Jenn's Blog

Gah. We had two showings yesterday. The first one was scheduled to be between 9 and 11, the second between 3 to 4:30. Soooo, I took the boys out to the zoo with a friend in the morning, came home for lunch and Costco ice cream (woohoo), cleaned up again and then took the boys to the park.

We find out today that one of those showings never even happened because the Realtor couldn't get into the house and while they were debating calling for the code they saw two cars driving fast through the subdivision and decided it was much too dangerous. Alrighty then. Great. No feedback on the second showing yet.

Oh well, if this week is anything like the last then we probably won't have any showings until next Monday or Tuesday.

Today is Luke's 5th birthday! I'll do a whole post complete with pictures on his blog, after Ben gets the pictures off the camera and onto the server. For now I'll just marvel at the fact that I'm the mom of a FIVE YEAR OLD! Wowser!

He loved his birthday party and really had a great time. He's had a hard time understanding that his party was on Saturday, but today is his actual birthday. He can't quite wrap his mind around that concept!

So Happy Birthday, big boy! I'm so glad you came into our lives! We love you and have enjoyed watching you grow.

Ugh. I'm so behind on posts. The internet has been sooo patchy and slow lately that it drives me crazy to even be on here.

Had the building inspection and termite inspection on Tuesday morning. Basically, there is a lot that needs to be done and we've decided to ask them to come down to $100,000. We're trying to scrape together a bunch of estimates to fax over with the counter-offer so that they can see why were asking them to come down another $30k. We have a few more days yet. In the meantime we are continuing to look at other properties with acreage. Just to keep our options open.

don't move!

Just PRETEND you are going to move. Declutter and organize like crazy. Finish up all the little projects you've been meaning to get to. Clean it from top to bottom. Presto, you'll fall in love all over again.

The Pevely city inspection was already done! Boy they move quickly! Basically 3 things need to be done. The first two didn't even make us blink because they are both easy to remedy: 1. Install smoke detectors, 2. Install GFIs in the bathroom and kitchen. The third made us gasp: apply a coat of paint to the exterior of all buildings. All buildings. I'm increasingly glad that this house is SMALL. Sheesh.

So much going on but I haven't had time to really sit down and blog about it all.

Years ago, when we decided to move from our Fenton home, I was adamant about not living in another subdivision. I really wanted a couple acres to have a garden on, a greenhouse, compost pile, basically all the things you can't have in most subdivisions. We did some looking around and just couldn't find anything that fit our criteria. We realized it would be hard to find just a couple acres that was semi-secluded without being too far away. Our biggest fear was that we would build a nice house and then have a neighbor pull up a junky mobile home next to us. We looked and looked and then decided to build the house we are in now, in a subdivision a town a way. We loved the yard, loved the floor plan, and LOVED all the nice neighbors. We didn't give up on our dream of owning and building, but we put it on the back burner thinking we would pursue it much later down the road.

Or so we thought....

Fast forward 2 years later...Brandon and Erin, our much-loved Texas friends, came up to MO for 5 weeks. Erin was hit with the moving bug and looked at an adorable house in Kirkwood. That fell through and she started looking at a house in Barnhart. It was an old house with 2 additions on it, that sat on 7 acres. B and E decided it would be nice to sell off half the property to us and we would build. Ben and I loved the property and were stoked that it had a barn and a chicken coop on "our" side. It seemed like the perfect solution to us - the land was great, the neighbors were great , the location was secluded but right off the highway. Perfect.

We started looking through house plans like crazy. We poured over soooo many plans, tossing out ideas, trying to narrow down exactly what we wanted. We found a couple we really liked then finally narrowed it down to one. We did the cost analysis and found out that our perfect house would be about $400k to build. Now, Ben pointed out that after you take out the general contractor fees, etc, it would be much more reasonable....but we still have to buy the land. At about this point I started getting nervous. The whole idea of trying to time the sale of this house and getting the other house built...with Ben as the GC. We read a bunch of stuff online and looked through some books and I was really starting to feel ill.

