Another Before and After

Before
After

This is the close-up of what the counters ended up looking like. Now it's hard to tell in a picture what it really looks like. I'm not going to tell you what I think until you let me know what you think! I'll leave a comment on this post in a few days to reveal my true thoughts on all of this. I will say this; I'm not upset about the process or even the fact that the smell was so strong that we had to leave the house (would have been nice to know ahead of time, but that's okay). The color was not exactly what I had in mind!

Before and After

This is obviously a "before" picture. Actually the family room doesn't usually look this bad, but we were in the process of packing up a few things. It's looking VERY lived in. And AFTER! I love the color!
This isn't the best "after" picture because once again it's being lived in. Just imagine that the toys aren't there! You get the idea.
The shelves "before." Notice the treadmill. It's gone now!
And "after." No more toys on the shelves. Actually no toys will be visible at all when we show the house (in this room anyway).

It used to be the playroom, and now we're trying to stage it as the media room. We have a ton more space since we got rid of the tread mill and I'm not missing the piles of toys either. We've been playing lots of games and using our imaginations!

God Just Might Be Up to Something

So here's the scoop! Our house isn't on the market yet. We weren't even scheduled to meet with our realtor until later this week. We've been working like crazy to get things ready all weekend and then something unexpected happened. I emailed a friend last night about some church stuff and just happen to mention that we were putting our house on the market. She emailed back right away asking about our house because she and her husband were actually looking to buy a house. Hmm... interesting. They wanted to know when they could see it. So we said Sunday night and they left a little while ago. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about the whole thing. It could be great for everyone. No realtor fees for us, so we could give them a great price. So God just might be up to something! Even if this doesn't work out it's been encouraging to us that God is already opening doors. Either way we are feeling more and more peace about the decision to put our house on the market. I'll keep you posted!

Whew...

To say that we've been busy is an understatement! This picture was taken by Christian of what we were up to!

Christian helped turn our bathroom from yellow to blue!

Ugh!
Much better!!

Then it was onto the family room/ playroom! It doesn't have any toys in it now and we refer to it as the "media room."

We went from one shade of khaki to a darker shade.

And here's McKenna helping me pack! She's a big help (can you sense the sarcasm???). And I don't even have pictures of the touch up painting we did in the living room. I've been painting all weekend and that is not an exaggeration! I still have to repaint the hall and a few window sills, but I'm done for the next three days. It's time for a break!

1 hour 45 min

That's how long it is until our first showing! So much to do! So little time! And staying up until 2am for the past two nights is starting to wear on me. But it's exciting! Can't wait to see what God is going to do! Pray for us!

What we're up to ... REVEALED!

Well, if you guessed moving then - YOU'RE RIGHT! Well, we're at least going to try to move. We'll see if our house sells. And "yes" I totally agree with all of you out there shaking your heads, it is a horrible time to try to sell a house but we're going for it. We really feel like this is what God is leading us to do. I know that probably sounds strange, but Ryan and both are in complete agreement about this and we both have total peace about it and unbelievably I'm not stressed out about it :)
When we bought our house five years ago it was in the middle of the housing boom. It was crazy. Houses were on the market for 1/2 a day and then they sold. I remember one house we were interested in sold to someone who hadn't even looked at it yet. But God led us to this sweet house that was for sale by owner. Ryan's friend was on a bike ride and rode past this house, told us about it and I fell in love just peaking in the windows.

We've thought about moving for the last three years. When we originally bought this house we only planned to stay here for two years, but God had other plans. I'm so glad he held us here for the time that he did. Two different times we met with realtors and were about to list our house and then something would come up that would prevent us from doing it. God knew we needed to be here when our neighbor's daughter passed away last spring. God knew we needed to be here when Amy moved to town so we could be close to her and so things would be simpler with the kids and Emma riding the bus, etc. God knew he wanted us to build the relationships with each and every one of our sweet neighbors. God knows the plans He has for us and so right now we are just trusting in Him.

Right now we are in the process of preparing our house to sell. We've rented a storage unit and we're getting all of our treasured JUNK out of the house. We're painting and reorganizing every cabinet, closet and even the fridge. I've watch Designed to Sell people and so I've got big plans to make this place look perfect. Although I can think of five little people who might ruin my plans :) We'll probably have the house on the market the second week in March.

We aren't really shopping for houses right now, although we do have one place in mind. We are focused on selling first, then buying. We are even content to rent for awhile before we buy or even end up building (if we can't find what we want). Right now the deals are in buying (not building) so we're going to try to buy first. Our dream home would be a four bedroom house out in the country with an acre or two or twenty if Ryan could have his way. Ryan grew up on a 400 acre farm and I grew up on 8 acres, so we're not really neighborhood kind of people. We long for trees and crickets and lots of grass to mow! That's our dream, so we'll see what God does!

Don't worry I didn't forget about the CONTEST! I went to random.org to pick a winner and the WINNER IS...Heather R. my sweet childhood friend! I'll pop your prize in the mail one of these days Heather!

Okay, this post is getting a little long! We'd love it if you would pray that God would "order our steps" over the next few weeks and months. Ultimately my hearts desire is to be right in the middle of God's will and to be where He wants us to be!

Question

Have any of you ever had your counter tops re-surfaced or have you seen it done in a friend's home???????? This is a rather new idea and we are thinking about doing this instead of replacing our counters. It would save a ton of money (literally thousands) but I'm nervous about it. We're going to some one's home tonight to see their re-surfaced counters. We don't even know these people, so it's going to be a little weird, but I've got to see the final product before we pay someone to do it. I don't want to spend the money and then hate it. Let me know if you have any advice on the subject!

Can you guess??? CONTEST

You are not going to believe what we're doing now! I definitely think we've lost our minds! I'm NOT going to give any HINTS! And you're going to have to wait a few days to find out, BUT you can guess in the meantime! Any guesses as to what we're up to??? You have to guess what we're up to and since I get to make up the rules, you have to include the name of one of your favorite children's books. I'm always on the look out for a special new book to read. I'll draw a random winner in a few days and that person wins one of my all time favorite children's books! Just in Case You Ever Wonder By: Max Lucado. Love the story, not the illustrations so much, but you gotta get past that. The message of this book is so important for kids, I absolutely love it. In fact I think we're going to read it tomorrow. I actually took this book to the hospital with me to read to Christian when he was born. His birth was a tad stressful so that didn't happend but I do remember rocking him and reading it to him when he was a week old. I sobbed through the whole thing! It's really perfect for ages three and up but I'm a fan of reading to babies too! So guess away and let me know what you like reading to your kiddos or your class or your grandkids!!

P.S. My mother and my sister CANNOT enter this contest! Sorry girls! Oh yeah, and Angie if you happen to be reading this you can't enter either! I think that's everyone who already knows what we're up to.