Long Overdue

Loooooooong overdue. My faithfulness to my blogging days ended when I decided to have a third child, flip our house, and start my Real Estate career.  Here we are almost two years later, and I'm realizing how much I loved having cataloged our flipping journey.  It's sad that I have this gap in time...but speaking truthfully- that time was filled with joyous moments with my little men.. and welcoming another little man into our lives. So that gap in time, was well spent.

I'm a mom to boys. 3 of them. 3 adorable boys. My pride and joy. My gifts from above. They keep me on my toes.{This is an understatement}. I will dive into our day to day at some point...but I want to get caught up on what's happened since I last blogged.

Our home is just about "flipped". From a flipping standpoint, we could potentially list it tomorrow and I feel confident that we are "ready" to sell.  From a personal standpoint...we are NEVER done with updating, changing, re-configuring, fixing anything and everything in our home.  Its not in our nature to be "done".  Our initial purchase of our home came with our own personal time line of two years. We wanted to move on after two years.  We did not expect to love it this much. We did not expect to find ourselves settling down and enjoying it THIS much.  Don't get me wrong though, we are not staying permanently. That would be tooo easy :) More on what we are planning to do...  later:)

Here is what has been keeping us busy:

 

 



They bring us so much joy. No other words needed!

{A}

Can we say "Curb Appeal".....HOLLA!!!!

We are creating MAD curb appeal these days. Which means a few things:
1.  We are outside ALL the time..
2.  The inside of our house, is neglected.
3. Our schedule is "shot"...meaning dinner is sometimes at 9pm. ( can't believe I'm admitting this)
4.  The neighbors are driving by multiple times to see what were up too! :) 


We are BIG outside people, we LOVE it. Its like free therapy for me...serious.  If I have a hose and some hostas ...I'm in my glory. I am addicted to perennials.  I really find no need for annuals.  It is SO much fun for me to see plants return after a bitter cold winter...only to be BIGGER and BETTER than the year before.  Its my fav.


So ...I know I know...pictures.   PROVE IT you say?!  Okay..okay...chill.  First let me refresh your memory:

Just a few weeks ago...our front yard looked VERY similar to this.  These pics were taken last summer when we moved in, but since that time...we had only cleared out the weeds in the "garden" (meaning the area inside the railroad ties).  The previous owner apparently called that area her garden.  Or whatev...its gone.  

Hubster brought home the good ole' bobcat...and went to diggin.  DIGGIN indeed.  The rocks you see went DEEP.  There were LAYERS and LAYERS of these bless-ed rocks.  After rock diggin...he replaced the rocks with heaping piles of dirt...that we had to spread out...evenly so we could plant grass.  THIS process... TOOK....foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. 


Enough already.  Fast forward to this week. 

SOO much better right?!!

Here is a run-down of things that are different:

1. We tore down the brick courtyard...mainly because it was falling apart..and too costly to

try and repair. 

2. We took out ALL the rocks...and added flower beds...and mulch.  ahhh. much better.

3. We planted quite a few hostas and other perennials so that next year they are BIGGER..and BETTER when this baby is on the market!

4.  We put in our new front door.  It speaks for itself!!

Oh, and the budget you say?  Well, the bobcat we borrowed from the family business.  The perennials were almost ALL "starts" from a few different family members....and the mulch was just around 100$ for 6 yards.  (we still have some left). 

With a few more flowers, some outside furniture...and some new light fixtures...this front yard is about wrapped up.  Its been FUN...and hubster is tired...but it really does warm up our entry way!

What do ya'll think?  Did we warm it up?  Does this scream curb appeal to you?! 

Living the Blessed Life,

Annette

OH ME OH MY...

OH MERCY. It's sad really...how totally caught up in our own lives that I haven't shared it with y'all!  ...no seriously...I'm sorry that I promised to deliver updates on our home...and well...it hasn't happened...since JANUARY!.... apology accepted??? Hope so...


So..last I posted...our super fab Country Mill Cabinets were done...our granite installed...and our flip was feeling oh so OURS!  It has become the 'gathering place' for our family of 4...for our friends and family who frequent here...and guests who come here and there.  We couldn't be more pleased with the finished product..and Lord willing..some other fabulous couple will fall in love with this kitchen and BUY this place!