In the meantime, Erin kept looking at other properties that might allow us to do the same thing - they would get the house and we would buy some land from them and build. We looked at a house in Kimmswick, Ben and I looked at a bunch of listings online and even looked at some plots of land to buy in case B and E decided not to move or decided to buy a house without extra land to sell. Nuthin. Then we found a listing for a house on 3 acres in Pevely. It's a teensy little house on 3 acres. We thought Erin would be interested in the house and decided to grab her and go look at it. I called her up and she said they just weren't interested in it. Ben and I decided to go look purely out of boredom. When we got there we saw a cat outside so I decided to call the agent to see if anyone was living there. He said it was vacant and he proceeded to tell me where the property lines were. My jaw dropped. All three acres were beautiful and flat with some pretty trees. We really liked it. I really liked what I could see of the house, too. I could see it was small, but it had a lot of potential and the land made it worth it.

We had our neighbor/realtor, Ron, take us to see the house the next day and I fell in love with it. It's old and quirky, but we both felt it would be fun to fix up and then add on to, if it was structurally sound. Even though the house was old, I could tell it had been well taken care of. The wood doors and trim were in perfect condition. Ben and I started dreaming. We let Brandon and Erin know about it, but they needed to head home. We chatted with Ben's parents and Ron about the house just kicking it around. They were asking $160k for a house that had been listed for almost a year. And they were selling it "as is". We finally decided to sit down and make an offer. We offered the sellers $120k and made the sale contingent on us selling our home and the inspections. We didn't hear back, didn't hear back. We were starting to get a bit nervous. While we were waiting, Paul questioned me on whether this was really something we wanted or if we were just doing this because we were bored or unsatisfied. That made me take a step back and I started to pray about it. I told God that we didn't want to be ungrateful for the wonderful house and neighbors we had. As soon as I finished the prayer and started to journal about it, Ben got a call from Ron saying that the sellers had gone out of town and we would know their answer on Wednesday. On Wednesday they countered with $137.5k. We were bummed about that so we countered back with $127.5k. They countered back with about $131k. So then we countered with $129k and they finally accepted!

Now we have to see how the city inspection goes...

I sincerely hope so.

This article gave me a lot to think about. Basically, the author is asking what the future holds for future generations - what will our children face? I really enjoyed reading the comments in and in response to the article. It really shows how differently people think.

Penelope from Cape Cod, Massachusetts writes:
Our children’s lives will surely be different. How different and how they respond to that difference depends on how we as adults respond to the need to change priorities. We can continue the angry sense of entitlement that got us here or, we can wake up and realize that we all need to step back and live more simply.

Fred from Livingston, Alabama writes:
My generation and the ones before me worked to turn this country into the best country in the world. This last generation, with its spoiled, selfish attitude of fast money and greed, almost destroyed it. Now, their children will have to work like hell to build it back up again.

Gayle from Columbus, Ohio writes:
This country’s economy has always been a series of turning points: industrial to service to information to green. These changes are often painful and forced, but they do and must happen. Therefore, the days of the lifelong job with benefits is gone. The paradigm has shifted and we do not yet know what this will mean for the next generation. I’m hoping my nephews live in an America where everyone can make a living wage and have quality health care, but also where assembly-line workers don’t make 3 times what a paramedic or a teacher does.

Duncan writes:
I think our children’s lives will be cleaner and better than ours. Sure, they may not make as much money, and they may have to live closer together, without a car, or a big house. But being frugal never constrained us from being great and productive. Our children will live with less, materially, but with all that matters in human relations, I really believe their lives will be better than ours. Our current economic crisis will be seen as a reality check.

Dawson from Minneapolis writes:
I’m a 24 year-old veteran with a kid on the way. The joy I feel for my first child is only outdone by the worry of how well-prepared our society is to deal with children. They are overweight, undereducated, lazy, and now to be born into a broken economy. Sadly enough, the only persons to blame are the parents. If my child ends up a victim of that circumstance, I only have myself to blame. So to answer your question: my child will be fine.

