30 Day Challenge- Day 6 Our 1st House

Ok so here is the story of how we found and moved into our 1st house.

Backstory: I had gotten laid off from teaching in the spring of 2009, the county told all of us laid off to check the postings that summer and apply. They would fill positions on a first come first served basis. So, every morning when I woke up with Little L I would check the posting and apply for the ones that I wanted or was qualified for. I finally got a position at Pine View (our gifted school) and was happy to finally be working again. I worked there for about 3 weeks when the county offered those laid off actual teaching positions (instead of substitute positions). I was thankfully put back at my old school. Once I had my job back, M and I decided to start looking for houses.
We would drive around the area we wanted to live in for hours, looking for For Sale signs and writing down the address to look up later. Our agent also took us to some houses. We liked this one house, it had big rooms, a good size lot and was across the street from a park. The only down side was it had a tiny kitchen, but we figured we could live with that. So, we put our offer in. It was a short sale so we were prepared to wait. We just didn't think we would be waiting as long as we did. I believe we put our offer in in September and by December we were fed up. We were trying to find a house before he left for BOLC in March.
M and I started looking at houses online again and driving through the neighborhoods. We stumbeled upon the house we are in now one day driving around. I wasn't a huge fan of it at first, but we had our agent set up a walk through. M liked it from the beginning, it had a good structure but needed some work, which of course he could do and he wanted to do. I didn't like all the work that had to be done and the previous owner smoked A LOT in there and everything, including the switch plates were yellow. Ugh!
Long story short, we got the house!!!! We closed on the house on February 15, 2010. I was excited and scared at the same time. Owning a house is big responsibility. Plus we would move in and then M would leave. I was afraid of being in the house alone with Little L. However, it was still exciting to finally own our own house. It was also fun picking out all of the stuff to go in the house. We agreed on everything, even the paint. It was a lot of fun. We spent many a nights and weekends at Home Depot and Lowes.
M got to work on our house right away. He painted the entire inside. Ripped up the carpet in the bedrooms (which was this UGLY gold color), painted the ceilings (which took 5 coats of paint to cover the cigarette smoke), painted the garage floor, walls and added new lighting. He also re did the ENTIRE roof. Next we took out the valance in the kitchen and added pot lights. He spray painted all of the shelving in the entire house. He put up ceiling fans, picked out an awesome trim color for Little L's room. He put up the new blinds in the living room. Not to mention he moved all of our stuff from the rental house to the new house. He did a TON of work. He worked at the house every day, all day until it was time for him to leave. I literally think we spent maybe 3 nights in the house together before he left. I was left to take care of Little L and put the house together. I know many army wives that have had to move themselves and their kids, but it was no easy task. I did the best I could.
We love our house. Yes we wish we had a bigger yard, or a shop already built on the property for M to tinker in, but it's a good house. It's a good size, in a safe neighborhood, and has some pretty darn good neighbors (even if one is crazy). I feel comfortable in our house. I'm not afraid to be here alone (which is of course a good thing considereing our circumstance). We have not only updated the house, but made it our own and made it a home. It's a place where our kids can grow and we can grow as a family.
I am still in awe of the amount of work M did to our house in such a short amount of time. I feel like I did nothing in comparison. I painted the baseboards in the house, I picked out the carpet and had it delivered, I helped spray paint and clean the insides of our cabinets (you could see where the plates had sat). But to me that is nothing in comparison. He did an amazing job on everything he did!!

I hope you enjoyed this memory. If you would like to join the 30 day challenge, head on over to Eat, Pray, Love...LIVE! and link up!