Farmhouse Flip

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You won’t believe what a week can do…

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So things are getting done at an INCREDIBLY fast pace! My goal was to post everyday (ha!) while keeping up with the kids, homeschooling, putting something on the table every meal, my other blog, and making approximately 1309103 decisions regarding the house. Oh, and I also spent Friday- Sunday at a food blogging conference, so there’s that. We closed one week ago tomorrow and here’s what’s been done already:

The TON of junk has been cleaned out. I mean a TON. About 25 industrial-sized garbage bags were taken to the curb.

Roof leaks fixed

Exterior of the house painted. (I’m in LOVE with the color!)

Plumbing almost complete

Septic tanks cleaned out

Sheetrock begun

Kitchen cabinets ordered

A/C installed

All the interior walls that we were adding/moving have been finished, reconfiguring the floor plan to add a master bedroom suite with bath and walk-in closet; a dining room; a pantry; a laundry room; a play area, and moving a door to make an office for me(!). Um yea, we added a lot. And by we, I totally mean Ben and Landon. Here’s one of the before/afters:

farmhouse flip living room before

Our bedroom area before it had a wall separating it from the living room, and DID have tons of junk.

clean master

Now it’s all cleaned out, and the wall has been built. We added this bedroom because the house was technically only 2 bedrooms to begin with. So now we’ll have one, the boys will share, and the girls will share.

To say Ben and I are exhausted is an understatement. But we’re SO thankful to have this place. Seriously. We sat outside tonight just so thankful that everything fell into place after coming thisclose to having the whole thing fall apart!

We’ll see you tomorrow (or the next day, or the next 😉 ) with the next update!

Oh, and if you want to keep up with our daily-ish happenings, you can sign up here for e-mail updates!

 

 

 

 

Our first meal at the new house!

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We F-I-N-A-L-L-Y closed on our house! After accidentally finding the house, tracking down the owner, looking at the place for a few times, then signing a contract in early August, the place is ours as of Wednesday of this week!

Wednesday night, we had our first meal at the new place. We took a picnic that consisted of granola bars, apples, and chips. Fancy, I tell ya! It was SO nice, though. The weather was perfect, I mowed a little area before we ate, and we just enjoyed our new backyard.

firstmealThings are moving along quickly, so there will be lots of updates coming soon!

In 12 hours….

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farmhouseflip.com

the farmhouse should be ours! (Depending on when you’re reading this, it might be a “done deal” already!)

I apologize for my lack of posting the last few weeks- some things went wrong and for a few days, it looked like the whole deal was going to fall through. (not on our part or the sellers, all about the appraiser. Strange that one person can hold a chunk of your future in their hands, and not really want to do their job.)

But! After lots of prayer from LOTS of friends, everything seems to have fallen into place. We are SO ready to get to work.

Look for more “before” pictures coming this week! I can’t wait!!

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xoxo Ben and Kelli

It’s Getting Real!

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We got word yesterday that there is a *tiny* chance we’ll be closing earlier than we were originally told. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but hello, I’m human! The current owner has graciously given us access to the place whenever we like, so we spend a few hours a week over there planning and dreaming and I’m just ready to get started already!

I even started packing our current house yesterday! That was crazy. My older daughter’s room is about 80% packed up! We also purged a lot of stuff, which felt great.

Here’s another before picture for you- this is my kitchen. 😉 Lovely, huh?

Ikitchen before

A Good Redemption Story

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(This one’s from Ben.) I like fixing old houses because I love a good redemption story. Remodeling is so much more than boards, nails, and paint; it tells a story of making old things new, making dead things live again, making ugly things beautiful once more.

I want to do for our farmhouse what Jesus has done for me. I only hope it tells His story well for those who come to see it.

There was a time in each of our lives when our foundations were shaky, our corners were out of square, and our interiors were full of filth and rottenness. But then Jesus came into our lives! He gave us a steadfast rock to build upon, He tore out the old and rebuilt it with new, and He washed over the ugly with pure glistening white. (See. 2 Cor 5:17)

farmhouse flip living room before

This may or may not be what the living room looks like right now.

