I've Moved...

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http://mylifeony.blogspot.com/

Chalk It Up

I'm on another mission. It seems like I'm always on a mission these days, which is fine with me. Keeps me busy. The new house that we are moving into has a decent size kitchen and I want to make another mirror chalkboard, but I want this one to be more classy and elegant. Kind of like these....




So, my mission is to find an awesome CHEAP mirror that I can do this to. So keep your eyes open for me! I would like to make it a chalkboard/magnetic board. That would be cool. That way I could display pictures or whatever as well. I'm pretty sure they make that kind of paint... Hmmmm...

We met yesterday at the new house to sign the contract. I'm so excited, I can't wait to start moving. I mean I'm not excited to actually move, but you know what I mean! I'm actually more excited to be back in Fort Smith and make a fresh start! Not to mention all the gas I'm going to save by not driving back and forth from Greenwood. I'm already dreaming of what I am going to spend that extra money on!

Finally

Yeah, we found a house! We are moving back to Fort Smith in two weeks and I am completely excited! It's in Park Hill, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, hardwood floors, awesome backyard with a deck and 1 car garage. I can't wait to get over there and start decorating.

On another note, it's HALLOWEEN! It is crazy in our neighborhood on Halloween! I mean there are literally a million people roaming the streets right now. I wish I was able to take a picture to show you that I am not exaggerating. Halloween is by far my favorite holiday and I'm sad that I wasn't in the mood to decorate this year. This whole house mess has really put a damper on my spirits, so to speak! I love decorating for the holidays, especially Halloween, but this year I just wasn't in the mood I guess. At least we'll be back in Fort Smith for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Slacker...

I know! I know! I'm such a slacker lately when it comes to this blog. I just haven't been motivated to do anything lately. I'm so frustrated about this house mess that I don't really have time to worry about anything else.

We are still in the process of looking for a new place to live. Our house is still in "escrow", but who knows what's going on what that. My Realtor is supposed to call my mortgage company today to try and get some answers. Apparently, the buyers are getting a bit antsy. Hell, I would too! They have $8,000 on the line! I honestly wouldn't blame them one bit if they decided to back out of this deal. I would have a long time ago.

As for the rental world, there is nothing and I mean NOTHING available right now. We are waiting on a call back from one, but they are taking their time about doing it! Oh well, we'll find something, eventually... I hope...

SERIOUSLY?

The rental house we were told we had, was sold. Apparently, the day after we looked at the place, King Realty strolled in and decided they wanted to buy it for a rental property. Now we are out of a place to live... again. I guess it is not meant for us to live anywhere! HA! We'll find something eventually. At least we have a little bit of time to continue looking.

By George, We Found One!

We have found a rental house in our desired neighborhood, Park Hill. Let me tell ya, there isn't much out there to find right now. It's a cute 2 bedroom, 1 bath, hardwood floors, formal dining room, nice backyard and in our price range where we can start saving money for our future down payment! The guy we are going to rent from is super nice and laid back. He is really cool with us updating the place and cool with us having dogs. He also mentioned that maybe sometime down the line if we wanted, we could do a lease to purchase type thing. Not a bad find! I can't wait to post pictures on here for you guys! I totally plan on going in there and painting and redoing a lot. There is wallpaper in the dining room that I want to take down and wallpaper border in the living room (which is HUGE by the way and has a gas log fireplace). The kitchen will need some improvements, but nothing we can't handle now that Brent is a pro with the peel and stick tile! Since we plan on being there awhile, I don't mind fixing up the place to make it more "us". He also mentioned to us that he is having the outside repainted and new custom shutters put up! Whoo Hoo! I can't wait! Although, it is kind of sad to leave our first home. To be honest, we haven't had a lot of good memories in that house. So, I'm looking forward to starting fresh in a new house, new town and a new outlook on life in general. I've been in a much better mood today than I have been in a long time. For once, something has gone right for us! I hope it stays that way.

Change of Pace

October is almost over, can you believe it? There hasn't been a lot going on around here blog worthy at least. We are still in the process of the short sale. We don't know when we'll hear anything from the bank regarding that, but we hope it will be soon. We have decided to start looking for a rental house that we can move into for awhile so we can save up some money for a down payment for when we can buy in the future. Hopefully, that will be in another year. It's a bump in the road, but we have to make the most of it. I'm trying to look at it is an adventure. I was pretty bummed at first, but what can you do? As long as I have my husband and dogs, wherever we are, it will be our home. We'll just have to make it work.

We found this house in the Park Hill area on South Q Street. It's a 2 bedroom, 1 bath with a den, hardwood floors, fenced yard for $675 month

We made an appointment to go and look at it on Monday. I can't wait to see what it looks like on the inside. The man I talked to said they are going in and completely updating the place...

