In December of 2008, Chris had put his name in the hat for a transfer to the other side of the state to fill a resident trooper position that would have put us located near his hometown, and near to his dad and many of his siblings' families. We made a trip over there at Christmas time that year(about 4 hours away), checked out some houses, and got a feel for the area and made the decision it would be a good move for us. So in January of '09 we put our house on the market, knowing it might take some time to sell, while we waited for Chris to get a final confirmation on the transfer. He was also in school at ISU at the time, and since he graduated in May, we figured that would set us up with the perfect amount of time to get everything done. Well, as each month went by, the traffic of potential home buyers was sporadic at best, but we weren't too worried, since the state was doing budget cuts and the resident trooper position Chris was vying for was one of the ones on hold. We continued to wait it out, until we got the final word last summer that they would not be filling that position currently. With the job transfer out of the picture, we decided to fulfill our contract with our realtor (1 year of having the house on the market), with the idea that if we were able to sell the house, we would stay in our same school district, but look for a better home. Well, our contract just ran out and we didn't get a single offer on our home, so we've taken it off the market for the time being. I was feeling a little blah for a few days surrounding the culmination of all these events and the final day of deciding what to do. It was a long year of uncertainty, inconvenience and stress, having to show the home on a moment's notice, the constant barrage of questions from our friends and neighbors about our situation - were we moving, were we not moving? etc., etc.
So this week I've come to terms with the fact that it's in our best interest to take the house off the market rather than lower the price too much just to make a sale when relocation is not a necessity. We're going to just continue to make gradual improvements to the house, as it was our first home purchase, I was feeling excited at the prospect of buying our second home with more knowledge and experience under our belts. Since that won't be happening for a while and we're going to have to deal with some of the issues our house has (let's face it, our home needs Holmes!!), I've started doing a few small, budget friendly projects to help me fall back in love with our house and remember why I picked it 5 years ago. So, long story longer, here are the before and after pics of the 2nd floor bathroom. Okay, I was so excited to have a bathroom just for the kids in our first home that I went a little overboard with the Ducky theme, and decided it was time for an update. I really like how it turned out, with just a new paint job, fixtures and a few accessories!
After...
Yesterday was Nick's 4th birthday. He asked for a Batman cake, but he gladly settled for the cupcakes I made and put in these cute Batman holders. He's really into Diego right now, and I was excited to have found this baby jaguar (like in the show) made by Ty Beanie Babies at the Hallmark store for 75% off, so it was like $2! He is definitely the heart of our home, with his sweet, tender nature, he has all of us (the other kids especially) wrapped around his little finger.
Wow. That went by fast! We didn't do much, just spent a lot of time at home together, and outside in the snow. Tomorrow the kids head back to school and the post-holidays doldrums set in.
Here's Sophie after our girl's day together, complete with a haircut, new outfit and hat, that she picked out! That night as I was tucking her in she informed me it was "the BEST Monday-after-Christmas-girls-day-out EVER!" Funny girl.
On this morning last week, I had intended to go grocery shopping, but after looking out the window and seeing this mess, I decided to stay home instead.
Chris is such a great dad. He spent much of his time on his days off the past two weeks playing with the kids, with their new Christmas toys, gadgets and video games, and out in the snow helping them build snowmen, make paths and find spots to slide.