I hate the debt that Obama is saddling us and our children and grandchildren with. But we've been working hard to saddle them with a lot of problems, too. In striving to give our children safety, security and opportunities we are making them lazy and selfish. We are teaching them to strive for comfortable lives that never cause them any pain or worry; give to others as long as you don't have to reach too deeply into your pockets, spend too much of your free time, or want for anything. We are instilling a sense of complacency and apathy. We are neglecting to remind them that Christ himself told us to "take up your cross and follow me". I think it's telling that "take up your cross" PRECEDES "and follow me". I'm not sure we can really call ourselves Christ followers if we aren't taking up our cross. We forget to remind ourselves and our kids that we are privileged, but that being grateful alone isn't an appropriate response - with privilege comes responsibility and action.

I've been feeling like God is really tugging on my heartstrings about this lately. Ben and I have worked so hard to make a nice home, a nice life for our boys. And that's not a terrible thing - our hearts are in the right place - but now that the boys are older and we can be more flexible I really feel like we need to step out and start being more active in our community. We need to teach them that caring for others is a part of life - even when it requires sacrifice on our parts.

So what does the future hold for us and our kids? I agree with the comments that said, given the right attitude, response, and perspective, we can come out of all of this in a better position that we were in before the recession hit us. The "American Dream" of having "it all" especially when built on the backs of those less fortunate, is hopefully coming to an end. I say this as someone who's living the American dream and feels it like a noose around my neck. I hope and pray that the new "American Dream" would be a cleaner, safer, closer community of people who make serving God and serving others the cornerstone of their lives.

Now...where to begin...

Darn that Brandon and Erin! Coming up here and getting us all fired up about the prospect of land. When we moved into this house we said this was it and we were NEVER moving again. I don't know that I really believed that, but I definitely thought we'd be here for about 10 years or so. But now we are scouring house plans and dreaming dreams of living on some land out in the country...it's sort of crazy. If this thing with Brandon and Erin works out where we can get this particular section of property with them, then we'll do it, but otherwise I think I want to wait a bit. This piece of land is just PERFECT for what we want: it's right off the highway, but is plenty secluded. It comes with a barn and a chicken coop (boy I want that chicken coop!) Ahh, dreams...

Today I attended a brunch for some of the Eagle Point moms. I was told it would be a good way to meet some other young moms at the church and it was. I finally got to meet several of the gals I see all the time at church but never get up the nerve to say "hi" to. So that was cool. An added surprise is that we were paired up with some more experienced (I won't say "older") moms who are going to be our buddy/pal/mentor for the next 3 months. What a great way to really connect with people.

Saturday

We drove out to Meg and James' in Villa Ridge. Luke had a great time playing with the girls (and was eaten alive by mosquitoes) while Ben chatted with James and I caught up with Meg and her mom. I always enjoy going out there and love the chickens, big garden, etc, etc. I really envy their lifestyle, even though I know it's a lot of work.

Sunday

Brandon and Erin came over and we went with them to Barnhart to look at a house and some property they were looking at. The house is on 7 acres which is divided by a dirt road. The house, a small log cabin, a pool, and a shed are on one side and a large barn and a chicken coop is on the other. We dreamed about them buying the side with the house and us buying the side with the barn and coop and building. Guaranteed great neighbors! Since then, Ben and I have been looking at house plans and discussing buying land. We've talked about that for years, but being out there made us realize that we will really want to do that some day and might as well start planning for it now. We ate dinner with them at Cracker Barrell, put the boys to bed, and then watched the first HP movie.

Monday

Ben's mom and brother came over and we made ribs and homemade vanilla ice cream - both were delicious. Oh, and apple crumble, too. We sat outside for a while, they played some Wii, the boys soaked up the attention. It was a nice meal and a relaxing day.