My husband started working on the addition. In May 2008, our twin sons were born. The Lord blessed us with two healthy full term twins. My husband also started his job search. Through a contact at Home Depot (after being up there so often with the addition) he got a job selling windows and siding for Home Depot Home Services. It was commission only, but we thought it could still work out. After about 10 weeks there, my husband realized he was paying to go to work with gas expenses, time, etc. Not exactly what we were looking for in a job!
After 12 weeks of maternity leave, I returned back to work. Unbeknownst to us, this was a blessing in disguise, my paycheck would help us get through the next year and a half.
When I returned back to work, we decided to hire a babysitter from the local area. This way we were not committed to a year with an au pair and we would have flexibility in who watched our children. We found a great sitter named Sarah.
While Home Depot was not working out, my husband landed a job with a local construction company through someone in our church. Things were looking good. We were back to two incomes!
Nearly a year after working there, the work started to dry up. My husband was laid off for a period of two months or so. The timing worked out well because there were still major tasks to accomplish with the addition. We were already living in the new space, but it was by no means completed. My husband was able to finish up the siding and collect unemployment. We were still doing okay.
The company that laid him off brought him back and he was employed again. Unfortunately, this is pretty standard process for construction companies. It's one of the reasons my husband had gotten out of that field many years before. A few months later, he was laid off again. This time, my husband set out to pursue another career. He did some career testing and wanted to find what areas he would be really good at. Engineering came out at the top of his list. Maybe he could pursue something like civil engineering or even computer engineering.
He started taking a class at a local college and continued looking for jobs. It was April of 2010 and we decided to plan a family trip to the Washington DC area to see the beautiful cherry blossoms. We were going to go while the kids were on spring break.
A week before our trip, one late night, I was poking around the internet looking for possible jobs for myself. I was on monster.com looking in the Information Technology jobs. I noticed a job for a templater, someone who makes templates for granite and marble surfaces. I left the screen up on the computer. My husband had been down chatting with my parents, when he came up I told him to check it out. He decided to apply.
This job seemed like a good combination between his construction skills and the computer skills he received while getting his associates degree in Information Technology 10 years prior.
The company called the next day and requested an interview! Yahoo!! The next day!! That sounded promising. My husband went on the interview and everything went really well.
A day before we were supposed to leave on our trip, the company called and requested a second interview. Oh man! Of course we cancelled our trip! A job for my husband was priority at this point! The kids were very understanding as well as my sister who we were going to visit.
Praise the Lord, at the end of that week, they offered my husband a job. He was going to start right away too. Finally, steady work, a chance for overtime pay, a job that combined my husbands' many interests! God is good!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
One Now or Two Later
Ok now where were we. Back to my husband who had just quit his job....
When I was a teenager and into my early twenties, I started to dream about getting married and having children. My picture perfect dream included 4 children. It was more than two, but still an even number for when you go to amusement parks. That was always very important as a child -- trips to amusement parks had to be with an even numbered group so no one had to ride themselves and everyone had to love rollercoasters.
So here we were with three kids, living with my parents, on one income and I have this bright idea that we should start thinking about #4. My daughter was nearing 18 months.
My philosophy on having kids also was to have them close together. I figure 8 years of diaper bags, night time feedings, etc would be crazy, but then it would be over. I didn't want to have one, wait three or four years, get out of the diaper/bottle stage, and then start all over. Considering our living arrangements however, I thought maybe, just maybe it wasn't a good time. I told my husband if we decided to wait, I would consider having two more instead of just one so that they would have each other to play with. One now or two later is what I told him. He voted for one now.
If you didn't think God had a sense of humor, maybe this will change your mind. All along throughout our marriage as we have been planning this "perfect" life (with four kids of course), my husband would say "if God has a sense of humor, our last one will be twins". Word to the wise, God has a sense of humor, so don't say things like that!!! Yep, about 8 weeks into the pregnancy, we found out we were expecting twins! Crazy, crazy, crazy!!!! We were extremely shocked to say the least.
The thought of 7 people in 1000 square feet was mind boggling. I'm pretty sure people in other cultures do it all the time, but it sure seemed foreign to me.
The thought of my husband staying home with 5 kids, two of them being infants was mind boggling as well. I think pretty shortly after we found out about the twins he said no way!
My parents decided to put on an addition to their house to give us more room. My husband has a history in carpentry and rough framing, so he planned to build the addition before the twins arrived. Oh yeah, and watch the existing three kids.
After the addition was done, he would pursue a career again and rejoin the workforce.
When I was a teenager and into my early twenties, I started to dream about getting married and having children. My picture perfect dream included 4 children. It was more than two, but still an even number for when you go to amusement parks. That was always very important as a child -- trips to amusement parks had to be with an even numbered group so no one had to ride themselves and everyone had to love rollercoasters.
