Welcome to our paradise!

So many people have asked to see pictures of our house that I think this may be the best way to share. After 7 years of marriage and four kids our dream came true and we have a house with a good yard to call our own. A place to grow a family!

One day I will treat how we came to be here, but for now it suffices to say we are so happy to be here.

We have a four bedroom 1 1/2 floor house with a cellar and an attic. It is a fixer-upper like you wouldn't believe, but after living in upstairs apartments and having to go elsewhere for laundry and not having our own yard.... all this with little kids, well this is a definite upgrade. And I must say, I love the yard. Not only can the kids run and bike, I can garden... and garden and garden.

8 fruit trees! (6 mature: 3 apple, 1 plum, 1 pear, 1 dark cherry) (2 young pear)

A green house!

Strawberries, rasberries, rubarb allready here.

Small Rose bushes.

Front yard lined with a lilac hedge

Pleanty of other shade trees and bushes

I can dream to my hearts content in this yard and house. and I can work towards my dreams.

This year I will get to plant a garden! I am looking forward to pruning my trees soon. And starting planting in the green house.

In the beggining there will be a lot of ground work. Working down what was overgrown. But little by little.....

In the house there will always be ongoing projects. This summer it will get a new roof and facade. Right now we are tearing out the bathroom. We finished our living room just for Christmas, which also made available our play project room. So now I can sew and the kids can play in the same room.

Today I split up a lot of my indoor house plant starts. As the days are getting a little bit lighter/longer, I have been itching to get into dirt. I couldn't wait for the snow to melt and go at it outside. haha. My husband will be interested to learn that I have about 10 more plants to add to my collection. (I figure that if the starts take well then over the years I can give plants as gifts to people.) I guess I have over 50 now. Good thing I have a whole house filled with window ledges to put them on. :) Oh, yes one of my dreams was to have windows that look out from every side of the house. Yes. I have that. That means almost every kind of lighting is available for my house plants.

Back to the house:

It is a mansard roof which was our dream.

Once we have the new roofing in place then we can set up solar panals, because the roof is facing the right direction and the rest of the a solar panel heating system is already in place. during summer months all our hot water needs will be provided by the panels. Some in spring and fall. Solar panels was another dream that we had.

Since we have four bedrooms, but don't feel it necessary to put any kids in their own room yet we have one room for a project/play room and it is right off the kitchen and living room. That makes it easier for a young family.

There are definantly a lot of perks to having a house. Dishwasher. It is so nice to be able to get the dishes all done even if, I have a million interuptions by the kids.

We are also on a steep learning curve right now. No landlord. Guess who does it? US! Welcome to "House Owner's 101" We are hoping the last round of test will prove us to have passed 101. hopefully 102 is a little friendlier. I don't know if the foot and a half of water in the basement or all the followup trials were worse. It seemed that everytime we started to breath easier, something else happened. But I think we are clear of these now. We have a sub-pump installed and even as the land is thawing it is working to ensure that our appliances down there can keep working. (Lucky for us the only thing we had to replace was a new water pump to our well. It went out about 2 weeks after we had dried it out and started using it again). 101 was an expensive course. I think 102 will be a little cheaper. But come summer when we start 201 (facade or roof) prices will go up drastically. And the steep learning curve will resume.

But hey, we are building a family. We are building individuals, and trying to create some beauty around us at the same time. It is so satisfying to look at our living room and know that we all worked on it. The kids helped. We are proud of them. We are also grateful for missionarries and relatives who helped. We moved in the furniture 2 days before Christmas. What a lovely Christmas in our new living room.

(so I am a novice and can't get more than those two pictures up. Is there a limit of two? I would change which two I put up but maybe since my babe is screaming I will let this be for now and post, lest I never post.)