Yes we still want to sell this place. I know i know...its perfect for us...kinda.  We DO love it...BUT we have BIGGER dreams...and well you can't make your dreams come true if you don't work towards them. So this is us...working towards them :)


Pictures you say?  You want to see MORE pictures....  well...i guess i can post a few..


Lets start with ... THE (biggest pain the bu**) BRICK. 

This is how the two fireplaces look now:

Alright. So, there you have it.  The brink is painted. However there is still more painting to be done.  Remember the "Brick-a-new" treatment we did in other areas of the house....well these babies are getting that too.  For now, they are "done."....we'll just call it that :)

We also completed the painting in our bonus room...right in time for a wedding shower with 60+ guest!  It turned out.....well, its painted. Its not what I was going for...but it works.  The carpet is perfect for that room....neutral, soft, and affordable!

You can see that the new door is in...which was one of the BEST purchases we made for this room.  The amount of natural light we get from that door is oh so essential for this dark wood, large DARK beamed, not so many windows room :) 

OH YES...and let me last mention...MY FAVORITE change thus far. 

You might remember the oh so beautiful ...um...dated, large front door.  We are sure that when this baby was brand new, it was HIGH dollar...and beautiful.  However...here we are...30 years lata...and well...its not so pretty.

With our budget in mind...we wanted to change out the door...but not until we found exactly what we wanted:

1. A door with more privacy.

2. A door with natural light...but not enough for guests to see right in.

3. An opening large enough to eventually fit our safe thru.

4. SUPER affordable

5. Show stopper: we want this baby to shine!

Lucky for us, we waited until the thanksgiving..black Friday deals...with recommendation from our Menards guy. He said that exterior doors would be the cheapest price all year -during that week. 

During this time we also invited a Pella rep to our house to hear what they had to say. WOW. WOW. WOW.  They wanted us to drop $5,000. on JUST the front door....and we wanted to be UNDER 5,000 for ALL of our doors. ( We have 5 exterior on our house). We thanked him for his time...and sent his tush packin. NO thank you Pella man...we do not want a $5,000 Front Door!!!   :)

THEN...one day...it happened. While walking thru Menards we past a display of exterior doors...and fell in love.  Or...I did.  Hubster, he just liked it..alot!  :)

Ill spare the other boring details.  Here's what you need to know.

1. We found a door with more privacy.

2. We found a door with natural light...but guests wont be able to see in.

3. We found a door that has a side track that opens up...which allows the safe to go thru.

4. It was SUPER affordable.

5. Its perfect...it screams.. WELCOME home!!

So...see for yourself....do you LOVE it? 

Look at those handy men of mine! :)

We are pretty happy with the progress we're making.  Time is FLYING by. I'm still so thankful for every moment  ...glorious or not...  we're making memories here...and we are still living out our dreams!! 

Thanks for stopping back to read our update....MUCH more on the way!

Living the BLESSED life,

Annette



Its complete...The Shively kitchen is open for guests :)

Yea Baby.  We are DUNZO. With the kitchen that is :)  We have finished the final few details and we LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE it.  And hopefully, so will you!

There were a few loose ends to finalize...which we've been taking care of over the last month. 
1.  We decided to have our water tested:  We had been having really dark rust stains in our toilet, sink, tub & dishwasher...and I was having a hard time getting it clean.  We set up an appointment with "the water guys"...and they were here this morning....REPLACING our water softener.  Yupp..i said replacing.  We apparently have VERY hard water.... (water levels are suppose to be a "20"  and ours was "260".  EKK)
Sooo as of this morning...we have very SOFT water :)  You know your jealous.  So seriously...I'm excited about the soft water...no more yucky rust....but not so excited with the bill. grrr...the surprises with house flipping continue :)

2.  We had a few things go wrong with our cabinets:  They didn't measure correctly and didn't bring enough crown molding for the tops of our cabinets. So, when they returned with more molding...and hung it...we realized they had painted it the wrong shade.  So they had to do it ...again.  They brought the finished molding this week..installed it...and its perfect. 

(here is the molding...in the wrong shade)  :(

without....

Finished!! :)  wooohoo.



3.  OUR GRANITE WAS CRACKED.  AHHHHHHH!  After the install, we realized the granite was cracked..all the way through...right in front of our cook top.  The installers had to cut the granite once they arrived on site...because of a mis-measure...which is how we think the granite was cracked...and we didn't notice until they left.  So we had to have them un-install and then re-install and entire new section of granite.  They did it...thankfully...and for free (they better!!)  and it looks stellar. 

