Okay, the inspection is done and everything is looking good. Bear with me on the pictures. My darling husband allowed me to buy this house without ever seeing it for himself. So I am mostly posting so he can get online and see his new home. Thanks honey for trusting me to this decision - I love you so much and can't wait for you to get here!

Trinity out behind the house. Nice shot of the windmill. :)

Back corner, looking at the house.

Other corner looking toward house.

Back corner looking to road.

Corner by road.

Open end of the barn with hayloft over top.

Main area in barn.

Second room in barn. Also a closed room on the right with the step ladder up to hay loft.

Behind closed room in barn.

Our new truck! Dan (the owner) was going to have this hauled off to the junkyard. He said he hasn't run it in a year and it has a flat tire. He just didn't want to be bothered with it. I told him we would take it and he would have one less thing to deal with. So for the price of getting it running, a new tire, and $200 a year for basic insurance we now are the proud owners of a 1989 Ford F250 4x4. :)

Mirror and lights in bathroom.

Bathroom.

Living room - there's our new sofa and recliner! The sofa has recliners on both ends.
That's Dan in the picture. He is such a nice guy. We have enjoyed visiting with him. He also let me go ahead and store the toys and stuff from our van in the upstairs so I won't have so much to haul in on Monday when I am by myself with the girls.

The other end of the main living area.

Looking from the kitchen out to the front door.

One end of the kitchen. Our lovely new fridge!

View coming into the kitchen from the back door. To my right are the stairs down to the basement where we have loads more storage area and the laundry hookups.

Looking out the back door.

The kids half bath upstairs. You can see the built in drawers. There are also 2 built in shelf areas.

Looking left from the doorway of the kids bath.

The main room upstairs which will be the girls bedroom.

Looking from the stairs into the first room upstairs. There is a closet to the left not in the picture, and one of the built in shelf areas is along the wall to the right. This will be the playroom.

So there you have it. Our new home. I didn't take a picture of the bedroom b/c it is stuffed full of big furniture so hard to really get a feel for it. But it's just a basic room. It's next to the bathroom which is off the hallway by the kitchen.

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Thursday, May 31, 2007 at at 3:08 PM 0 comments    

What an adventure we are having. Some things are not working out, and others are working out beautifully. We drove by the Victorian house in Pleasantville on our way in and decided somebody has mastered the art of touching up digital photos - the house did not look anything near as nice as the pictures and I did not find Pleasantville to be pleasant at all!

On to Knoxville where we were to stay for the month. The large home we were renting a room in was in a state of disrepair as they are in process of updating. Our room was on the second floor, but they had torn apart the bathroom on the second floor, so there was a half bath on the first floor and a shower in the basement. The idea of lugging a 2 year old and 8 month old up and down huge flights of stairs just to use the restroom was overwhelming. Not to mention the "live in nanny" turned out to be a male friend who was helping them renovate the home. Of course, we didn't find this out until I had unloaded the van and carried everything upstairs. So I had to carry everything back out and we headed into Des Moines to a hotel for the night. (where I got to unpack the van yet again!)

Tuesday morning we looked at homes in Carlisle with our realtor, Jo. I absolutely love Carlisle. It is literally 2 minutes to the Des Moines bypass and is such a lovely little town. The homes are all well kept and seems to be full of families. The fourth home we looked at I fell in love with. I used to joke that I must be a redneck at heart after hearing Jeff Foxworthy's joke, "If the directions to your home include the phrase, turn off the paved road, you might be a redneck." Well, this house is off the paved road. It's on just under an acre, but there is nothing but fields and woods past our property. Yes, I said our property. The owner came by while we were there and he and I basically talked everything out so that I submitted the offer that night and it was signed off on in less than 2 hours. We are getting the new stainless steel refrigerator that wasn't included in the listing plus the leather living room furniture. Also we get to move in next Monday and pay no rent until the house closes on the 20th.

We met the one neighbor with the closest house to ours. They have five horses and just had a colt. They also have tons of fruit trees and a plethora of kittens which Trinity enjoyed chasing around. She (the neighbor) was telling us that the road gets plowed quickly in the winter b/c it is on the bus route. The school bus stops at the corner just down from our front door.

The house is small, but just what we need for now. We can always add on later when the girls are older and need more room. The masterbedroom is on the first floor next to the full bath. The upstairs is where the girls bedroom and playroom will be. It has a half bath with a child sized toilet and sink in it separating the two rooms. There are built in dressers and book shelves and closets just the right size for kids.

Today we drove around the bypass and figured out that we will be within 10 miles of a mall with theaters, a super Walmart, and just about any eating establishment and shopping need we might have. We are also only a couple miles from the Carlisle aquatic park and a little further to take out pizza. (these things are important to know!) I know the big question is - how much does all this cost? We are buying the home for $114,900 which is $3k less than the assessed value. :)

It's the perfect blend of country living with big city conveniences close by. We will be back there tomorrow morning for the inspection, so I will get more pictures posted tomorrow. But for now, here are some pics of the property.

This is the front of the house from the street.

This is from what I thought was the corner, although when I talked to the owner he said the property line actually is about another 10 feet past the power line.

This is looking down what I thought was the property line to the back. You can see the small fence which will be lovely with some sort of flowery vine growing on it as soon as I get the chance. It offers a little privacy to the back porch from the neighbors.

This is on the other side of the house, by the garage. You can see the propane tank which is for the furnace and the hot water heater. Also in the picture is what is known as "the barn." On the assessors page it is called the chicken coop. It is going to be interesting to get the history on this property!

There is my mom traipsing around back to get pictures on her camera. The structure you see is the working windmill and the water pump. There are actually a couple of hand pumps on the property. There is a well, but it does not furnish the water to the house.

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at at 11:57 AM 2 comments    

Well, tomorrow morning I am off to Iowa with Barbara-Mom, Trinity, and Angelina. I am working furiously trying to get all paperwork caught up and everything left in good standing for David. He will be staying here until we close on the house on June 18th, then packing up a Uhaul with what we have left after the big purge, and heading out to meet me in Iowa.

Tuesday morning we will be meeting with my realtor, Jo, at a home in Pleasantville, which is SE of Des Moines. David and I are seriously considering purchasing this home.

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Friday, May 25, 2007 at at 12:22 AM 0 comments    

Hey, we have a signed contract on our house - Yikes! We are now in fast motion. I have been job searching and applying via the internet for Iowa jobs. Our plan is for me to take the girls and head out to Iowa on the 25th, arriving the 28th. I have located a place for us to rent. It's perfect actually. $350/month gets us a furnished room, one hot meal a day, and they used to run a licensed daycare center in their home so they have a huge playroom and big fenced in yard. They have a 3 and 5 year old too, so Trinity will have playmates. They have a live in nanny, so I may even be able to just pay her extra to watch the girls while I go on job interviews. Once I get a job, then we can get financed and buy a house. David will come out once he has a job secured or we have a house to move into - whichever comes first.

So, now we have a week and a half to pack up the house, discard, donate, and sell off.

Keep praying for us - we need it! This is a very stressful time for our family.

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at at 3:03 AM 1 comments    

"And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith!" Matthew 6:28-30

That was the verse in grace mail this morning. Very appropriate for us. We appear to have our house sold. We received the offer yesterday from the couple that came to see our home last week. It was a very decent offer, but of course we countered. :) Whatever they come back with, we are done. Closing date is to be June 18th, so now we are stressing out - how do we buy a house, what are we going to do for work, do we sell off everything or take it all with us? The verse today was the perfect reminder that God is directing our steps in this and is going to continue to work all things out. I just can't accept that He would work out a buyer for our business, a buyer for our home "as is" in this market, and then leave us high and dry for a job. I just keep praying that God would help me to cast all my cares on Him.

We have several properties in mind. They are all bank owned properties so we are planning on bidding at about 70% of the asking price. That may seem crazy, but we have seen plenty of bank owned properties go for about that rate. One property we were interested in just sold last week - asking price was $155k and it sold for $105k. I was kind of bummed b/c I really liked the location of that home - right across the street from a huge forested park. But I know God has the perfect home already picked out for us. :)

Posted in: God Lane, moving, Slow Lane on Monday, May 14, 2007 at at 2:20 PM 0 comments    

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at at 11:28 PM 0 comments    

I am nervously excited tonight. The City of Des Moines just posted a full time painter position. This is EXACTLY what David was hoping to get. The pay is amazing - $23.15/hour to start and they are looking for someone with at least 2 years experience. David has 8 years full time experience and also supervisory experience, so hopefully that will help him stand out from the crowd. (although there probably isn't the crowd of applicants in Des Moines like there would be here in Phoenix) The position is open for applications until April 20th, so it might be awhile before we hear anything. Please keep this opportunity for us in prayer and for us to have patience in waiting. Thanks!

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Saturday, April 14, 2007 at at 2:25 AM 0 comments    

Well, we heard back from the investor company and they were beyond insulting with their offer. It was only $18k more than we paid for the house before the big spike in home prices. So, we spent yesterday afternoon inventorying the cabinets we bought last year for our kitchen. After measuring the kitchen and looking over our inventory, we realized we had enough shorter cabinets that we won't have to tear out the soffit (sp?) after all. That will make the remodel a little easier. Hooray! We are going to stack two of the taller cabinets to create a pantry - a feature currently missing from our home. It should be a lovely kitchen when we are done. I should get a before shot while half of the kitchen is still intact.

The other news is that we discovered a Kombucha tea drink at Sprouts last week and have become fans of the stuff. I searched the Internet to see if we could get it cheaper online and discovered that you can make the stuff at home for next to nothing. (we were paying $2.50/bottle on sale!) The deal with Kombucha is that you put the scoby, ("Scoby" - symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) which looks a bit like a pancake, into the tea to brew for 5-7 days. The scoby feeds on the sugar in the tea and in return puts all sorts of good stuff in the tea for you - like probiotics, enzymes, tons of beneficial acids. You bottle the tea in glass containers and let it sit for a few days in the fridge before drinking. It creates a lovely natural carbonation that is a great substitute for sugary soft drinks, which we are trying to avoid in our household.

I found a website called the International Kombucha Exchange which lists people you can get the kombucha starter from. We are picking up our new little scoby tomorrow morning in Tempe. I have the tea brewing even as I type so it can cool overnight and be ready for our new addition to the family tomorrow. :) We started a detox last week, and the k-tea should be a great way to continue to detox our systems on a regular basis after we finish our detox kit.

That's the latest at the Case house. Oh, yeah. Angelina is teething and none of us are getting much sleep anymore. We would gladly take all prayers for good rest in our home!

Posted in: kombucha, moving, Slow Lane on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at at 12:38 AM 0 comments    

We are waiting to hear back from the investor company we contacted about our home. Their local representative came by on Tuesday. He did a thorough examination of the house, taking measurements, pictures - inside and out, and even testing the level of the floor in each room. He said he would get the report written up and submitted to the home office in Texas and we should hear back no later than Thursday with their offer. So here it is - Thursday. I am trying not to be anxious and to cast all my cares on Jesus, but there is so much riding on this offer, it is really hard.

Meanwhile, David has made arrangements for his brother to come over tomorrow and start doing some work on the kitchen. So we are prepared to begin the remodel on our own. I just can't help but hope against hope that we can just sell as is and not have to do all the work ourselves.

Well, Angelina is calling for another bottle so I best be getting it!

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Thursday, April 5, 2007 at at 10:21 AM 0 comments    

Well, we survived our whirlwind trip to Des Moines Iowa. We were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it was. We were picturing a city rising up out of the flat corn fields. But the reality is that it is set in rolling hills and is quite scenic. We really loved the city and after 2 days of looking at homes and areas, we narrowed down where we would like to buy a home. We like Norwalk, which is just south of Des Moines, and we also like Des Moines South. Both of these areas are very peaceful, large yards, lots of trees, rolling landscapes.

We learned how to read the listings correctly - any square footage under ground level (as in basements, split levels, etc) are not listed. That cleared up a lot for us! We also learned that most of the older homes are 1 to 1 1/2 baths. To find a 2 bath home, you start paying for it with a much higher home price - at least in the areas we liked. And definitely forget having a large master bedroom. We have decided our game plan is to find a home with a basement where we can create a master suite complete with full bath and walk-in closet.

So now the focus is on getting our house sold. We have 2 options:
1. Go ahead with all the renovations/updates we had planned on and list our house by the end of April
2. Get bids from investment companies which pay cash for your home, renovate and resell them.

I am leaning towards the second option. We wouldn't have to sink any more money or effort into the home, we wouldn't have to try to keep our house in show condition with 2 kids, and the sell date can be predetermined. It would definitely be worth giving up some of the profits for the ease factor. (although not paying realtors commissions lessens that difference) We have in mind what our bottom line is for a cash price but we aren't going to disclose that figure and just take bids for our property. God has been paving the way so far and I believe that He is going to continue to amaze us with how easily things are going to fall into place.

Here's what I think is going to happen: (or should I say what God is going to make happen!)
We will sell our house to a professional house flipper and be living and working in Iowa by June.

Stay tuned to find out!

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Sunday, April 1, 2007 at at 12:16 AM 1 comments    

Well, after narrowing down the playing field of houses and comparing our top choices in Des Moines and Newton, we have made the decision to not look at houses in Newton. One of the reasons we were drawn there (besides the small town lifestyle) is because there were so many houses that were cheaper than Des Moines. However, the two cities are in two different counties, and apparently there are higher property taxes in Newton. Unless we buy on the lower end of the Newton housing market, we won't actually be saving money over Des Moines b/c of the higher tax rate. And if we buy on the lower end, we get less house and the commute to Des Moines to save roughly $50 a week. Not worth it.

Goodbye Newton - Hello Des Moines!

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Friday, March 16, 2007 at at 2:13 AM 0 comments    

It sure seems like God is orchestrating things for us with this move. We found out Saturday night from David's parents that his mom's salon is probably going to be shutting its doors to business this June. It was funny because Friday night David was talking to me about how he wondered if his mom might want to buy his business. Then Saturday we find out she's most likely going to be out of a job in June - what a coincidence.

David talked to his mom this morning about it and she is very much interested in taking over his business. They talked about having her start coming in on her days off in May so he can introduce her to the clients and start preparing for the transition. It's also a coincidence that monetarily this is a good time for them too - they are in the process of getting a home equity loan, so they would have the funds readily available to buy the business.

So far the only thing that has been a bummer is we found out that just this morning an offer was made on that beautiful boarding house we were already falling in love with. Just a little reminder to remain flexible as we go through this process. :) There are plenty of other charming homes in Newton and I am sure that we will find just the right one.

That's the latest and greatest.

Posted in: moving, Slow Lane on Monday, March 12, 2007 at at 9:25 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