We plan to drive around this weekend and look for some other rentals to look at. To be honest, there really aren't a lot out there right now. It's sucks to have to take a step backwards from owning my home to renting and paying someones mortgage payment for them, but hopefully I can find a nice house at least! Wish Us Luck!

Rut

I'm in a rut and I want to apologize. Ever since I got the bad news on the house, I haven't really cared about much else. My whole life has been consumed by this. I was notified by my Realtor that the buyers want to go ahead with the short sale... Which means that if I can't convince the FHA people to still give me a loan (which I am working on), I am screwed. I am suppose to get an answer from them by this coming Tuesday. I have a feeling it will feel like forever until then, but there isn't anything else I can do. I just have to be patient, cross my fingers and hope that everything works out. You see, once you are involved with a short sale FHA will not give you another loan until 3 years have past... But technically, this isn't my fault. Maybe they will have mercy on me.

Okay, enough about that. I have been eyeing those arc floor lamps that are showing up everywhere. Maybe you've seen them...

This bauhaus arc floor lamp is from cb2.com and is way out of my price range at $199

How about this bad boy from Marc Sadler called the Twiggy lamp...

Action Shots!







Me likey! I would love to find one reasonably priced somewhere and snatch it up! Hopefully, I will have a new crib to put it in... It wouldn't look very good under the bridge... Ha, that was a joke...

I'm Done

Well, I officially give up on my house. You have no idea how exhausted I am from this whole ordeal. I just want everything to be done and over with. When I purchased my home 3 years ago, I never thought I would be in the situation that I'm in now.
When I made the decision to sell my house, I contacted my mortgage company and got a "payoff quote" over the phone, since it takes them 10-14 days to get the actual payoff (which I have yet to get from them and I've ordered it twice). I took that quote to my Realtors office and that is what I based my listing price off of. As the weeks went by with my house on the market, I forgot all about my payoff that I was suppose to receive in the mail. Well, last week when I got the offer on my house, I decide that I better contact my mortgage company to make sure of my actual payoff. This time I was told that my payoff was much more than what I was quoted 3 weeks earlier. You see, earlier in the year my husband was laid off from his job and I got behind on our house payments trying to pay them by myself. So, the "payoff quote" I was given 3 weeks earlier didn't have the accrued interest, late fees, etc. included in it. Now I am under contract to not only sell my house, but to also buy a new house, and I find out this information. What to do now? The buyers offered me a full price offer on my house with me paying $5,000 of their closing costs. Now, with the new "payoff" on my mortgage subtracted from the list price, subtract the Realtor fees, that should leave me, oh about ZERO... Therefore, I am unable to pay the buyers closing costs.
I was given the option of a Short Sale. A Short Sale is where the bank will accept an offer on my house for less than what I owe. Which the buyers have to agree to this, since it can take a couple of months to be approved (why?, I don't know) and with a Short Sale now lingering over me, I am unable to get another mortgage anytime soon. That doesn't sound like my idea of a good time! If the buyers decide that they don't want to mess with a Short Sale (I wouldn't blame them if they didn't) we could put the house back on the market at a higher price and see if we get any offers... I am about ready to walk away from it all!
MY HEAD HURTS...

Pictures

Yeah for October! 3 days in and I'm completely loving the weather. I'm still trying to figure out my new Blackberry, so I haven't been able to upload any pictures. But, I think I've got it figured out. It took me forever to figure out to take them! I thought I would retake a few pictures that I already posted so you could see the detail better.

This pictures shows the paint color in the bathroom much better. I found the paint can and the color is Rejuvenate by Behr.

We had some left over tile from the kitchen, so we decided to update the tile in the master bath. We had to. The tile the previous owners picked out was a green swirl (I swear) and it was horrible. I don't know how we managed to live with it for 3 years!

Another shot of the cabinets! Yippee!!! I'll try to get a full frontal (hee hee) of them tomorrow!!

Kitchen floor...

Here is the guest bathroom floor...

and the guest bathroom vanity and new mirrors


We actually got an offer on Monday. We have come to agreements with the buyers, now all I have to do is get some crap worked out with my mortgage lender and we'll be set! It has been one long and stressful week. I haven't been able to get a straight answer out of anyone at the mortgage company and it's driving me crazy. I STILL don't know what my actual payoff is. So, I am crossing my fingers that it is what I was "quoted" on the phone 3 weeks ago before I listed the house. If it isn't, then we are completely screwed. We don't have any extra money to bring to the table to make up the difference. I'll keep you updated as soon as I find out anything. Not knowing what's going on is killing me. We can't celebrate "selling" the house yet or celebrate being able to move into the new house until we here from Chase on our payoff.

My Hubs is out with some friends tonight, so I am going to go and enjoy what little alone time I have left.

Awesome Estate Sale Table

A few weeks ago my boss informed me that her family was having an Estate Sale for her grandparents. So, we decided to head over there the day before the sale started during lunch to check out what they had. I was actually looking for a couple of bed side tables, but I found this table instead.