This picture was taken right before they cut it...and cracked it :(

Its Perfect!! We love the edge on it...and we think it matches our cabinets exactly!

We've had a great first month in our new house...and we are so blessed to have it as our home! Every flip has it setbacks...and we are well aware that "surprises" can pop up when you least expect them. 

So..here are some finished pictures of our brand spankin new kitchen....and were off to tackle the rest. 

Living the Blessed Life,

Annette

A kitchen worth waiting for!

So. That long awaited day...finally arrived.  Our kitchen was done, and they were scheduled to install.  Here is how that week went down:


1. Scheduled to install on the 13th of Dec...give or take a day
2. Cabinet guys called and asked if they could install early...if Adam would help them install
3. Called us Dec7th...and changed the install date to Dec 8th.
4.  Dec 8th....Cabinets arrive.....  HALLELUJAH!

Adam (and I) were so excited!!

We layed paper down...as our hard wood floors had only been curing for a day or so.  We didn't want all those

beautiful cabinets scratching our beautiful floors!

Adam took this picture of me as I saw the kitchen completed  for the first time.

 I was overwhelmed...it was sooo perfect!!

ONE HAPPY COUPLE~ in our NEW KITCHEN!

Lastly for my post today...I wanted to mention that hubster was SUPER thoughtful and

had the step stool,( in the picture below), painted the color of our cabinets to match.  He surprised

me by having them do that without me knowing....  He is one thoughtful hubster!

Our kitchen is finally installed....and our move in date was finally here.  What a crazy three months of projects...

and it was worth the wait!

Living the Blessed Life,

Annette

Master Bedroom...Carpet Install!

Our last update on the house was regarding the Master Bedroom.  So, I wanted to show Ya'll the progress since we last posted.  It is SOOOO exciting.  No seriously...We LOVE it.  We had carpet installed and wow... take a look:

Here you can see the padding installation.  It seemed like this stage TOOK FOREVER.  I just wanted to SEE the carpet INSTALLED.  Patience Patience. It took them ALL day...not kidding...but once it was complete...it was worth my wait. (sorta) :)

Now do you see why I can hardly stand it?  Its just exactly how I wanted it...what more could a girl ask for?

**We did have our share of issues with this room...no flip is complete without issues.  I want this blog to have a realistic view of what flipping is really like...so I want to share the good and the not-so-good :)   

(We had the master carpet ordered....so we had to wait a few weeks until it came in.  Then...we had the OWNER of the carpet store come to measure our rooms.  TO BE SURE we had enough carpet.  THEN..we scheduled the install...and WAITED. :) Carpet install day comes...and wouldn't u know....there WASN'T ENOUGH CARPET.  Uh huh...yea...i. was. so. happy.  or... maybe not.  It was so frustrating...and I knew that this was just another problem that needed fixing...getting angry wouldn't get the carpet installed any faster!  The problem was resolved by leaving the smaller of the two closets as the area without carpet...until the rest of the carpet arrived.  This way we could still move in furniture...and not set back our move in process.  Crisis avoided!!)

Living the Blessed Life,

Annette

FINALLY!

Wow. That's all I can say!  We have had one of the BUSIEST few weeks EVER.  We officially moved in on December 15th.  With running water..heat...and a functioning bathroom...we were finally able to make the move from hubsters parents house...to our OWN home.  WHAT A GREAT feeling it finally was. 

We were so blessed to be able to stay with his family for the three months it took us to get our house ready.  We were able to work late nights...and come home to our children...safe and sound asleep in "our room".  We ( all four of us) slept in the same room for those three months...so we were MORE than ready to have our privacy..and space back! The boys have been so good at adapting to so many changes....and Adam and I are looking forward to a new year of our new normal.  We are excited for a brand new year...in our brand new home.   God is GOOD!

As far as the house goes...BOY do I have ALOT to share....I plan to post quite a bit this week...so come back for some updated pics!

We hope you have been blessed this holiday season...and we hope that you were able to experience a season of Christ's Love and Blessings.  Happy New Year Ya'll!  & THANKS for taking this journey with us.  WE ARE BLESSED beyond measure!

Living the Blessed Life,
Annette