What Am I Doing Here?

Almost exactly a year ago, we embarked on a new adventure. We put our first house on the market, and set out looking for something bigger and better. Mostly bigger. We didn't know exactly what we wanted. Well, we did, sort of. We wanted our own bathroom.

For the past nine years, my husband and I had been living in a very small house, sharing one full bath with our three gross sons. It was unpleasant and smelly, but it didn't start off that way. When we purchased the house in the early summer of 2007, we were an unjaded young couple with a precious, curly-haired, three-year-old. We bought the cutest house we could afford, and set to work making it our own. It wasn't huge- 3 beds, 1 1/2 baths- but it was plenty for us, our little son, and the baby we hoped to soon add. Plus, it was just a "starter home." We'd only be there a few years, so it was okay that it was small. Two months after we closed, I was pregnant. With twins.

So,we pretty much outgrew that house in less than a year. And then the housing bubble burst, and we were upside down in our adorable little prison. But we survived. For nine years, we survived, with our rowdy boys getting bigger, and noisier, and smellier. We told everyone that wondered how we possibly lived with so many people in so little space, "oh, it's not so bad." But we were lying.

And finally, almost exactly a year ago, we had the opportunity to improve our station in life. So we cleaned out closets, spruced up the yard, painted the trim, and stuck a "for sale" sign in the yard. We spent a month packing up the kids and the dog at a moment's notice, cruising every park and drive-through in town, praying for a decent offer. All the while desperately searching for a house in our budget that would fit our family's needs. We rejected one after the other, got a tenuous contract, lost it, sold ours, and still had nowhere to go.

Finally, we happened upon a house. A pretty great house, in fact. We weren't sure if we could afford it, and we didn't know how we felt about moving from the center of town to a house way out in the country, but we put in an offer. And we got it! And the rest is history.

Here we are, nine months later, happily ensconced in our cute farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. We're slowly but surely turning it into our dream home. And here's your chance to be along for the ride! You can follow me as I haphazardly DIY this testosterone castle into the charming house I've always wanted. I can't promise you perfection, or even solid advice, but you can share my triumphs, laugh at my spectacular fails, and hopefully be entertained.