support it and maybe another shelf or two, we'll see.  

We keep paper towels, all the dog stuff (blankets, treats, toys) and all sorts of random stuff on these shelves.   

And we keep our shoes here too - maybe it is time to put the flip flops away so the mud boots have room.

So, there it is our exciting laundry room!!  Like I said, I have big plans in here!  What do you do in your laundry room to liven it up?