The House: Story
If you have read my other blog, you probably have heard a little bit about this little nightmare. I am just going to be completely honest here. IT WAS A NIGHTMARE.
In 2017 My husband and I decided "hey why don't we just buy a house?"
yea, why don't we?
We acted on our little idea right away just to see if we even qualified. Well we did. We were so excited, after being stuck in an apartment with a kelpie, who had potty training issues and built up energy that we couldn't ever keep up on. It was a new adventure that was such a big accomplishment and something neither of us knew anything about. That was our fist mistake...WE DID NOT RESEARCH. We didn't familiarize ourselves with any of it, found a Realtor and stuck with him. Then went on this journey they call house hunting...
Here is the thing. We hunted. Like I mean we looked for houses everywhere. We searched and traveled to find the perfect house for about 2 months straight. We were living right outside of Couer D Alene, but wanted to be closer and let me tell ya, to live in such a beautiful area comes with a big price tag. I however, I did not make any exceptions to go over budget...in fact I went under budget, way under budget. So we started looking at older houses that just needed some updating. Spencer and I felt pretty comfortable moving into something that we could update and make our own. Nothing was big enough though. There was a house that was the same size as our apartment. 900 Sq Ft. for the price of $180,000. We could not bring our selves to buy a house of that size for that price. We wanted something that had space and a yard that we could actually do cartwheels in if we wanted. So, I started searching on Zillow like it was my second job. I came across this old, cluttered house a few times. Right away I would scroll past because there was no way I was living in something like that. Then after a while I decided to just click on it and see what the inside looked like. As I was scrolling through pictures I could just see the potential of it, after a while I just disregarded and kept looking. But I went back to look again. The front yard was so beautiful, two big elm trees and two pine trees for nice shading that gave you that "woodsy" feel. I kept thinking, but the inside. Its so cluttered and dark. There is no way. Then it happened. "let's just go look, just to see. Check it out while we wait for more houses to go up." why, why, why Kayleen. So we went, and those creeky stairs, old windows and unique layout of this old 50's home pulled me in. "Babe! we could do this to the fireplace. OH WE COULD DO THIS! BABE THE FRONT YARD!" I just couldn't help but envision the possibilities of what could be for this cute house that needed some love, BIG TIME. Here is the thing, we had no idea at the time I was carrying around a little bean in my tummy and my ability to make smart choices...well I was being stupid, just plain stupid. Spencer will do just about anything to make any and every little dream I have come true, and when he saw how excited I was he made it happen.
WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. The guy we were buying from needed months to move out because of all of his junk. The house had not been up kept for years and there were multiple opportunities that should have slapped us in the face to realize we were being stupid. Here is the thing though, It was just Spencer and I (so we thought). We didn't plan on having kids in this house, this was something we would work on together on and update to sell and just have as a little starter home. The price was cheap, we got them to go a cheaper and to us we thought a little challenge would be fun.
Seriously why are we, the way we are?
We honestly thought between him and I we could do this project easily.
Alright, fast forward to the day we signed. I found out I was pregnant and our world was flipped upside down. What the bleep did we just do? ...deep breath and well it's livable so we can just take our time. That first day after we got our keys and headed over to start painting, opened our eyes to the disaster we had just got ourselves engulfed in. We were not prepared for the months of stress, exhaustion and work this house would cause. Spencer and I are not ones to back down, or just give up so we stuck our heads down and pushed through. The first few weeks of owning our home, I couldn't stand the smell of the house. My sense of smell was on a new high due to the thing growing inside of me and just walking up to it would make me throw up. I couldn't handle it, like seriously, I would start to gag and run to throw up in those ugly fern bushes. So I did the only sensible thing there is to do, I lived in a hotel room. Yea, who the heck has money after buying a house, well fortunately us. Soon after the new paint went in and we ripped the kitchen floors out I was able to handle it. I do mean just handle it too. When it was time for bed and we had to close windows because of the temp. I would cover my head in the blankets and not breath the air outside of them because that is literally what it took for me to sleep there. It was so awful. When I could't even stand the smell of my own house, I knew it was bad and I cried my whole pregnancy over it. As I had mentioned before, the floors had to be removed and for the first six months of owning our home, we slept on the floor, with our mattress in the middle of the living room while we renovated. There we slept with all the machinery and tools, of course we finally decided to set up the tv on our fireplace so at least we had something else to do since it gets dark here fast especially during winter, which let me mention, we moved in October. It was not ideal, and I found that out fast while in my fist trimester dealing with nausea, back pain and headaches. There we were on our little bed making the best of it.