So here we were with three kids, living with my parents, on one income and I have this bright idea that we should start thinking about #4. My daughter was nearing 18 months.
My philosophy on having kids also was to have them close together. I figure 8 years of diaper bags, night time feedings, etc would be crazy, but then it would be over. I didn't want to have one, wait three or four years, get out of the diaper/bottle stage, and then start all over. Considering our living arrangements however, I thought maybe, just maybe it wasn't a good time. I told my husband if we decided to wait, I would consider having two more instead of just one so that they would have each other to play with. One now or two later is what I told him. He voted for one now.
If you didn't think God had a sense of humor, maybe this will change your mind. All along throughout our marriage as we have been planning this "perfect" life (with four kids of course), my husband would say "if God has a sense of humor, our last one will be twins". Word to the wise, God has a sense of humor, so don't say things like that!!! Yep, about 8 weeks into the pregnancy, we found out we were expecting twins! Crazy, crazy, crazy!!!! We were extremely shocked to say the least.
The thought of 7 people in 1000 square feet was mind boggling. I'm pretty sure people in other cultures do it all the time, but it sure seemed foreign to me.
The thought of my husband staying home with 5 kids, two of them being infants was mind boggling as well. I think pretty shortly after we found out about the twins he said no way!
My parents decided to put on an addition to their house to give us more room. My husband has a history in carpentry and rough framing, so he planned to build the addition before the twins arrived. Oh yeah, and watch the existing three kids.
After the addition was done, he would pursue a career again and rejoin the workforce.
Monday, December 13, 2010
A very Pleasant visit
"Do not despise prophecies" 1 Thes 5:20 (ESV)
Being in the church for many years, I have been hardened by many "so called Prophets". Obviously God must have known this would be typical behavior because He puts in his Word a clear direction to not despise them.
A few weeks back a prophet came to our church to speak on prophecy and the biblical view on it. Gary Pleasant came from a church in downtown Cleveland, OH. He first did a Sunday morning service and followed it up with a mini-seminar for the following two Saturdays. We attended the Sunday morning service.
Very early in the service, he felt like he had a word for the youth leader. Our local youth leaders went up front to receive what was spoken over them. Even during this, I kept reminding myself to not despise prophecies. Gary proceeded to teach an excellent message on prophecies and how to test them against the Word of God. He talked at one point about when God called him to the ministry, he quit his job and stepped out in faith that God would provide. He said they had never missed a bill and always had what they needed. Just that statement alone spoke to my husband and I. We feel that God is calling us to take a step of faith as well. I'm just trying to balance that with using wisdom.
I started to hope that God would have a word for us. To confirm this journey that we are on. Maybe even some answers.
When the message was over, Gary said that there was a gentleman in the back with a hairdo like his. My husband and Gary are bald. He asked the young man in the black shirt to come up. I was like, oh my, here we go. (in a good way, of course) My husband started to walk up when Gary stopped him to ask if anyone was with him. Gary asked me to come up as well. He started to speak over us and I quietly prayed that he would speak directly to the situation we are seeking guidance on -- what to do with the kids next year, when is the right time to quit.
Here's what he spoke:
To my husband:
I see you so on fire for God. I don’t know where you are right now, but let me just tell you what I see. I see you both on fire for God. There’s fire in your eyes. There’s a burning passion for the Lord in your eyes. The enemy is trying to put that fire out. I see like the firemen go to the house that is burning and try to put the fire out, but as that’s happening the fire in your eyes just gets stronger and stronger. You will not quit. You will not give in to the attack of the enemy. There’s a great call of God upon your life. And the Lord says I want you to know know that Yes, my hand is upon you and at times you have questioned, ‘Can I do that? Can I do what I see others doing? You know, I’m a Christian, but….” But there’s no mediocrity in your heart. You really want the things of the Lord. And the Lord says I come here today to let you know that yes, my hand is upon you and yes, I’ve called you. And you, you will be a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, and to come today to break down the strongholds of the enemy that try to oppose the call of God upon you.
To both:
And even as a couple God says, I’m gonna use the both of you together and so know that I’ve come to heal you, know that I’ve come to mend, know that I’ve come to strengthen you, know that I’ve come even to identify you and let you know that yes, yes, yes, yes, yes that fire that’s in you, that passion that’s in you is from the Lord. Hallelujah. So Father, we bless this couple. Will you pray with me everyone, for a moment? We bless this couple and we say know that God’s hand is upon you and even now God has given you clear direction. You’ve been seeking the Lord about direction. You’ve been seeking the Lord about the fine tuning of some things in your life about which way to go. And God says that even from this day I’m gonna speak to you and I’m gonna begin to bring clarity to your heart so that there is no obscurity whatsoever. You will know that you know that you know that you know. For I come to answer your prayers says the Spirit of the Lord.
