Thursday, June 26, 2014
Back to the old blog!!
Ok so this didn't last long- I have a little bit more free time now that we are all moved but not enough time to blog about our house and our kids. So...since the kids are at such fun ages I would much rather blog about them right now. One day I may go back and blog about our house adventures!! So I am back at www.thefoltzs.blogspot.com for now :)
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
5 years old!
I seriously can't believe my first baby turned 5 this past week. On 4-4-14 Wade turned 5 years old :( I was totally ok with 4 but I have to say 5 has been hard. I think it's because I know I only have a few short months at home with him before he starts school. I can't imagine him being gone all day!
Friday was his birthday but the birthday fun started Thursday. WK had Mothers Morning Out so I took Wade to Defy Gravity. It's a really neat trampoline place near Durham. We had so much fun bouncing and playing. Friday he woke up and Josh had gotten ten balloons and put them all over the house. He loved it when he woke up! He was so excited to be 5 :)
He picked a donut for breakfast- one with chocolate and sprinkles and then we got ready for his friends party. We got pizza and cupcakes and met some of his best friends at the park. It was the first time it hasn't rained on his bday in two years. They had a blast at the park. He got to pick dinner too and he picked take out from Yamato a Japenese place. He loves take out because if he had a choice he would never change out if his PJ's. My family came over and Josh and I gave Wade his presents and my parents gave Wade one of his too. We got him a Wii ninja turtle game and a Razor scooter. Mom and dad got him Donkey Kong for Wii and he is still playing it!! He loves that game. We spent almost all weekend outside and he rode his new scooter everywhere. He rides all around the yard and even rode downtown a couple of times. He had a great birthday.
Saturday consisted of a yard sale that I thought was a good idea. We did ok but I think I once again crammed too much into one weekend! Wade had soccer practice too and we literally spent the entire day outside. It was a great but busy day.
Sunday we went to church and then came back for another party!! Wade's family party was Sunday at lunch. We all met here and walked down for pizza and cake. He was so excited about his Lemon cake from Whole Foods. He told me he was sorry if no one liked lemon icing but that's what he really wanted!! It was an amazing cake. He wanted yellow icing, red writing and a orange 5 on it. We added two spider man action figures as well! Hoping to get his pictures up soon. I also want to do other interview with Wade and see how his answers have changed since he turned 4.
Friday was his birthday but the birthday fun started Thursday. WK had Mothers Morning Out so I took Wade to Defy Gravity. It's a really neat trampoline place near Durham. We had so much fun bouncing and playing. Friday he woke up and Josh had gotten ten balloons and put them all over the house. He loved it when he woke up! He was so excited to be 5 :)
He picked a donut for breakfast- one with chocolate and sprinkles and then we got ready for his friends party. We got pizza and cupcakes and met some of his best friends at the park. It was the first time it hasn't rained on his bday in two years. They had a blast at the park. He got to pick dinner too and he picked take out from Yamato a Japenese place. He loves take out because if he had a choice he would never change out if his PJ's. My family came over and Josh and I gave Wade his presents and my parents gave Wade one of his too. We got him a Wii ninja turtle game and a Razor scooter. Mom and dad got him Donkey Kong for Wii and he is still playing it!! He loves that game. We spent almost all weekend outside and he rode his new scooter everywhere. He rides all around the yard and even rode downtown a couple of times. He had a great birthday.
Saturday consisted of a yard sale that I thought was a good idea. We did ok but I think I once again crammed too much into one weekend! Wade had soccer practice too and we literally spent the entire day outside. It was a great but busy day.
Sunday we went to church and then came back for another party!! Wade's family party was Sunday at lunch. We all met here and walked down for pizza and cake. He was so excited about his Lemon cake from Whole Foods. He told me he was sorry if no one liked lemon icing but that's what he really wanted!! It was an amazing cake. He wanted yellow icing, red writing and a orange 5 on it. We added two spider man action figures as well! Hoping to get his pictures up soon. I also want to do other interview with Wade and see how his answers have changed since he turned 4.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Pictures!!
