Another update...5 months later

So, I am way overdue on an update. I can't believe it's been 5 months since I last blogged. You might think I fell off the blogging wagon because I didn't have much to say, but quite to the contrary, we have had a TON going on, and I guess I've been so busy, blogging got dropped off my list of things to keep up with. But, I am now back, and am going to aim to blog at least once a week for 2010 (hopefully more, but I'm keeping my expectations low).

So, to give you a quick update of what's been going on in Smith land, we did finally close on the house on November 17th. It was a crazy process. Long story, but it was truly a miracle that we were able to close on the house. We had so many roadblocks in the process, and we had many moments we knew the deal wasn't going to go through unless God answered some serious prayers. So, we are glad the house is closed on and happy that the renovations are progressing so far. I have a lot of pictures of the progress, so I'll post some before and after shots in a post soon. We're thinking that the house will be completed in April, so we're moving along.

As for the Shred, I didn't end up making it through the full 30 days, but I did make it to about day 18. I love the program and was getting good results with it, but my knees started hurting a lot (probably due to the ridiculous number of lunges I was doing), so I decided to take a break from the program. On the positive side, though, even without finishing the Shred, I met my weight goal in December. No shortcuts or tricks, just a whole lot of consistent working out and not a whole lot of food that my body didn't need.

Also, I've updated the blog even more since my last post. Again, I used Shabby Blogs to make the changes, and I think it turned out well. I'm still planning on making a few more changes (want to change the header and my signature), but I'm at the limit of my blogging skills right now, so I either need to meet a blogging genius or I need to learn some more before I'm able to finish.

That's all the updating I'll do for now. Be expecting more frequent posts in 2010.

House, Shred & Blog Update

I have a few updates to post about, and in the spirit of conservation, figured I'd combine them into one blog post.

First, the house. We are officially in the option period for the house I mentioned in my last post. This week, Wyatt has been working like crazy to schedule inspections, estimates and meetings with potential builders. It looks like almost all of those meetings will happen this week, so we should know a lot more by the end of this week. Our closing date is set for Friday, October 9th, which sounds like a long way off, but we have a LOT to do before then.

We'll be doing a lot to the house once it's ours, so we're trying to get as many of the plans ready to go now so we can move quickly come October. Right now, the tentative plan is to add on a master bedroom, bath, and closet, a mudroom along with a little expansion onto the kitchen, and a front porch hopefully also with an expansion on the living room. The house is currently 3 bedrooms and 1 bath and is about 1200 square feet, so the additions should give us some great added space.

Here are a couple pictures of the house as it looks right now. Disclaimer: it currently looks pretty gloomy from the front. We are planning on repainting the house (with a different color scheme), trimming the huge magnolia tree, removing all the landscaping that currently blocks the window on the far right side, and adding a front porch. So, it will be a work in progress, but we see great potential and are excited to get to watch it evolve. Without further ado...the pictures.

Second, the shredding. I am now on day 12 of the 30 Day Shred and am holding steady (well, at least somewhat steady) at Level 2. I honestly didn't think I would get to a point where I could do Level 2 without feeling like I was about to faint, but it has gotten a little (emphasis on little) easier over the past week I've been doing it. I'm able to hold the plank pose on most of the moves for the whole time now. Yes, I still hate the plank pose, but at least I feel like I'm able to meet its match a little more now than I was at the start of Level 2. I'm down 3.6 pounds as of today, which I'm pretty happy about.

Third, I've been updating the blog over the past couple of weeks. Mainly I've been using the resources on Shabby Blogs and Shabby Blog's Blog (confusing, no?) to do the updating, which is great, because everything on there is free and super cute. I added a cute font from the Kevin & Amanda site, which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I also made the blog 3 columns rather than 2, added some buttons, reorganized my links, added my signature, and added a custom border. I still have a few kinks to work out and items to add, but overall, I think it's coming along pretty well. I give myself bonus points for even attempting this since I am far from a computer expert. If I can do it, anyone can!

We found a house, and another, and another, and another, ok hopefully this one's it!

We're hot on the trail of buying a house. We've already made offers on 2 houses, and have also made informal/verbal offers on 2 others. We liked all the houses we made offers on (obviously), but they didn't end up working out for one reason or another.

This week, we made an offer on another house, and we're hopeful it will end up working out. This house has the same floorplan and lot size as 2 others that we made informal offers on, but it is priced way better. A bonus is that it looks like it has been well maintained. This is great news, considering the house from the most recent offer had more issues than I could even begin to explain.

If this offer works out, we'll be moving much closer to both of our jobs, our church, and most of our friends. This would be a huge change for us, since in our 5 years of marriage, we've never lived closer than 20 miles away from work or church. We're praying that God shows us His best plan throughout this process; we've already seen His hand in the offers that didn't go through.

When and if we hear back that our most recent offer is accepted, I'll post pictures of it here. It would definitely be a fixer-upper, but I've come to a place where I'm really good with that. I know in time we can make it exactly what we want, and in the meantime, I'm sure we'll learn some great lessons in patience.

We'll see what happens... So exciting!