When I first laid eyes on the entirety of the farmhouse we are buying, I have to be honest: I saw an utter mess. Now, we have done a couple fixer-uppers before, but this one is going to be intense. Think 1,800 square feet of total and complete re-do. There’s no quick fixes or gloss overs this go ’round, this house needs the kind of love that leaves it completely transformed.

My heart fills with joy to stop and think that somehow Jesus sees me in the mess that I am in, and He chooses to make me new again. He sees me deeper than anyone ever has, and even still He takes his toolbox out and works until what’s left if a new creation. Praise God for redemption stories. I am one.

Hopefully you are one. And with some time, money, and old-fashioned work, our farmhouse will be, too. Stay tuned on the blog to watch the transformation take place.

Do you need some remodeling at the heart level in your life right now? If you need to talk to someone, we’d love to chat and pray with you and tell you about the greatest Carpenter that’s ever lived.

We Can See the Land (finally!)

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Now this post will probably have you thinking we’re crazy if you don’t already. 😉 We have just now been able to see the land in its entirety- on Thursday. It had been super grown up (think weeds as tall as me) and the current owner (we close in September) had not been able to find anyone to mow it until this week. So yes we put a contract on a house before we could get to all of the land. Just call us visionaries. 😉

We spent a few hours out there last night walking over the land and dreaming about what we’ll do with it. We’re even more excited!

farmhouseflip with kids

The tree to the right of the house is a magnolia- I have always loved magnolia trees. They’re just so- Southern, like me. 😉 Starting next week, I’ll begin showing you “before” pictures of the inside. You’re going to feel the need to surround yourself with Clorox wipes. And paint.

Here she is!

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I’m excited to reveal to you what the BEFORE is for this house. I get so happy  thinking about the AFTER- of course- but the before is just gorgeous to me. The moment I laid eyes on this house, it felt like it was home. As I mentioned in the first post, this house was not even for sale.

But there are ways to find owners of a house (maybe a career in the FBI is in my future?), and really good realtors like ours who will call said owner ask them if maybe they would like to sell their house? Thankfully, he did, and how here we are, about a month out from closing.

But enough of all that, you probably just want a picture, right? Well here she is:

Pretty, right? Don’t let the outside fool you- the inside is pretty much a disaster. There will be pictures of that, coming, too!

I love Craig’s List Forever and Ever, Amen

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A few days ago, on a whim, while watching Little House on the Prairie with the fam (hey, we’ll soon be living in a little house on the prairie!), I looked up “stainless steel refrigerators in Houston.” As I was scrolling, I was seeing prices like $800, $600, etc. Good prices, but not enough to get me excited. Suddenly, I saw one that said, “$250” with a picture of a great-looking fridge with it. It showed pictures of it plugged in and showing that the ice maker worked, it cooled, etc. (Because nothing on the internet lies, y’all. 😉 )

Anyway, Ben called the lady for me because calling people I don’t know usually gives me a mild case of anxiety. I just KNEW the fridge would be gone already- I mean it’s a STAINLESS STEEL FRIDGE FOR $250 AND THERE ARE 7 MILLION PEOPLE IN HOUSTON WHO WANT IT.

Alas, the fridge was not gone. As it was 7:30 pm on Sunday night, Ben set up to go look at it after work on Monday. He texted me this pic (we shall have some photography lessons soon, wink) to show that it was in fact the same fridge.

fridge

The only issue was that while the ice maker makes ice, for some reason it was having trouble dispensing it. But that can be easily remedied AND she took off an additional $50 for it!

So we got this stainless steel side-by-side fridge for $200. The cheapest one I could find new was around $1200. I would say this was a good buy. 😉 Now, to find my 6-burner stove on Craig’s List!

Our first purchase- even before the house itself

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So… things are getting serious around here! We signed papers yesterday, now all we wait for is the closing in September!

We took a trip to Lowe’s to start pricing items and boy did we get lucky. We picked up these:

tiles

So what are they, you’re probably wondering? It’s marble tile, and well, what we’re going to use it for, you will know in due time, my friends. Just know it’s something I’m SUPER excited about and only hope it comes out as nice as I’m imagining it will. 😉

That’s all for today- I stayed up until 3 a.m. Thursday night working on this blog and my other one, it’s almost 1 a.m. now, so I’m thinking I should get some sleep. 😉 “Talk” to you soon!