So here are some "before pictures" of the house. However these aren't the true before pics. Before the bank would give us a loan on a historic house we had to make some repairs. It was crazy that we had to do these things before we even owned the house. We repaired rotten wood around the top of the house and replaced all of the steps on the front porch (they were rotten too.) We also decided to paint all the blue that was around the windows and roof. They said we had to fix all paint that was chipping so we got the white approved and made all the trim white. Since this house is on the national registry we had to have all the outside changes approved before doing anything. We couldn't even cut trees down or remove old holly bushes without approval. Thankfully they aren't as picky on the inside. We only had to get a couple of things approved inside ( we knocked down two walls!) Once we get our new computer set up I will try to find the first pictures of the house and yard. The yard was out of control too. Let's just say between the inside and outside we went through 5 dumpsters. I'm not talking trash cans we are talking about huge 40 foot dumpsters that you would use on a job site. Remember the hoarders part... That is why we needed 5!!!!!
Thursday, March 27, 2014
House History part 1
Let me start by saying we did not "need" to move. We LOVED our old house and I actually cried a few times before leaving. So why in the world did we leave? Well an opportunity came up that we both felt may never happen again, oh and it was totally a God thing, just wait ;)
Josh will tell you that when I get something on my mind I am pretty determined to get it done (he has a love/hate relationship with this personality trait!) I don't know why he kept mentioning "more land" here and there but even as much as we loved our old house Josh wanted more than .19 acres. We knew it was Wade's last year of preschool so now was the time to look before he started school. He wanted land and I got this CRAZY idea to be near our little downtown . Downtown is so neat if you have never been before. I grew up right in downtown in an old house. Never ever ever did I think I would buy a house three doors down from the house I grew up in or that my kids would walk to the same elementary school that I did!
Long story short I called people, left notes at houses and nothing really happened. Well one day I was talking to the lady that bought my childhood house and she told me to call Ann one of our neighbors growing up. She said their health was bad and the house needed work but that they may want to move soon. So my crazy self got a phone book out (yes they still had a land line) and Ann answered and I really don't know what I said except "we love your house if you ever want to sell would she call us?" Josh and I used to walk past this house and we used to joke about how much we would love to have it! Well little did we know they were praying about selling because they couldn't keep the house and yard up anymore. Remember that .19 lot we had well this one was .84 acres and the house is right in the perfect location! I really didn't think I heard her right when she said she wanted to sell and that they would only sell to a family like us who would love it. I called josh right away and he didn't believe me.
After talking a couple if times we went over to look at it and of course we loved it. Now most people would have walked right out. It was NASTY and smelled horrible and need a ton of work but because we are crazy we still loved it. We could both see past all that and had a vision of what it could be. I mean NASTY- like dog poop everywhere. Pee all over the rugs and your feet stuck to the kitchen floor when you walked on it. Oh did we mention hoarders? Yes lucky us they were hoarders too. This comes into play in part 2 just you wait :) So what did Josh and I do...of course we brought a contract with us as we signed papers right away. They had no where to go and we had a house to sell but we wanted something in writing because we knew if people found out it would have been a biding war for this house.
We listed our house a few days later and here is the God part- we got a full price offer the very first day on the market and the very first showing we had. We couldn't argue with that. That offer ended up falling through but within two weeks in the market we had a second offer almost at asking price and we closed 45 days later. We knew if it was meant to be we would sell easy and it did. Now the hard part was finding them a house. Yes they asked US to do it they didn't want a realtor. So I became one and what do you know we found them the perfect ranch house in our area that also already had a wheelchair ramp for her. Pretty sure that was meant to be too!
