Money Pit

My step dad told me about a movie called, "Money Pit," years ago. These people buy a house and then one thing after another goes wrong- something like that. Honestly, our house is no where near a money pit- PRAISE JESUS! But, I was quite discouraged today to tell the truth.
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We bought way under our means, like half the cost of our house in Houston. We should have this house paid off in about 5 years! wahoo! GREAT feeling! We want to get debt free and then live on little and give the rest away to the orphans in Africa. Seriously. I am not being Miss America, that is really what we have been called to do. So getting this house was very exciting, knowing we were getting closer to fulfilling our calling, being obedient to God, and helping countless orphans.
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I thought we would need to replace the floors, paint the walls and move in and voila! HA! Not quite. I had a little pity party for myself today when I saw how much elbow grease/time/money etc this was gonna take. Now don't get me wrong, we will be putting minimal money into it and in the end still have it paid off in 5 years. It will just not be as easy to just move in.
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We have to finish tearing out carpet, carpet padding and nail boards, temporarily fix up the kitchen cabinets, paint the concrete floors, (temporary fix), sand/paint the walls, move in and by Saturday.
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After Saturday we must decorate, buy kitchen appliances, (we have none), redo the entire bathroom, tear down the sheet rock in the playroom and replace that, (this little tid bit broke my heart- I was so excited to set up the playroom immediately). Once the playroom is done I can begin decorating Briar Rose's room, (more on that in a min).
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In the future, we will put down real floors, and redo the kitchen cabinets.
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Beisdes all the work, the real discouragement I had today was that it wouldn't be complete when we moved in. Most of this will be done over the next year, (kitchen redo may be after we pay off the house). I hate the idea of having to wait, but we will be in this house for at least 10 years, so it will all be worth it.
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See, so lots of work and it won't be cheap, but Mr. Incredible will be doing it himself so it won't be expensive either. HE ROCKS! I am the wall painter, room decorator and handy man helper, but other than the painting and decorating- he does most of the work. :)
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I got discouraged today and I so wished I had the shape of Africa tattooed to the palm of my hand so I could look down at it and remember why we bought this house in the first place.
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Then I looked out our front door and saw so many kids outside playing, parents pulling their kids in wagons, etc. I thought to myself, "Thank You God for this lovely neighborhood." Then as we were closing up for the day, (we are staying at the hotel until Saturday Praise Jesus), we got to meet our next door neighbors. They are older than us, the husband is into working out, the wife is a nurse and is into crafting. Hmmm, Mr. Incredible loves to work out, living next to a nurse is so awesome for Sweetpea, and I love to craft! PERFECT NEIGHBORS! PRAISE JESUS!
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My discouragement started to return to encouragement and excitement, especially when I sat down and made the to do list- the end was in sight. We can do this! Don't get me wrong, I DO NOT regret buying this house. The layout is perfect for us, and it is/will be a great house. I was just a bit discouraged that everything was not going as well as I had been planning.
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One other bit of discouragement: with all the projects, it will push us back in the adoption process. We were going to train in April, but now we will do our training in June. :( So Lord willing, Briar Rose will join our family this summer. I was looking forward to her coming this spring, but I know ROMANS 8:28 is true.

Sweetpea has been a great "helper..." she chills in her stroller while we work, (take note of the floors- living room).

I was sanding the walls today so here are my mask and "goggles." lol
She loves me, and boy do I love her!

Notice the floors are a black/brown mess. We will be painting the floors gray, (see my practice square?), until we save up for our real floors. You will still be able to see the texture, but at least the color will be uniform and will match the decor.

Beginning of the sanding process. EXHAUSTING.

Notice the floors... and the yellow wall used to have wallpaper- I got most of that off- still need to finish that. And of course all the colors you see will be repainted.

The girls' playroom. Missing floors and base boards...

...as you can see, the previous owners enclosed their garage to make this room. They did not do a very good job. The sheet rock did not go all the way down to the floor. The texture was not properly plastered. The sheet rock was not properly attached to the walls. The base boards we not properly attached. This is why we will have to tear it all down and re do it. This room is really where the discourament hit.

Sweetpea's room. The dots COULD have worked with her decor, but once again the room was less than perfect...

marks everywhere

I am going to have to repaint this whole room before Saturday, (as well as the living room and dining room).

It may be hard to tell, but this whole room has to be redone- notice the tub?

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Besides the encouragement from God today, something else encouraged me. I do enjoy decorating, and if this house was perfect, I would get it all done this week. Since I have to wait, it will allow me to stretch out the decorating- giving me something to do later. I have something to look forward to, (you know, to keep my mind off of waiting for Briar Rose).

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And my biggest encourager is my smallest blessing. All while we worked today she sat in her stroller and chatted away. Could never love her enough: