Well, Mary Jeanette sent us this nice little link to give us a taste of what we can expect if we make the transition to Iowa. Brrrrrrr.... just looking makes me cold! ;)

http://www.iowadot.org/2007_blizzard.html

Here are some pictures of one of the houses we are going to look at in Newton. David and I are pretty partial to it already. It was built in 1920 and it used to be a boarding house. It is 2256 sq ft, 4br, 3ba, a corner lot that is almost 1/4 acre, central air, a basement and a third floor that is unfinished. It's listed at $72,ooo. I like that it still has doors to the different rooms so in winter you can just shut off rooms and live in a smaller space without having to heat the whole house.

front of house

stairway

lvingroom1

livingroom2

diningroom

kitchen

Posted in: iowa, Slow Lane on Sunday, March 11, 2007 at at 11:27 PM 0 comments    

That is a quote from the movie Field of Dreams. David and I are going to go find out for ourselves if Iowa can be a little piece of heaven for us. We are looking at moving to a small town 30 minutes east of Des Moines. Housing is cheaper, cost of living is lower, but wages are reportedly above average for the country in Des Moines.

Newton is the name of the town that we are interested in specifically. It seems like a nice place, with a Walmart - couldn't live without them! Costco is in West Des Moines, a 45 minute drive away. The library offers story time for the kids and has DVDs for checkout just like we are used to here in Arizona. It just seems like a great place to raise our girls.

To add to all of that, I went on craigslist to find someone listing from Newton to potentially ask for some local info. I found an ad from a woman looking to sell her 2 chair salon business for $15k which she said you will make $50k easily the first year. This was exciting for two reasons.

1. The most obvious is that David could buy her business and have an immediate clientele and be working right in town rather than commuting to Des Moines.
2. It made us realize that David has a commodity in his salon that he can sell as well.

So, we can sell David's clientele for $15k, buy the Newton salon for $15k, and make the move rather easily. We are planning on driving out to Newton on March 26th and come back the31st. There are quite a few homes we will be looking at while we are there ranging in price from $57k-$110k, which fit our criteria of 3br, 2ba, minimum 1500 sq. ft. We will also be meeting with the owner of the salon for sale and seeing how that looks.


This will also be the second time we have been away overnight from Trinity and the first away from Angelina. I know it will be hard, but we will have so much to see and do and decisions to make that I think I will manage.


Well, that's what is happening with us right now. I am spending my time cleaning out the closets, paring down our belongings by selling on craigslist and donating to Goodwill, and trying to keep Trinity entertained while I accomplish it all! We have quite a few home projects to get done before we can list our home, the largest one being the kitchen remodel. (gasp!) Please keep us and all the decisions ahead of us in your prayers!

Posted in: iowa, moving, Slow Lane on Saturday, March 10, 2007 at at 3:41 PM 1 comments