Wow. It felt like God just reached out and spoke directly to us. We took this as confirmation of the path we are on and continue to seek for God's wisdom and direction. What an awesome God we serve!
Being in the church for many years, I have been hardened by many "so called Prophets". Obviously God must have known this would be typical behavior because He puts in his Word a clear direction to not despise them.
A few weeks back a prophet came to our church to speak on prophecy and the biblical view on it. Gary Pleasant came from a church in downtown Cleveland, OH. He first did a Sunday morning service and followed it up with a mini-seminar for the following two Saturdays. We attended the Sunday morning service.
Very early in the service, he felt like he had a word for the youth leader. Our local youth leaders went up front to receive what was spoken over them. Even during this, I kept reminding myself to not despise prophecies. Gary proceeded to teach an excellent message on prophecies and how to test them against the Word of God. He talked at one point about when God called him to the ministry, he quit his job and stepped out in faith that God would provide. He said they had never missed a bill and always had what they needed. Just that statement alone spoke to my husband and I. We feel that God is calling us to take a step of faith as well. I'm just trying to balance that with using wisdom.
I started to hope that God would have a word for us. To confirm this journey that we are on. Maybe even some answers.
When the message was over, Gary said that there was a gentleman in the back with a hairdo like his. My husband and Gary are bald. He asked the young man in the black shirt to come up. I was like, oh my, here we go. (in a good way, of course) My husband started to walk up when Gary stopped him to ask if anyone was with him. Gary asked me to come up as well. He started to speak over us and I quietly prayed that he would speak directly to the situation we are seeking guidance on -- what to do with the kids next year, when is the right time to quit.
Here's what he spoke:
To my husband:
I see you so on fire for God. I don’t know where you are right now, but let me just tell you what I see. I see you both on fire for God. There’s fire in your eyes. There’s a burning passion for the Lord in your eyes. The enemy is trying to put that fire out. I see like the firemen go to the house that is burning and try to put the fire out, but as that’s happening the fire in your eyes just gets stronger and stronger. You will not quit. You will not give in to the attack of the enemy. There’s a great call of God upon your life. And the Lord says I want you to know know that Yes, my hand is upon you and at times you have questioned, ‘Can I do that? Can I do what I see others doing? You know, I’m a Christian, but….” But there’s no mediocrity in your heart. You really want the things of the Lord. And the Lord says I come here today to let you know that yes, my hand is upon you and yes, I’ve called you. And you, you will be a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, and to come today to break down the strongholds of the enemy that try to oppose the call of God upon you.
To both:
And even as a couple God says, I’m gonna use the both of you together and so know that I’ve come to heal you, know that I’ve come to mend, know that I’ve come to strengthen you, know that I’ve come even to identify you and let you know that yes, yes, yes, yes, yes that fire that’s in you, that passion that’s in you is from the Lord. Hallelujah. So Father, we bless this couple. Will you pray with me everyone, for a moment? We bless this couple and we say know that God’s hand is upon you and even now God has given you clear direction. You’ve been seeking the Lord about direction. You’ve been seeking the Lord about the fine tuning of some things in your life about which way to go. And God says that even from this day I’m gonna speak to you and I’m gonna begin to bring clarity to your heart so that there is no obscurity whatsoever. You will know that you know that you know that you know. For I come to answer your prayers says the Spirit of the Lord.
Wow. It felt like God just reached out and spoke directly to us. We took this as confirmation of the path we are on and continue to seek for God's wisdom and direction. What an awesome God we serve!
The evidence of things unseen
This year has been a real push forward year for us. A few months ago, I really started to have a sense of urgency for getting my children out of the public school system, especially my oldest. With the average age of first sexual encounters coming down and the increasing pull of the internet to pornography, I would like to pull him from an environment that encourages that as soon as possible.
We looked at our budget mid-summer to see if there was any way we could pull it off, my quitting immediately. While we are much closer than we've ever been, it was still impossible. We figured if we pushed really hard this year, maybe by next July (when our au pair leaves) we could make the switch.
I am the planner and number cruncher in our family so after discussing these ideas, I hit the spreadsheets to see if it could really work out. What I found was a little disheartening. While we would pay off a lot of debt this year, eliminating 4 loans, we would still be $1000 short per month. If it had been $250 - $300, I would have said, we can find some way to come up with that much money, but $1000 just makes it seem a little too far out of reach.
I quickly moved to other options. Maybe enrolling our kids in a private Christian school would help. I understand that we are all sinners, including our Christian raised kids, so kids at a Christian school have temptations too. At least at a Christian school, they would be taught the Word and encourage morals and values founded on the Word. We currently spend around $18,000/year on child care. Trying to include a Christian school for 3 of them would bump us up to about $30,000/year! That would really slow down the debt reduction!
