We Have Furniture

Full Garage

couch, with mini fridge on it

Dresser from Grandma

TV and TV Stand

Lots of Mattresses.

My coworker is moving from ND to AZ and sold all his furniture to us!  For a very very good price.  Now granted it is not the greatest or our life long furniture it is 100% better than what we had...which was nothing.  We got a queen size bed (mattress, box spring, and frame), a futon frame w/ a green mattress, a hide-a-bed couch, a mini fridge, a 27" older style TV, and a TV stand.  Then we went to my bosses home and got a FREE queen size bed. Again with a mattress, box spring, and frame!  We had one final trip to Grandma O's friends house.  He had a chest of drawers, a lamp, and a night stand that he had borrowed from Grandma O.  The garage is now full Full FULL!!!  And we have furniture for the house.  If you were counting including our own bed we could sleep at least 8 people at our house already!!  3 queen size beds, a hide-a-bed, and the futon, I hope we have LOTS of company in the near future!  

Update

Mike and I had a great week and weekend, last week.  Mike went to MN on Tuesday after work.  After the home inspection and work I headed to the train station on Wednesday.  The train ran a bit behind, but I slept good on it and I got to the church 15 minutes before the funeral began, thanks to my mom and the GPS.  We had a great time hanging out with Mike's Family.  His Aunt Pam was back from Indonesia, his brother Jory came back from training with Army and the usual gang were all there. After saying good bye to Grandpa I, the funeral and burial we hung out at Grandma I's house, which had a ton of food and relatives.  

Mike, Matt, Tasha, Jory and Preston

Friday we went to the MOA, took his other brother Jeff out to lunch, walked around IKEA, discovered LUSH (www.lush.com) , and then headed to Minneapolis to visit the family again. Friday night we played dominoes with Lauren, Rachel and my mom.  It was a ton of fun. Saturday we had to get up and head back to ND. Mike had to work Sunday.  Over all our trip home was great, but a little sad, and short.

Mike and I

This past week was also busy week.  Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Bismarck for a work orientation. It was informative but a bit boring, I did find out that if I work there for the next 30 years, I can retire at 55 with full benefits!  Which would be pretty sweet. Today, Friday, Mike and I slept in! It was great, then we took the dog for a walk. After our walk we went and looked at a bunch of stores to get ideas about the house. Then we went to a few rummage sales, to look for things for the house.  We ended up getting one thing for the house, a dish drying rack for the kitchen. I also found the sheet music for the Entertainer. Mike found some thing he HAD to HAVE. A belt buckle from the Police Departments 100 year anniversary, from 1994.  It is pretty cool.  Tomorrow we plan to hit up some more rummage sales, go to a friends party, and take the dog on a walk.  I hope everyone has a great memorial day weekend.

house pictures are up

the home inspection was today.. good news I am still in LOVE with the house, the style and the layout.  Bad news is there are some issues that need to be cleared up like a leak in the master bedroom ceiling, foundation issue and some low power lines in the back yard.  I have uploaded 104 new pictures to my facebook account.  I will have a link up here for a week to view the pictures:

**Poof**  The link has been removed

Mixed Emotions

The past few days have been full of mixed emotions.  About many things.  The house, Grandpa I, making sure we can make it home plus get everything together for the house, how Grandma I is doing and sending prayers for peace. 

First an foremost Mike is taking off for Minnesota tonight after work.  He will stay with my cousins in Moorhead before heading to Minneapolis in the morning. I will be taking the train on Wednesday night and getting to St. Paul on Thursday morning early.  The funeral is on Thursday at 11:00 am with a viewing at 10:00.  Mike will be wearing his dress uniform.  I can't wait to give Grandma I and Mike Sr both a big big hug. (I am so glad that we are closer to "home" and we can easily make to there vs. living in Alaska.)

On to a house update:
Yesterday I went to the bank and signed a boat load of papers for the loan.  Then brought them home for Mike to sign, since he had to work late.  We have locked in our interest rate at a very good rate of 4.25%!  Next we have our home inspection which I also have mixed emotions on.  It will begin on Wednesday at 9:00 am.  I will be "attending" the whole thing, measuring the rooms and taking a TON of pictures.  I am super excited to get back in the house and explore a little more but at the same time I am super nervous that the home inspection is going to find a deal breaker.  Now, don't get me wrong, if there is something wrong with the house we want to know about it.  But at the same time I really hope and pray that nothing will show up, because if there is something wrong than we have to start over... which would be a pain because currently there are no other homes on the market in our price range that we would consider.    I really do not want to let this one get away because it is well under our budget and we can really make it our own.  

I will post some pictures after the home inspection... wish us luck 

Grandpa Isenhower

Grandpa Isenhower has been in tough shape for a while. When we went home to Minnesota a few weekends ago he was in the hospital in the ICU, about a 1.5 weeks ago he was released to a recovery home and on Wednesday he was happy to finally be at home.  Last night he apparently passed out and they have not been able to completely revive him.  He is currently on life support but he will be taken off of it shortly.  He is a strong and resilient man.  I pray for peace for the entire Isenhower Family. 

Offer Accepted

Insert dancing around, jumping up and down and squealing like a little girl here. 

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Ok now that that is done.  I am going to to a drive by tonight and take some more pictures of the outside.  We have a home inspection scheduled for Wednesday the 18th.  At which time we can go back in the home and take pictures of the inside.  This is all happening so Fast!!!

We put in the Offer

Mike and I just signed the papers. I wrote out the check for earnest money.  We gave the sellers 24 hours to let us know...  Crossing our fingers and toes. 

