Pics

Part of the adjusting is transitioning into a more rural location where internet service & cell service is limited.  The trade offs, right?  The only internet option at the house, is via satellite.  Only, there's a data cap.  Once you hit that, (which is easy for us to do) your speed slows to molasses unless it's between the hours of 2am-8am.   I think that's why the picture yesterday didn't upload.  Sorry about that.  :(  From here on out, any posts I do the blog will likely fall in that time frame. 

Let me back up real quick.  I had all these ideas of what I wanted to write and share about the process of ending up where we are.  Sigh.  Rather than dive into that journey, can I just say that it feels really good to be trusting God with where He has us and as crazy as this shift may sound (from pharma to gutters, to moving to the country, to still prayerfully pursuing adoption)... there's been so many pieces that have fallen into place in just the perfect timing.  It's exciting.  There are adjustment challenges for sure - but so much of it is perspective.  Like the Internet, for instance.  Or even heating this home.  For most of us, natural gas is the likely source of heat - and the least expensive route.  Not an option out here.  It's oil or propane or wood stoves.  So there's a learning curve with efficiency there and though I may regret saying this later, I'm actually looking forward to chopping wood & having fires in the wood stoves/fireplaces this Winter.  It feels like an adventure.  There's this igniting of a dream together that we had talked about when we first were dating and our early married years before kids, and then conversations over the years once kids came along --- and while we still feel like we are very much in those "early stages" with kids, that dream has kind of evolved into a familial one. 

If someone could have asked us what we were looking for, I'm not sure we had a lot of specifics.  We looked at a wide variety.  We both tend to like homes with character, though that could hit a broad style spectrum and also be something you create in a home once living in it too.  We do like to work on homes. ;)  There was this mental wish list of features that we held loosely too, but honestly, we were more concerned with a community we were meant to plant roots in.  Neither of us had ever heard of Dallas.  Our immediate search was in the Portland area, and that's where we thought we'd be.  But one thing led to another and when we found this house, it literally felt like coming home.  Those giddy, make-you-smile butterflies where you start to ask, "Is this it, Lord? ...'cause it sure feels like it."  It was a short sale house, and while it had sat on the market for about a year, the features that maybe drove other people away, we saw as areas we could reconfigure or work on over time.  (like the front stairs/entrance) -- it kinda has this apartment complex entry at the moment.  You walk up and it's like, ok, do you ring the doorbell to open the slider door here, or do you go up the steps to the front door you can't see on the 2nd floor?  We made an offer in January, and everything closed by the end of April.  

Here we are, a few weeks in, getting unpacked & settled.  The reality of most interior pics, would be kind of boring at this point because you'd see a lot of boxes & messes.  Honest life. ;)  As we work on rooms and making this feel like our home, I'll post pics.  For now, here are a few. 

 



I couldn't get this to load correctly at all - most pics are from the ipad & somehow in the transfer, are getting distorted & turned in funky ways - trying to straighten them out & resave only blurred it worse.  :(

 

this is the listing pic of the front yard area & shed (you can park a car in there or small tractor - it's just gravel floor)

listing pic of the living room

listing pic of the downstairs family room that we are using as a den/home school area

I want to build a swing like this for the kids to hang in a big tree in front that has a perfect branch for this!

Our dream one day, would be to tear down that shed & build a carriage style garage with living quarters above that guests could stay in or could house our parents if they ever wanted/needed to live with us

One of our (hopefully) sooner-than-later projects is to tear down the existing front porch that is rotted in some places, and put something along this style in its place. 

Here's a very rough sketch of what we kind of envision doing to change the front:  new porch with new stairs that direct people right on up to the front door. :)  Eventually, we'd love to add a 3rd upper level that would be the master bedroom/bath area and have room for a home office or treadmill/workout area - or, another bedroom if our family expands.  For now, and even if we adopt, the kids can share rooms.  That was something we checked into before we purchased a home - if we adopt, do we need a separate bedroom - we were told it's perfectly fine for the kids to share a room so long as the adopted child has their own bed/space.  Super!  We love being a tight-knit group anyway. :)