When it comes right down to it, I am praying for a miracle. I'm not even sure what that miracle looks like right now, but somehow I feel like we need to keep shooting for next July. We are standing in faith for that which we cannot see.
Heb. 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
We looked at our budget mid-summer to see if there was any way we could pull it off, my quitting immediately. While we are much closer than we've ever been, it was still impossible. We figured if we pushed really hard this year, maybe by next July (when our au pair leaves) we could make the switch.
I am the planner and number cruncher in our family so after discussing these ideas, I hit the spreadsheets to see if it could really work out. What I found was a little disheartening. While we would pay off a lot of debt this year, eliminating 4 loans, we would still be $1000 short per month. If it had been $250 - $300, I would have said, we can find some way to come up with that much money, but $1000 just makes it seem a little too far out of reach.
I quickly moved to other options. Maybe enrolling our kids in a private Christian school would help. I understand that we are all sinners, including our Christian raised kids, so kids at a Christian school have temptations too. At least at a Christian school, they would be taught the Word and encourage morals and values founded on the Word. We currently spend around $18,000/year on child care. Trying to include a Christian school for 3 of them would bump us up to about $30,000/year! That would really slow down the debt reduction!
When it comes right down to it, I am praying for a miracle. I'm not even sure what that miracle looks like right now, but somehow I feel like we need to keep shooting for next July. We are standing in faith for that which we cannot see.
Heb. 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
A jump to the present
Ok, I hate to tear you away from the ongoing saga, but I have to jump to present events for a couple posts. I sigh a huge breath of relief as God has once again intervened for us.
My husband currently works for a local computer shop. I know, I know, this is a huge jump from the last post when he quit his job and was staying home. More on all the transpired events to come.
Last Friday, he was repairing a computer on which he did a fresh install of the operating system. Okay, anyone who just checked out because of the technical mumbo jumbo, stick with me! Basically, he made the computer like brand new. Cleaned off all the old stuff and got rid of all the junk. Well generally, you would want to do a backup of the system before you do something like this so that you can get important data back onto the clean computer. When he went to put the data back, he realized a backup was never made of this computer. He had wiped everything clean without saving the old stuff. Early afternoon, he informed his manager of the data loss. For a small business, this is like your worst nightmare.... lost data is the stuff that people file suit for. His manager was pretty hot and sent my husband home early. Obviously having my husband come home early rose my suspicions immediately. When he told me what happened my heart just sunk.
I knew in this moment, I had to hold in everything I was feeling and just be completely supportive. I told him God has a plan and everything would be okay. Inside, I was thinking "oh no, where will we go from here". At this point, my husband didn't even know if he still had a job come Monday.
He called his boss and left a message. About 20 mins later, which seemed like FOREVER, his manager called and said to come in Monday and start fresh. The manager, the owner of the company and my husband would discuss what to do on Tuesday.
Monday, my husband went to work. His back was bothering him immensely and he was all tensed up. I could understand why.
They have some tricks in the computer business to get data off of hard drives. Basically the data doesn't actually get "removed", it just tells the computer that it is reusable again so new information can be written over it. They tried to get the data off with no success.
My husband called me at work to tell me they were going to send the hard drive to a local company that actually takes the drive apart and tries to physically get the data off the drive. This could cost upwards of $1000 and we would have to foot the bill. Wow, was that like a lose/lose situation or what??? Lose your job if the data is unrecoverable or have to pay $1000!
I didn't know what else to do but pray. My husband prayed. The owner of the company prayed. My parents prayed. I think everyone wanted this to work out for good.
I have to admit in the middle of this I lost all hope. My faith that God could move in our long term situation was temporarily gone. Funny how changes in what you see can immediately sway your spiritual vision.
Tuesday, the manager called the customer, which I believe was a small business, to find out what data was absolutely necessary to get off the hard drive. That way this other company could focus on that first. The customer said they didn't need any of it. Did you hear that??? They didn't need ANY of the data. Holy cow! My husband's manager was shocked.
My husband got to share the great news with the owner, who said "for such a big guy, you sure did dodge that bullet". Everyone praised the Lord that the situation worked out better than we could have imagined. God is faithful once again!
My husband currently works for a local computer shop. I know, I know, this is a huge jump from the last post when he quit his job and was staying home. More on all the transpired events to come.
Last Friday, he was repairing a computer on which he did a fresh install of the operating system. Okay, anyone who just checked out because of the technical mumbo jumbo, stick with me! Basically, he made the computer like brand new. Cleaned off all the old stuff and got rid of all the junk. Well generally, you would want to do a backup of the system before you do something like this so that you can get important data back onto the clean computer. When he went to put the data back, he realized a backup was never made of this computer. He had wiped everything clean without saving the old stuff. Early afternoon, he informed his manager of the data loss. For a small business, this is like your worst nightmare.... lost data is the stuff that people file suit for. His manager was pretty hot and sent my husband home early. Obviously having my husband come home early rose my suspicions immediately. When he told me what happened my heart just sunk.
