Tuesday, August 24, 2010

New House Preview.....

Well it is ALMOST official... we signed escrow documents yesterday on our NEW HOUSE! It is being released to record today and we should get the keys sometime tomorrow! We are SO very excited. This has been a very long and painful process that has brought us to our breaking point a few times. (No one said buying a foreclosure would be easy!) We just held on and hoped & prayed that everything would work out: "as it is meant to be".

For those of you that JUST CANT WAIT here are a few pics. I took them during the inspection so there may be people/things in the way.... more pics to come once we move in!!!

ENJOY!!


1920 Farmhouse on Shy 2 acres. 4 bedrooms/1 bath



*Shy 2 Acres with a nice big side yard on a quiet street. Needs some TLC and a riding lawn mower but we can see the potential! Plenty of room for a garden, fire pit, chickens, goats and for the kidS to play!





Front entry has a closed in porch/sunroom (great place for dirty boots!)

Living room has a cozy wood stove & hardwoods. Stairs lead to the upstairs where there are 2 bedrooms and an unfinished attic room (which is great for storage now and can become anther room as our family grows!) Cash's room will be upstairs as well as his toy room; lucky boy!






Kitchen is spacious with lots of cabinets. I LOVE the old farmhouse sink and the window above it!!! Cute bright nook for our table as well. Other side of the kitchen has a big open wall, we may put more cabinets/built-ins on that wall down the road. Back door will take us right to our chickens/garden etc... =)





There is bathroom with a BIG soaking tub (on the main floor) down the road we will prob add a 2nd bath upstairs for the kiddos. Unless we have all boys, then they can go outside! LOL Apparently we need to buy a toilet seat but i'm happy to have a brand new toilet!! :)





The 2 main floor bedrooms have cool painted cedar panels in the closets and beautiful old door knobs... I love the little farmhouse details! (Wish I would have taken a pic of the built-ins in the hall!)








Upstairs has brand new carpet (although it looks like it is cheap and it will stain, at least it's new!) I love the cut outs in his playroom. Perfect to build shelves in and store toys!!



We LOVE this house and can't wait to make it our HOME!!!! The first floor 2nd bedroom will be our office/guest room so COME VISIT US!!!!!

xoxo

The Jackson Family

Thursday, August 19, 2010

awe.... naptime...

Cloth Diaper give-aways.. my new past-time...

Check out this great blog! I'm HOPING to win a Mother-ease diaper from www.mommyandmegiveaways.com


Cash is a really heavy night wetter so i'm very excited to try their AIO diaper & air-flow covers!!

Click the boxes below to learn more!

WISH ME LUCK!! :)


Mommy and Me Giveaways

Mommy and Me Giveaways

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Shout out to the Cloth Whisperer...



I think Friday the 13th is my new favorite day!! I was the lucky Fluff Friday Twitter winner of a GroVia AIO cloth diaper ..... YES YES YES!!!!

I just receieved my first trial pack from www.kellyscloset.com a few days ago and i'm already a HUGE FAN!!! You could say I am a teenie tiny bit OBSESSED!!

Just to put my new found obsession into perspective... we will be closing on our new house in a few weeks and I am scouring the web and baby stores for diapers instead of the much needed curtains/appliances etc... Shhhh... don't tell my hubby!!




A BIG thank you & shout out to the facilitators of my new found obsession:


www.TheClothDiaperWhisperer.com


www.KellysCloset.com



Kelly's Closet


http://www.diapershops.com
twitter: @diapershops.com

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

All aboard the ECO train!! TOOT TOOT!

Ok... I'm ashamed to admit this but I have been using disposable diapers for the past 17 months ((insert GASP here)). I was ALL EARS at my moms group when the gal brought in all the different products on the cloth diaper market... myself & other sleep deprived first time mamas of newborns smiled & nodded politely but tried to not make eye contact.

I had EVERY intention of checking into cloth diapers once I got the mom game down... well... better late than never right??

I have just ordered an array of products which are spendy (another reason I was reluctant) but will save us TONS of money in the long run - not to mention mother earth!

Here's why i'm finally ALL ABOARD....

COMPOSTABLE/FLUSHABLE DISPOSABLE liners!