So back to the hoarders part.... They have no family here or any help so not only were we their realtor but we were their moving company also. We had to move ALL of their stuff out. Oh and they also had 5 barns on our lot full of stuff. It took us one month just to clean the house out. Thankfully the man they bought their house from has an auction business and they hired him to auction off some stuff. Lets just say they made $3,400 at a yard sale- that is how much stuff we cleaned out. Thankfully we had some help from the auctioneer. I think we signed papers in July 2013 and by the time we moved out of our house October 2013 we had them settled in their house. Couldn't have done it without my parents. They helped so much with packing and moving Ann and Ron. We also had to unpack their house for them because she is sick and bedridden. The boxes we didn't unpack
are still packed up in their guest room. We however won't be unpacking those for him :)
Now it is worth it but in the midst of it all we thought about backing out once or twice. They were pitiful and we brought them dinner a lot and we had to take them to and from the doctors quite a bit. That part was hard because our kids are small and we are busy too. But out of all this we feel like we gained two more sweet family members and we still see them about once a week.
Josh will tell you that when I get something on my mind I am pretty determined to get it done (he has a love/hate relationship with this personality trait!) I don't know why he kept mentioning "more land" here and there but even as much as we loved our old house Josh wanted more than .19 acres. We knew it was Wade's last year of preschool so now was the time to look before he started school. He wanted land and I got this CRAZY idea to be near our little downtown . Downtown is so neat if you have never been before. I grew up right in downtown in an old house. Never ever ever did I think I would buy a house three doors down from the house I grew up in or that my kids would walk to the same elementary school that I did!
Long story short I called people, left notes at houses and nothing really happened. Well one day I was talking to the lady that bought my childhood house and she told me to call Ann one of our neighbors growing up. She said their health was bad and the house needed work but that they may want to move soon. So my crazy self got a phone book out (yes they still had a land line) and Ann answered and I really don't know what I said except "we love your house if you ever want to sell would she call us?" Josh and I used to walk past this house and we used to joke about how much we would love to have it! Well little did we know they were praying about selling because they couldn't keep the house and yard up anymore. Remember that .19 lot we had well this one was .84 acres and the house is right in the perfect location! I really didn't think I heard her right when she said she wanted to sell and that they would only sell to a family like us who would love it. I called josh right away and he didn't believe me.
After talking a couple if times we went over to look at it and of course we loved it. Now most people would have walked right out. It was NASTY and smelled horrible and need a ton of work but because we are crazy we still loved it. We could both see past all that and had a vision of what it could be. I mean NASTY- like dog poop everywhere. Pee all over the rugs and your feet stuck to the kitchen floor when you walked on it. Oh did we mention hoarders? Yes lucky us they were hoarders too. This comes into play in part 2 just you wait :) So what did Josh and I do...of course we brought a contract with us as we signed papers right away. They had no where to go and we had a house to sell but we wanted something in writing because we knew if people found out it would have been a biding war for this house.
We listed our house a few days later and here is the God part- we got a full price offer the very first day on the market and the very first showing we had. We couldn't argue with that. That offer ended up falling through but within two weeks in the market we had a second offer almost at asking price and we closed 45 days later. We knew if it was meant to be we would sell easy and it did. Now the hard part was finding them a house. Yes they asked US to do it they didn't want a realtor. So I became one and what do you know we found them the perfect ranch house in our area that also already had a wheelchair ramp for her. Pretty sure that was meant to be too!
So back to the hoarders part.... They have no family here or any help so not only were we their realtor but we were their moving company also. We had to move ALL of their stuff out. Oh and they also had 5 barns on our lot full of stuff. It took us one month just to clean the house out. Thankfully the man they bought their house from has an auction business and they hired him to auction off some stuff. Lets just say they made $3,400 at a yard sale- that is how much stuff we cleaned out. Thankfully we had some help from the auctioneer. I think we signed papers in July 2013 and by the time we moved out of our house October 2013 we had them settled in their house. Couldn't have done it without my parents. They helped so much with packing and moving Ann and Ron. We also had to unpack their house for them because she is sick and bedridden. The boxes we didn't unpack
are still packed up in their guest room. We however won't be unpacking those for him :)
Now it is worth it but in the midst of it all we thought about backing out once or twice. They were pitiful and we brought them dinner a lot and we had to take them to and from the doctors quite a bit. That part was hard because our kids are small and we are busy too. But out of all this we feel like we gained two more sweet family members and we still see them about once a week.