I knew in this moment, I had to hold in everything I was feeling and just be completely supportive. I told him God has a plan and everything would be okay. Inside, I was thinking "oh no, where will we go from here". At this point, my husband didn't even know if he still had a job come Monday.
He called his boss and left a message. About 20 mins later, which seemed like FOREVER, his manager called and said to come in Monday and start fresh. The manager, the owner of the company and my husband would discuss what to do on Tuesday.
Monday, my husband went to work. His back was bothering him immensely and he was all tensed up. I could understand why.
They have some tricks in the computer business to get data off of hard drives. Basically the data doesn't actually get "removed", it just tells the computer that it is reusable again so new information can be written over it. They tried to get the data off with no success.
My husband called me at work to tell me they were going to send the hard drive to a local company that actually takes the drive apart and tries to physically get the data off the drive. This could cost upwards of $1000 and we would have to foot the bill. Wow, was that like a lose/lose situation or what??? Lose your job if the data is unrecoverable or have to pay $1000!
I didn't know what else to do but pray. My husband prayed. The owner of the company prayed. My parents prayed. I think everyone wanted this to work out for good.
I have to admit in the middle of this I lost all hope. My faith that God could move in our long term situation was temporarily gone. Funny how changes in what you see can immediately sway your spiritual vision.
Tuesday, the manager called the customer, which I believe was a small business, to find out what data was absolutely necessary to get off the hard drive. That way this other company could focus on that first. The customer said they didn't need any of it. Did you hear that??? They didn't need ANY of the data. Holy cow! My husband's manager was shocked.
My husband got to share the great news with the owner, who said "for such a big guy, you sure did dodge that bullet". Everyone praised the Lord that the situation worked out better than we could have imagined. God is faithful once again!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Mr. Mom
We moved into my parents house in January 2007. We settled in and got used to the new conditions. Our au pair, Fernanda, was scheduled to leave in May so shortly after we arrived in the house we began discussing child care options again. Living in such a small space with an extra person, and a stranger no less is equally as challenging as living with family. However, the money we saved going through the au pair program was too good to pass up. We decided to get another au pair.
The interview process for an au pair is pretty interesting. We get to view his/her application (yes, there are male au pairs) and if we want to, contact them directly. A host family can have an au pair candidate for up to 48 hours without anyone else having access to that candidate. You are required by program guidelines to have 2 phone conversations with your potential au pair before inviting them to match with your family and come stay with you for a year.
We started interviewing candidates and hoped to find a Christian young woman to watch our children. We found a young lady from Russia who was very dedicated to her relationship with Jesus. We spoke with her and emailed a few times. We invited her to become our au pair.
When Julia arrived, we quickly found out how tough this was going to be living in a small space with no real kitchen. We also started having discipline issues with the kids that really got to us. We started to discuss what our options were and if an au pair was the best idea at this time in our lives. If we decided to leave the au pair program within the first 10 weeks, we could get the majority of our agency fee back.
Problem was that our options were limited. We had already had problems with the 2 older boys getting sick at daycare and making either my husband or I miss many days of work. So trying to put three of them there was just asking to get fired. It didn't even cross my mind to look for someone locally to come to the house, so we started discussing having my husband stay home with the kids.
In hindsight, I have no idea what we were thinking. If our long term goal was to have me at home, taking my husband out of the workforce was not going to get us any further quickly. Regardless, we moved forward and made plans to live on one income... mine.
My husband was thrilled the day he put in his two week notice. Who wouldn't be? It was August and the weather was still great. The kids were very excited to have daddy at home too.
The interview process for an au pair is pretty interesting. We get to view his/her application (yes, there are male au pairs) and if we want to, contact them directly. A host family can have an au pair candidate for up to 48 hours without anyone else having access to that candidate. You are required by program guidelines to have 2 phone conversations with your potential au pair before inviting them to match with your family and come stay with you for a year.
We started interviewing candidates and hoped to find a Christian young woman to watch our children. We found a young lady from Russia who was very dedicated to her relationship with Jesus. We spoke with her and emailed a few times. We invited her to become our au pair.
When Julia arrived, we quickly found out how tough this was going to be living in a small space with no real kitchen. We also started having discipline issues with the kids that really got to us. We started to discuss what our options were and if an au pair was the best idea at this time in our lives. If we decided to leave the au pair program within the first 10 weeks, we could get the majority of our agency fee back.
Problem was that our options were limited. We had already had problems with the 2 older boys getting sick at daycare and making either my husband or I miss many days of work. So trying to put three of them there was just asking to get fired. It didn't even cross my mind to look for someone locally to come to the house, so we started discussing having my husband stay home with the kids.