So excited... it's JUST what I need to help me EASE into the cloth diaper revolution. I had NO IDEA! I thought for sure you had to constantly wash poo cloths! EEEEEW!

I have been researching all the different brands and i've settled on GroVia ( previously called GroBaby) hybrid diaper system.



GroVia organic cotton soaker pads are perfect for daily use and the bio-soaker disposable inserts are made with Biodegradable & Compostable Materials! Finally a GREEN way to use disposable diapers when on the go!

I'm so excited to try these out! I will post my findings once I have given them a test drive!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Home Sweet Home




I have been avoiding blogging about our current house hunt because I didn’t want to jinx us. But…. WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!! Actually… we have made an offer on a house that has been accepted and we are in the process of buying it… let’s hope/pray/send good thoughts to the universe that it all goes well and we close on our scheduled date of September 8th!!

So here’s the skinny…. Brandon and I both really wanted to buy an old historic farmhouse on acreage. We’ve been searching high and low… we either love the house OR we love the land… many that have both components were gutted and needed LOTS of work. We were prepared to stay at Papa’s after closing and put our heart, soul, sweat & tears into a home. We both love the character of old farmhouses and no matter the level of disrepair we could see the potential.

In what seemed like our lowest hour our lovely agent (and friend) Karla sent us a listing… I didn’t even want to open it. We had been trucking all over God’s Green Earth with our kid & dogs in tow and have been disappointed over and over again… So I open the listing…..

OH MY!!!! THIS IS OUR HOME!!! I was so excited I started screaming up the stairs at Brandon! I think he thought the puppy ate another shoe. We immediately jump into the truck to head to see the house, it had been listed for 2 hours and we were NOT missing out on this one… I was on the phone with Karla so she could be prepared with a purchase & sale agreement. It was almost 9pm on a weeknight and we were on a mission.

A little background…..

About a year ago before we had even decided to sell our condo I would look on the MLS at houses just to DREAM. I found this farmhouse on 2 acres that was adorable… it was a short sale and listed above our price point (not to mention we weren’t in the market for a house just yet) but I just loved it. Brandon did as well. I followed it as it went through a few price reductions, the last time I saw it it was just on the cusp of our price point and we were waiting on our own sale to go through but alas… it disappeared. I was SURE someone else bought OUR house!

When we finally started looking at houses I kept searching for OUR farmhouse & I even told Karla about it and we never found it ( of course I didn’t have the address written down, that would have made it easier but we knew it wasn’t on the MLS anymore). So when Karla sent the listing it was a foreclosure that had JUST back on and it was FATE! This was OUR home and we were ecstatic! We made a full price offer only 3 hours after it had been listed and then we waited….

Turns out there were other offers and we needed to give our “best and final bid. We discussed our options and wanted to make a solid offer … I was afraid if we underbid and lost it we would kick ourselves for not trying our HARDEST. So we put our offer in and waited…. Two days later we were told we were not the winning bid. I cried…… this was our home, I just knew it. I was so confused! We were all devastated. We moved on,
Looking again at a Tudor in the Historic district of Snohomish. We loved that house but it wasn’t on a farm… but we thought we could fix it up and be happy there for a while.

Then... THE CALL… Karla is calling me and I’m napping with Cash. I almost hit ignore to get more sleep… I decide to answer and she’s asking me: “What house do you want? The farmhouse or the Tudor?” WAIT… WHAT????? I’m half asleep and disoriented… did she just ask me if we want the farmhouse? UM… YES!!! Turns out the buyers that outbid us walked and we were the next bid in line, if we gave a verbal yes we were in!

YES YES YES!!! I called Brandon and he was ecstatic! We were getting OUR HOUSE after all… it WAS meant to be!!!

Fast forward a few weeks, we are still very giddy but have had the inspection and with an 87 year old house come some issues here and there. Nothing we can’t handle but we are hoping that everything looks good to the FHA inspector.

((Please insert prayers, good thoughts & positive energy to the universe HERE!))

I am hoping and praying it works out and this will be our home for years and years to come. It’s a lifetime property. Big enough to have more children and lots of animals, grow a garden and live HAPPILY EVER AFTER!


Precious

Precious
Photos by Ann Elrod - ChickWithACamera.blogspot.com


The Jackson Family, December 2008