It had been sitting in the house for many years not being used. I paid a whole $5.00 for it and brought it home with me. I cleaned it up, sanded the top and bought some black Rust-Oleum spray paint and gave it a much needed make over and now it lives right next to my recliner...


I LOVE the new look! Much better, don't you think? I also came home with a shelf for the wall that I only paid $5.00 for as well, but I don't plan on doing anything with that until we move. So, once we get in the new place, I'll post some updated pics then. Until then...

Lovin' Fall...

I am loving this weather! It is awesome. I plan on getting out in the yard later to do some mowing, etc. Gotta keep it looking good!

I got a Blackberry yesterday (FINALLY) and it has a much better camera than my previous phone. I think I might retake some pictures of the house to post so you can actually see it. We have had constant lookers come through the house, but no buyers yet. There is a couple that have looked at it twice (they brought their parents last night) and my Realtor has been calling me all day with questions that they have. Hopefully, they might be the new owners of this house! I have my fingers crossed, but I'm not getting my hopes up. AND there is someone else coming tomorrow to look. I will tell you, it's much more of a pain in the butt than I originally thought it would be showing the house. We have to load all 3 dogs up in the car (yes, there is dog hair everywhere) and either go to the park or drive around for an hour. It starts to take a toll on you, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

We are SO close to being done with all the updates around here. Brent has been working a lot of overtime at work, so we haven't had time to get that much done. We just work on a little bit each day when he gets home. I think I might pee my pants when the kitchen cabinets are all finished. I have actually hung up two cabinet doors all by myself. I'm pretty proud of my carpentry skills...

I'll try to get on later tonight or tomorrow and post some pics. I have a table that I bought at an Estate Sale for $5.00 that I am dying to show you. Of course I gave it a "facelift". It looks so good!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! Now get off the computer and go do something!

Welcome Autumn...

For those of you who don't know, yesterday was the 1st official day of Autumn... Yeah!!
I love this time of year when the weather starts getting cooler. I wish it would stay like this all the time. I love wearing scarves, jackets, sweaters and my all time favorite hooded sweatshirts! Usually during Fall & Winter you will find me at home in one of those. I'm sure my Hubs finds that attractive! HA!

I've been thinking of making myself a Fall wreath for the front door. My Mom and I used to make wreaths all the time. It's super easy! I have one we made one year for Christmas and another for Halloween. You can get the wreath anywhere and just find the items you want at Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby & Michael's.






On a positive note, we have another showing tomorrow afternoon. I'm not even excited about it! That's sad...

Progress Part II

I thought I would share some pictures of our house updates with you. Let me know what you think. Like? Dislike? What I can do different????




Here is the master bathroom. AGAIN... my camera phone does not do any of this justice. I'm not saying it's an amazing transformation by any means, but it does look a bit better in person. We kept the original mirror and lighting fixture in this bathroom. All we did was paint (I don't remember the paint name, but it's from Behr and we got it at Home Depot)the walls and trim and hang up a new towel bar and toilet paper holder and we found some accessories to put in there. Oh yeah, we also updated the light switch covers in this room too. Everything else is the same. I'm not sure if we'll update the tile, but as of right now it's still the same ol' tile that was there when we moved in.




Here is another shot of the guest bathroom and the new floor. The floor in there looks soooo much better! I wish I could get a good picture of it. I'm really proud of the tile we put in this room. We had already painted this room previously, so we kept it the same. The light fixture was here when we moved in. It was the most modern thing these people owned. I know you can't see it in this picture, but trust me it looks good. We took down the giant square mirror and put up these new contemporary ones. We just added a few accessories and poof! You have a new guest bathroom minus window treatments (can't find any that I like and it's a weird set up)




I'm sure you are waiting to see the kitchen cabinets, aren't you? I thought so. The first two pictures are of them all spread out in the garage in the painting process aka Brent's job! We, I mean he used one of those paint sprayers and it went a lot faster than painting them by hand. We just touched them up with a brush once we got them inside.




Here is a couple of shots of the new knobs and hinges that we bought. The new hardware makes them look that much more contemporary...






Not all of them are up yet, we still have some that need to be painted (ran out of black paint), but it's nice to see everything take "shape" FINALLY! 2 years and I finally have some cabinet doors up! It kind of freaked me out the next morning walking through the kitchen half asleep!

We still have a few minor things to take care of, but I'm proud of us for hanging in there and getting the job(s) done! I felt like giving up so many times. I actually felt that way today! I am physically and emotionally drained from all of this. Even my dogs are worn out!


I wish it would sell so I can put this whole process behind me and start fresh.

We found out from my Realtor today that the people who have looked at our house a whopping 3 times, put an offer in on another house that was cheaper than ours. Oh well, what can you do right? Someone else will come along... I hope!