In hindsight, I have no idea what we were thinking. If our long term goal was to have me at home, taking my husband out of the workforce was not going to get us any further quickly. Regardless, we moved forward and made plans to live on one income... mine.
My husband was thrilled the day he put in his two week notice. Who wouldn't be? It was August and the weather was still great. The kids were very excited to have daddy at home too.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
We're ba-ack!
I'm sure as a parent there is that little place inside of you that looks forward to the day when all the kids will be gone and you'll have your house back to yourself. Even as a mom of 5 young small children, I look forward to the day when I can have nice furniture again, knick knacks and glass decorative items.
Well my poor parents don't have that opportunity. When we were building our house, we didn't have enough equity in our current house to sustain a bridge loan. We had to sell our first house before we could even start building the new one. That left us a little dilemma of where to live. My parents graciuosly offered to let us live with them for the six months of building. I'm so thankful that we were able to live there, but as you can imagine, bringing two families together almost always bring stress with it. Not to mention that I gave birth to our second son while living in their house, so there was a newborn waking up at all hours of the night.
When we decided to sell the house that we built, we talked in depth with my parents about where we could go and how we would be able to afford to live and still get out of debt. I'm not sure who suggested it first, but we ended up discussing living with them again. Because of our experience the first time, my husband and I knew we did not want to live with them, but wondered if it would be feasible to live above them. We wanted the luxury of having our own space and the ability to have time to ourselves. We talked further about adding some sort of kitchen upstairs so that we could cook easy meals in a toaster oven or microwave and have a refrigerator available. In the end we came up with a plan on how we thought it could work.
My parents own a 2000 square foot colonial. Basically, my parents live on the first floor and we took the second floor. We added a door from the garage rafter area into the second floor so that we had our own entrance into the house and did not have to disturb them. If I haven't mentioned already, my husband has a history of carpentry, so we were able to do all of this "remodeling" ourselves. The other thing we did is took out the walls of one of the bedrooms and closet to open up part of the second floor into the kitchen and living room. We had three bedrooms, a full bath, and a kitchen/living room. We didn't have room for a dining table, so we built the countertops with an overhang and used two stools. We had 5 people in 1000 sq feet, so it was a little tight. Scratch that, we had 6 people in 1000 sq feet.
The sixth person was an au pair from Brazil. Quick rabbit trail... when we had a our daughter, day care became very expensive. An old boss of mine had an au pair at one point so I had learned a little about the process. It was actually cheaper for us to bring in an au pair than to have the 3 kids in day care.
For anyone who's not familiar with au pairs (pronounced 'o pair'), it is a government regulated student exchange program. A young adult (between 19-26 years old) comes to live with you from another country for a year. They are paid a weekly stipend and can watch children up to 45 hours a week. There are a number of agencies that facilitate this exchange program. The one that we work with (and love) is Cultural Care (http://www.culturalcare.com/).
This helped us solve a few issues, mainly cost, as I've mentioned, but also illness. We were having issues with our kids getting sick at day care and missing work over and over.
One of the regulations with an au pair is they have to have their own bedroom. So Fernanda was in one room, and the three kids in another, and my husband and I in the last.
We bought some cabinets cheap and put in a tiny kitchenette. We had our refrigerator, a sink, microwave, and toaster oven. Occasionally, we would go downstairs and use my parents oven or stove top.
It was tight, but it worked. My parents enjoy having the grand kids around too. Especially since they can still send them upstairs and have their own space. Although they'll probably never get away from the "herd of elephants" constantly pounding on their ceiling.
Well my poor parents don't have that opportunity. When we were building our house, we didn't have enough equity in our current house to sustain a bridge loan. We had to sell our first house before we could even start building the new one. That left us a little dilemma of where to live. My parents graciuosly offered to let us live with them for the six months of building. I'm so thankful that we were able to live there, but as you can imagine, bringing two families together almost always bring stress with it. Not to mention that I gave birth to our second son while living in their house, so there was a newborn waking up at all hours of the night.
When we decided to sell the house that we built, we talked in depth with my parents about where we could go and how we would be able to afford to live and still get out of debt. I'm not sure who suggested it first, but we ended up discussing living with them again. Because of our experience the first time, my husband and I knew we did not want to live with them, but wondered if it would be feasible to live above them. We wanted the luxury of having our own space and the ability to have time to ourselves. We talked further about adding some sort of kitchen upstairs so that we could cook easy meals in a toaster oven or microwave and have a refrigerator available. In the end we came up with a plan on how we thought it could work.