Our new blog!
Well since I did such a great job of blogging the past four months I thought I would start a new blog!! Maybe this fresh start will help me get back into blogging again. I think we had so much going on that I needed to take little blogging break. So after 4 long months of house and kids stuff we are almost settled.
Surprisingly I have had a lot of people interested in seeing pictures and getting info on all of our house stuff. We are by no means experts on this topic but we did learn a lot on our journey. I am still going to blog about the kids and family stuff but I am also going to do some house type posts and show some before and after pictures. I may just throw in a few pictures of some furniture I am re-doing also. I have one piece finished and in our house but I have a lot left to do. We have a building full of old furniture that they just left for us. I also have a ton of flea market finds and people that come over are shocked when they find out where we bought it. If there is one thing I am an expert on now it is goodwill and flea market finds. Because we spent so much money on the big things in the house I really tried to budget with our furniture and fun stuff :)
Sure it was a challenge restoring a 100 year old house (especially with the help of a 4 year old and a 2 year old) but it was so worth it. It might have made us a little crazy along the way but we can look back and just laugh at it. Oh and I thought it would be a great idea to start a new job in the midst of it all. I think I was trying to pile as much on my plate as possible. It is a great job though and I am so glad I took it because they are hard to come by-plus I only work one day each week!!
Shockingly Josh and I did not kill each other in the process. They say if your marriage can survive building a new house it can survive a lot; after restoring an old house I think building a new one would be a breeze! We used to joke that it would have been easier to have torn it down and started over but we would have lost all of the charm and character that we fell in love with. We had our moments where we were stressed or frustrated (mostly with contractors) but overall we really enjoyed doing this together. We had a lot of fun along the way!!
So I will start from the beginning on how we got the house and go from there. It's a LONG STORY but I will try to keep it short and sweet. Can't wait to share what has been happening the last 4 months!
Surprisingly I have had a lot of people interested in seeing pictures and getting info on all of our house stuff. We are by no means experts on this topic but we did learn a lot on our journey. I am still going to blog about the kids and family stuff but I am also going to do some house type posts and show some before and after pictures. I may just throw in a few pictures of some furniture I am re-doing also. I have one piece finished and in our house but I have a lot left to do. We have a building full of old furniture that they just left for us. I also have a ton of flea market finds and people that come over are shocked when they find out where we bought it. If there is one thing I am an expert on now it is goodwill and flea market finds. Because we spent so much money on the big things in the house I really tried to budget with our furniture and fun stuff :)
Sure it was a challenge restoring a 100 year old house (especially with the help of a 4 year old and a 2 year old) but it was so worth it. It might have made us a little crazy along the way but we can look back and just laugh at it. Oh and I thought it would be a great idea to start a new job in the midst of it all. I think I was trying to pile as much on my plate as possible. It is a great job though and I am so glad I took it because they are hard to come by-plus I only work one day each week!!
Shockingly Josh and I did not kill each other in the process. They say if your marriage can survive building a new house it can survive a lot; after restoring an old house I think building a new one would be a breeze! We used to joke that it would have been easier to have torn it down and started over but we would have lost all of the charm and character that we fell in love with. We had our moments where we were stressed or frustrated (mostly with contractors) but overall we really enjoyed doing this together. We had a lot of fun along the way!!
So I will start from the beginning on how we got the house and go from there. It's a LONG STORY but I will try to keep it short and sweet. Can't wait to share what has been happening the last 4 months!
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