Yes, once again we sure do know and understand this was self inflicted.
Working full time, pregnant, on my feet all day and coming home to no floors, cabinets covered in tools and rooms filled with different machines and boxes made it so hard to stay positive. We were both so unbearably exhausted and knew there was a baby on his way into the chaos. Let me just say though, I knew without a doubt, I married the best man and all the other girls out there I am so sorry, but you all snoozed and you all lose. Spencer worked so hard non-stop. He took on this whole entire house not knowing how to do one thing and he figured it all out. He would no let me pick up anything. All he wanted me to do is be pregnant and eat. He however, soon realized the wife he chose isn't one for listening, or sitting still. After nagging and nagging he would find a little "kayleen" project for me and let me help. Helping was the very last thing I wanted to do because I was so swollen from all the weight I gained, but also from all the water I was retaining, however I couldn't just keep watching. It hit so many different low levels we never imagined we would ever be at. There was so much to do and such little time and energy to accomplish it. We took out all flooring to the subfloors (there were layers and layers of flooring), We sealed every sq. inch of this house with kilz, we painted and painted, we re-tiled the backspash and bathroom floor, took out the deck and adding railings, we installed all new hardwood flooring...the list goes on and on, but somehow by a miracle we got it all done with all the snow and freezing rain just in time for spring. We finally had an actual bedroom and bed frame to sleep in and we were so grateful. The house was no where near completed, but it was clean and livable which was our goal.
Within a few short months our baby boy joined our family and after another long story came home to the house we once lost sleep over.
Those months of 13-14 hour days and just surviving truly opened our eyes. We had no idea how strong we were when we worked together, until we saw the destruction caused by working against each other. We had no idea that either of us knew how to "let go" of an unresolved argument until we understood that not all arguments are worth the time. This house showed us how much we needed each other and how amazing we are together. It helped us rely on each other to the point where there is no one in this world who we would rely on before one another. This house strengthened a couple who thought they were already pretty strong, but now cannot be broken. We are so very grateful for what this house has built within us and for that reason IT IS the house that built us.
-kayleen
In 2017 My husband and I decided "hey why don't we just buy a house?"
yea, why don't we?
We acted on our little idea right away just to see if we even qualified. Well we did. We were so excited, after being stuck in an apartment with a kelpie, who had potty training issues and built up energy that we couldn't ever keep up on. It was a new adventure that was such a big accomplishment and something neither of us knew anything about. That was our fist mistake...WE DID NOT RESEARCH. We didn't familiarize ourselves with any of it, found a Realtor and stuck with him. Then went on this journey they call house hunting...
Here is the thing. We hunted. Like I mean we looked for houses everywhere. We searched and traveled to find the perfect house for about 2 months straight. We were living right outside of Couer D Alene, but wanted to be closer and let me tell ya, to live in such a beautiful area comes with a big price tag. I however, I did not make any exceptions to go over budget...in fact I went under budget, way under budget. So we started looking at older houses that just needed some updating. Spencer and I felt pretty comfortable moving into something that we could update and make our own. Nothing was big enough though. There was a house that was the same size as our apartment. 900 Sq Ft. for the price of $180,000. We could not bring our selves to buy a house of that size for that price. We wanted something that had space and a yard that we could actually do cartwheels in if we wanted. So, I started searching on Zillow like it was my second job. I came across this old, cluttered house a few times. Right away I would scroll past because there was no way I was living in something like that. Then after a while I decided to just click on it and see what the inside looked like. As I was scrolling through pictures I could just see the potential of it, after a while I just disregarded and kept looking. But I went back to look again. The front yard was so beautiful, two big elm trees and two pine trees for nice shading that gave you that "woodsy" feel. I kept thinking, but the inside. Its so cluttered and dark. There is no way. Then it happened. "let's just go look, just to see. Check it out while we wait for more houses to go up." why, why, why Kayleen. So we went, and those creeky stairs, old windows and unique layout of this old 50's home pulled me in. "Babe! we could do this to the fireplace. OH WE COULD DO THIS! BABE THE FRONT YARD!" I just couldn't help but envision the possibilities of what could be for this cute house that needed some love, BIG TIME. Here is the thing, we had no idea at the time I was carrying around a little bean in my tummy and my ability to make smart choices...well I was being stupid, just plain stupid. Spencer will do just about anything to make any and every little dream I have come true, and when he saw how excited I was he made it happen.
WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. The guy we were buying from needed months to move out because of all of his junk. The house had not been up kept for years and there were multiple opportunities that should have slapped us in the face to realize we were being stupid. Here is the thing though, It was just Spencer and I (so we thought). We didn't plan on having kids in this house, this was something we would work on together on and update to sell and just have as a little starter home. The price was cheap, we got them to go a cheaper and to us we thought a little challenge would be fun.
Seriously why are we, the way we are?
We honestly thought between him and I we could do this project easily.
Alright, fast forward to the day we signed. I found out I was pregnant and our world was flipped upside down. What the bleep did we just do? ...deep breath and well it's livable so we can just take our time. That first day after we got our keys and headed over to start painting, opened our eyes to the disaster we had just got ourselves engulfed in. We were not prepared for the months of stress, exhaustion and work this house would cause. Spencer and I are not ones to back down, or just give up so we stuck our heads down and pushed through. The first few weeks of owning our home, I couldn't stand the smell of the house. My sense of smell was on a new high due to the thing growing inside of me and just walking up to it would make me throw up. I couldn't handle it, like seriously, I would start to gag and run to throw up in those ugly fern bushes. So I did the only sensible thing there is to do, I lived in a hotel room. Yea, who the heck has money after buying a house, well fortunately us. Soon after the new paint went in and we ripped the kitchen floors out I was able to handle it. I do mean just handle it too. When it was time for bed and we had to close windows because of the temp. I would cover my head in the blankets and not breath the air outside of them because that is literally what it took for me to sleep there. It was so awful. When I could't even stand the smell of my own house, I knew it was bad and I cried my whole pregnancy over it. As I had mentioned before, the floors had to be removed and for the first six months of owning our home, we slept on the floor, with our mattress in the middle of the living room while we renovated. There we slept with all the machinery and tools, of course we finally decided to set up the tv on our fireplace so at least we had something else to do since it gets dark here fast especially during winter, which let me mention, we moved in October. It was not ideal, and I found that out fast while in my fist trimester dealing with nausea, back pain and headaches. There we were on our little bed making the best of it.
Yes, once again we sure do know and understand this was self inflicted.
Working full time, pregnant, on my feet all day and coming home to no floors, cabinets covered in tools and rooms filled with different machines and boxes made it so hard to stay positive. We were both so unbearably exhausted and knew there was a baby on his way into the chaos. Let me just say though, I knew without a doubt, I married the best man and all the other girls out there I am so sorry, but you all snoozed and you all lose. Spencer worked so hard non-stop. He took on this whole entire house not knowing how to do one thing and he figured it all out. He would no let me pick up anything. All he wanted me to do is be pregnant and eat. He however, soon realized the wife he chose isn't one for listening, or sitting still. After nagging and nagging he would find a little "kayleen" project for me and let me help. Helping was the very last thing I wanted to do because I was so swollen from all the weight I gained, but also from all the water I was retaining, however I couldn't just keep watching. It hit so many different low levels we never imagined we would ever be at. There was so much to do and such little time and energy to accomplish it. We took out all flooring to the subfloors (there were layers and layers of flooring), We sealed every sq. inch of this house with kilz, we painted and painted, we re-tiled the backspash and bathroom floor, took out the deck and adding railings, we installed all new hardwood flooring...the list goes on and on, but somehow by a miracle we got it all done with all the snow and freezing rain just in time for spring. We finally had an actual bedroom and bed frame to sleep in and we were so grateful. The house was no where near completed, but it was clean and livable which was our goal.
Within a few short months our baby boy joined our family and after another long story came home to the house we once lost sleep over.
Those months of 13-14 hour days and just surviving truly opened our eyes. We had no idea how strong we were when we worked together, until we saw the destruction caused by working against each other. We had no idea that either of us knew how to "let go" of an unresolved argument until we understood that not all arguments are worth the time. This house showed us how much we needed each other and how amazing we are together. It helped us rely on each other to the point where there is no one in this world who we would rely on before one another. This house strengthened a couple who thought they were already pretty strong, but now cannot be broken. We are so very grateful for what this house has built within us and for that reason IT IS the house that built us.
-kayleen
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