My parents own a 2000 square foot colonial. Basically, my parents live on the first floor and we took the second floor. We added a door from the garage rafter area into the second floor so that we had our own entrance into the house and did not have to disturb them. If I haven't mentioned already, my husband has a history of carpentry, so we were able to do all of this "remodeling" ourselves. The other thing we did is took out the walls of one of the bedrooms and closet to open up part of the second floor into the kitchen and living room. We had three bedrooms, a full bath, and a kitchen/living room. We didn't have room for a dining table, so we built the countertops with an overhang and used two stools. We had 5 people in 1000 sq feet, so it was a little tight. Scratch that, we had 6 people in 1000 sq feet.
The sixth person was an au pair from Brazil. Quick rabbit trail... when we had a our daughter, day care became very expensive. An old boss of mine had an au pair at one point so I had learned a little about the process. It was actually cheaper for us to bring in an au pair than to have the 3 kids in day care.
For anyone who's not familiar with au pairs (pronounced 'o pair'), it is a government regulated student exchange program. A young adult (between 19-26 years old) comes to live with you from another country for a year. They are paid a weekly stipend and can watch children up to 45 hours a week. There are a number of agencies that facilitate this exchange program. The one that we work with (and love) is Cultural Care (http://www.culturalcare.com/).
This helped us solve a few issues, mainly cost, as I've mentioned, but also illness. We were having issues with our kids getting sick at day care and missing work over and over.
One of the regulations with an au pair is they have to have their own bedroom. So Fernanda was in one room, and the three kids in another, and my husband and I in the last.
We bought some cabinets cheap and put in a tiny kitchenette. We had our refrigerator, a sink, microwave, and toaster oven. Occasionally, we would go downstairs and use my parents oven or stove top.
It was tight, but it worked. My parents enjoy having the grand kids around too. Especially since they can still send them upstairs and have their own space. Although they'll probably never get away from the "herd of elephants" constantly pounding on their ceiling.
Radon what?
Before I get to the story of where we went, I wanted to share another blessing about selling our house. As I mentioned before, a fireman bought our new house. I'm assuming in my head that has something to do with what happened, but maybe not. Maybe there's no tie at all. As buyers of our house, they are allowed to request certain tests, inspections, etc. You all know what I'm talking about. Well the buyer requested that we have a Radon test performed. When we bought our house before this one, I think we were offered the opportunity to get a Radon test, but I'll be perfectly honest, I had no idea what it was. In our case, I especially didn't understand why Radon would be in such a new house. Well as I found out, it has even more to do with a new house than an old one.
So what is Radon?
Radon is a radioactive gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless and occurs naturally from the disintegration of radium. It is very known for causing lung cancer when exposed to it in high levels. It can seep into homes, especially basements.
What we learned is that sometimes when foundations are dug, it can stir up the ground and cause Radon gas to be emitted.
So the new owners of our house had a Radon test performed and found that we were WELL over the acceptable limit of exposure. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe we were at a 7 pCi/L (under 4 pCi/L is acceptable). Basically a Radon mitigation unit needed to be installed to get the gases seeping into our basement outside.
We were using the dining room in the house as a play/toy room and we had a table setup in the kitchen. When we put our house on the market it was suggested to us that we make the dining room an actual dining room and put the kids toys in the basement. So for three months our kids had been playing in the basement in tons of Radon gas!
I praise the Lord because we would have never tested for Radon and had plans to live in that house forever. We would be have been absorbing the effects of this gas for years and years! God was protecting us and we didn't even know we needed protection.
Once again, I say, Thank You God!
So what is Radon?
Radon is a radioactive gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless and occurs naturally from the disintegration of radium. It is very known for causing lung cancer when exposed to it in high levels. It can seep into homes, especially basements.
What we learned is that sometimes when foundations are dug, it can stir up the ground and cause Radon gas to be emitted.
So the new owners of our house had a Radon test performed and found that we were WELL over the acceptable limit of exposure. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe we were at a 7 pCi/L (under 4 pCi/L is acceptable). Basically a Radon mitigation unit needed to be installed to get the gases seeping into our basement outside.
We were using the dining room in the house as a play/toy room and we had a table setup in the kitchen. When we put our house on the market it was suggested to us that we make the dining room an actual dining room and put the kids toys in the basement. So for three months our kids had been playing in the basement in tons of Radon gas!
I praise the Lord because we would have never tested for Radon and had plans to live in that house forever. We would be have been absorbing the effects of this gas for years and years! God was protecting us and we didn't even know we needed protection.
Once again, I say, Thank You God!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Going once, going twice, SOLD to the first bidder...
We had our house on the market for about 9 months by owner. We weren't getting any movement, so we decided to contact a realtor. After speaking to a few, we decided to go with someone we knew from church. We originally listed the house for $274,900, knowing we would probably get a little less than that and would have to cover realtor expenses as well. At this point, though, we just wanted to get out of the house. I also believe that God had a purpose in us losing money on the house. Doing things contrary to God's plan carries consequences and getting into so much debt was not going to be relieved easily. Had we been able to sell the house and cover all the debt, I guarantee we would have learned nothing from the situation and would carry the same bad habits that got us into that spot in the first place.