General Property Description
Book Section Residential Country Property: No
Type Residential: Single Family
Above Grade: SqFt 1,554
Below Grade: SqFt 884
Year Built: 1910
Style: 2 Story
Lot Size: 50 x 140
Total Bedrooms: 4
Total Bathrooms: 3
Total Full Baths: 2
Total 3/4 Baths: 1
Garage Type: None
Air Conditioning: Central Air
Heating System: Forced Air\Natural Gas

Details
Water: City
Sewer: City
Electric Service: MDU
Basement: Finished; Full
Exterior: Steel
Possession: Upon Closing
Property Included: Washer/Dryer; Stove; Refrigerator; Microwave; Freezer; Dishwasher; Other: Shed

Praying the that if this is truly the right house for us God will let it go through.

Rolleblading + Dog =

Sunday Cora and I attempted this.  She did really well, except for one time.  I feel so bad.  We had just started, less than 5 minutes and she was running along side me.  She went from running full force to stopped in 0.02 seconds.  Me, holding her leash on Rollerblades, that do not currently have a brake on them, did not stop so fast.  My mind did not think to let go of the leash, so i swung around and landed on my left side. Butt, and elbow mostly.  Thankfully I was wearing my Wrist guards and helmet other wise I know I would have been much worse.  Cora had stopped to go to the bathroom (#2) and I was trying to pull her along, poor puppy, I felt so bad, but lesson learned "Do not go to fast until you know Cora has done her business."   After that we did not go quiet as fast and Cora did great.  She  never really pulled to bad except when I slowed down to prepare for a hill.  I think we will try it again down the road... maybe when I have a brake.



1910 Home

In other news We went and looked at another house on Tuesday evening!!! I LOVE IT!!  Mike was not so sure at first because it is an older home, built in 1910.  And it does not have a garage.  It has some quirks to it but is totally livable the way it is.  It has 4 bedrooms, 2.75 bath, and huge living room and dining room.  3 bedrooms and one bath are on the 2nd story which is awesome!  Our Realtor is pulling some numbers for us and if all goes as planned we will make an offer today!!  HOLY COW!!  

First Day of House Hunting

We had our first real house hunting day today.  It was fun but we did not find the home for us.  We saw 2 homes listed by real estate agents and 2 homes listed by a for sale by owner.

House 1.
- over priced
- nice bright basement
- big yard
- 4 bedroom/2.75 bath
- weird garage, only 1.5 cars
- obvious water damage in one bathroom
- green carpet in the master bedroom
- house smelled a little Smokey

House 2. 
- well with in our budget
- cute style, older home but completely updated upstairs
- 3 bedroom/ 1.75 bath
- big yard
- one garage
- scary, very scary basement
- very small rooms

House 3. - by owner
- 3 bedroom/ 2 bath
- updated bathrooms
- cute character
- 2 yards
- 2ish car garage, but not sure if we can 2 cars in there
- small kitchen

House 4. - by owner
- 2 bedroom/ 1.5 bath
- Huge 2 car garage plus a shed
- large front porch
- nice size kitchen
- needs some updates
- basement scary but not as bad as House 2

Over all we liked 3 and 4 the best... but we did not love them.  They were in our price range but they were both over priced for there location, according to our real estate agent.  We... or should I say I am a little disappointed we did not find "the one" today since we viewed most of the homes that are currently listed in our price range... we are going to go talk to a builder some time this week and see what we can get for our money building.

On ward...In other news I have found a new website/blog I LOVE. http://ana-white.com/  And have found some things I want to build for our new home.  
A bed:  http://ana-white.com/2009/10/farmhouse-bed-save-158100_7467.html
A Table: http://ana-white.com/2009/12/plans-farmhouse-table-knock-off-of.html
And maybe a bench to go with the Table: http://ana-white.com/2011/01/farmhouse-bench.html
Dad may need to help me with some of it...

PRE-APPROVED

We are Pre-approved for a home mortgage!!  We went in this morning at 10:00 and walked out at 10:30 with our pre-approval letter.  Tomorrow we have an appointment with a real estate agent to look at a few homes.  I am excited to really start the housing search!! Wish us luck!! 

Images from the Storm

Saturday morning Mike and I woke up pretty fast.  Water was coming in to our room from every angle.  We jumped out of bed grabbed things off the floor and threw them on the bed.  I got a bag out and threw in a couple changes of close, the dog, and night stand dad had made me.  We brought it all up stairs and hunkered up for the day.  As the water rose in the basement.  Thank the Lord for a pantry full of food, a GAS range and cards.  It made it up to EIGHT INCHES of water in the basement but never got to cold i nthe house thanks the the 4 burners running on the stove.  Thank the Lord that our bed in the basement did not get wet.  The only real damage was some clothes in the bottom drawers got wet.   A few of Grandmas things got really wet and had to be tossed but we all survived.  

During the storm

Out the front window as the storm was settling a bit

After the storm huge drifts

Pretty

Taking Cora on a walk... need to move after being cooped up 

Icicles 

Cora enjoying the snow

Drifts in the driveway

Beautiful Sunset Saturday night

The damage assessment on Sunday

Drawer in our Room....ugh

Hanging the clothes out to dry on Sunday

SAD... my scrap booked  Calendar fell sometime during the storm.... I am trying to Salvage it.

We are alive and so happy that things were not worse.  Praise the Lord from Uncle Todd who borrowed a generator from work on Sunday to pump out the water from the basement.  We are definitely counting our blessings.