We listed it with the realtor in Sept. Even with a realtor and the house being listed on the MLS, we were getting few calls/showings. In mid-December, our realtor talked to us about lowering our asking price. We already knew we were going to have a short sale and didn't want to go further in the whole; fully expecting that we would not get our asking price. We prayed and didn't know what to do. We still felt like God had led us to sell our house. We decided to take our house off the market until spring time. We hoped the housing market would rebound a little and prospects would be better in the spring. We called our realtor on a Wed and told her. She asked if she could leave the listing up until Sunday and then she would remove it. We had nothing to lose at that point, so we said sure.
Friday evening we got a call. Someone wanted to see the house. She asked if it would be okay to bring them out on Saturday. I was thinking, you've got to be kidding! We haven't had any showings in a while and now the day before we take it off the market, someone wants to see it. Of course we said sure.
The family came to see the house. The father was a fireman and they had two small children. We were already kind of surprised at how this was going. We again just prayed for God's will.
Sunday, our realtor called and said the couple wanted to put a bid in on the house. SERIOUSLY?? She was serious. She said their realtor was going to fax it over. She headed out to our house with the bid. $264,000. Ouch! Quick calculation in my head, already $10K down plus 7% realtor fee, yada, yada, yada.
Oh, I should probably share how a short sale wasn't possible a few posts ago and now we were considering it. Let's just say that some people that love us very much offered to loan us money to bring to the table. We would be completely indebted to them. They also understood God's call and what our future plans were (which I'll get into a little more in the next post).
Anyway, that bid just felt so low. We wanted to counter bid to at least recover a little bit of our loss. Our realtor made the call back to their realtor. After a few minutes they called back and said they needed a few days to think about it. She hung up the phone and shared the news. Oh man! This close and now what? The reality is that they could have placed another bid on another house and we would have been out in the cold. I made a few calls to gather some wise counsel. I don't know if they were trying to get us to play chicken, but it worked, we budged first. After about 1/2 hour, we had our realtor call back and accept their bid. Whew! What a relief. In hindsight, THAT WAS GOD!! After seeing what the housing market did, what a blessing to be out from under that burden. I can almost guarantee we would have foreclosed on that house if we still owned it!! Plus the fact that we were going to take it off the market THAT DAY!!!
It still amazes me and this was just the beginning!!!! HE amazes me and this was just the beginning!
We listed it with the realtor in Sept. Even with a realtor and the house being listed on the MLS, we were getting few calls/showings. In mid-December, our realtor talked to us about lowering our asking price. We already knew we were going to have a short sale and didn't want to go further in the whole; fully expecting that we would not get our asking price. We prayed and didn't know what to do. We still felt like God had led us to sell our house. We decided to take our house off the market until spring time. We hoped the housing market would rebound a little and prospects would be better in the spring. We called our realtor on a Wed and told her. She asked if she could leave the listing up until Sunday and then she would remove it. We had nothing to lose at that point, so we said sure.
Friday evening we got a call. Someone wanted to see the house. She asked if it would be okay to bring them out on Saturday. I was thinking, you've got to be kidding! We haven't had any showings in a while and now the day before we take it off the market, someone wants to see it. Of course we said sure.
The family came to see the house. The father was a fireman and they had two small children. We were already kind of surprised at how this was going. We again just prayed for God's will.
Sunday, our realtor called and said the couple wanted to put a bid in on the house. SERIOUSLY?? She was serious. She said their realtor was going to fax it over. She headed out to our house with the bid. $264,000. Ouch! Quick calculation in my head, already $10K down plus 7% realtor fee, yada, yada, yada.
Oh, I should probably share how a short sale wasn't possible a few posts ago and now we were considering it. Let's just say that some people that love us very much offered to loan us money to bring to the table. We would be completely indebted to them. They also understood God's call and what our future plans were (which I'll get into a little more in the next post).
Anyway, that bid just felt so low. We wanted to counter bid to at least recover a little bit of our loss. Our realtor made the call back to their realtor. After a few minutes they called back and said they needed a few days to think about it. She hung up the phone and shared the news. Oh man! This close and now what? The reality is that they could have placed another bid on another house and we would have been out in the cold. I made a few calls to gather some wise counsel. I don't know if they were trying to get us to play chicken, but it worked, we budged first. After about 1/2 hour, we had our realtor call back and accept their bid. Whew! What a relief. In hindsight, THAT WAS GOD!! After seeing what the housing market did, what a blessing to be out from under that burden. I can almost guarantee we would have foreclosed on that house if we still owned it!! Plus the fact that we were going to take it off the market THAT DAY!!!
It still amazes me and this was just the beginning!!!! HE amazes me and this was just the beginning!
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