The Week, The Desert, and Staying where it's hot!

I can't believe the week's gone by and I haven't even posted ONCE since Sunday until now, of course. So much for being on a roll. Part of the problem is that Mark has been working overtime almost daily...well, yeah, it's actually BEEN daily not just almost daily! He's been in Cottonwood, ID for the last two days working out at their prison. He got up early and left by 5AM both of those days. Cottonwood is only 15 miles away from where my sis and her family live in Grangeville and it's 4 hours away from our home in EA WA! He was happy to be able to meet with Brother-In-Law, Dave, for a quick lunch and visit on Wed. before heading home. YESTERDAY, which was Thursday, Mark was working at the prison and JUST about to leave to rush home for an appt. we had to view a house (more about that in a minute) and the whole facility was placed on lockdown becuase they had "lost" someone. So everyone has to remain until the lost person is found...they have to do recounts of the prisoners etc. Anyhow he was not detained for too long and was able to make the nearly 4 hour drive in a much shorter time, due to speeding I think! Ha ha. We had an appointment to view a home at 7pm and he made it at 7:20...so all in all not bad for timing considering the lock down and the distance he had to travel.

Now, as to the house viewing...
We just found out that we are FOR SURE not going to be moving to Yakima for 2-3 years or maybe MORE or maybe NEVER. So, the conclusion we made from that info is that we'd better just settle in here and buy our own home and think of this place as home for a while longer. It's funny, I don't really feel at home in this place...it's not the house we're in, but the town we're in. Actually, it's even more than that, it's the side of the state we're on. I miss the WEST side. I miss the Seattle area. I miss my family and my friends. I haven't really made much effort to make new friends here. I mean, I have met some people. I have acquaintances and someone that I hang out with on occasion...but no really good friends. That said, it's not like I've had lots of time to develop any really great friendships anyhow. When we moved here I had two toddlers and then I was pregnant and now I have a baby and a 4 & 5 yr. old (well, they're ALMOST 4 and 5!). They keep me pretty busy. We go to parks almost daily. The kids love the wading pools at the big parks. We get out and about regularly. We even have fun while we do it!!!

Oh yeah, back to the house thing! It's so easy to get sidetracked. So, since we're probably staying in this area for a while we decided we'd best start looking to purchase a home. We've been renting from my cousin and the house we're living in is very nice and suits our needs quite well. The problem is that it's not ours! And not just that, if we COULD buy it I don't think I would because it's not the kind of style I'd want to OWN. Renting is one thing and owning is quite another. Anyone who knows me knows how in love I was with my own first home in Gold Bar, WA. It was a 1906 vintage home. It was so special and full of charm. The kind of home you walk in and just feel at HOME. I LOVE old houses!!! So, I've been keeping up with the realestate market here since we've lived here and I rarely see an old home on the market here (at least one that WE can afford). Of course when I say, "OLD" I'm talking about OLD...not 60's or 70's homes. OK...so Mark came across a rare gem of an old house here in town while we were looking at the MLS for the area the other night. We made and appt. to go and see it last night. It is SOOOOO CUTE! BUT for a 2175 sq. foot home it feels TINY!!! 932 sq. feet is the basement. So that leaves 1243 for the upstairs. Now, I have to say that I didn't like the basement. It had the laundry room, bare walls in the main area and open to the ductwork ceilings (or lack of ceilings, I should say)! It had two bedrooms and a bathroom with a shower stall in the basement also. The windows were not to code so I wouldn't feel safe having anyone, ESPECIALLY the children, sleeping down there. It was DARK down there and artificial light just doesn't do it for me. I want natural light. Now I WANT a house with a basement...but one that is a DAYLIGHT basement. Not a DARK, partially finished basement. There were two rooms upstairs, refinished original wood floors (NICE!), lots of cute touches and a great color scheme for the interior as well as exterior painting. The bathroom upstairs was all done in VERY NICE tile and so was the kitchen. Lots of nice updates were made on this charming little house. The downsides were that I felt that I wouldn't be using the basement for any LIVING...so it would all be done in the 1243 sq. ft. upstairs. TOOOOO SMALLLLLL!!! The yard was cute with nice shade trees and there was even a VERY nice koi pond that just needed someone who knew a thing or two (LIKE ME) about ponds and filtration to fix it up. Anyhow, we all love it but after sleeping on it we kinda decided that it's really not for us for several reasons. There are the obvious ones I already mentioned PLUS it's on the "bad" side of town (although the actual street it was on was nice), we're not really ready to just run out and BUY a house, and I really would like a bigger yard (it was only .17 acre). Heck, a POOL here in the desert would be nice too! Anyhow, here are the pictures for your viewing pleasure:









CUTE HUH??? Well, we decided to go ahead and pass on this one, get pre-approved so we'll be ready when we do find THE ONE, and just take our time to find THE ONE...no rushing here! PLUS we want to be ready to move before we HAVE to move and so that means getting rid of some stuff (garage sale anyone?), cleaning this house up (the yard, some painting downstairs, & general cosmetic stuff & cleaning that needs done after a couple years of living in a house with kids and a dog!), and I'm sure an ETCETERA will fit in nicely here and you can use your own imagination.

We do have a list of definite NEEDS (as we see it), WANTS, and WOULD BE NICE IF's for a house that would suit us. One of the NEEDS is a big kitchen. This cute little house definitely did NOT have a big kitchen. To give you an idea of the "would be nice if" category...well, a nice inground pool would fit in this category! After last night's adventure I'm thinking I'll need to add GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD to our NEEDS list. It will be easier to resell in the future, no matter how cute the other house is I think it would be hard to sell because of the area...but then again, WE were considering it despite the area so maybe I need to put more thought into that one. Hmmmm. And ONE MORE THING...if Mark does not get the raise he's requesting we may be moving to another state in a different part of the country entirely. You never know! This MAY occur, so until he sits down with his boss for his review and to go over his proposal we REALLY DON'T know FOR SURE if we will be staying here. If he stays with his present company we WILL be here for a while without a doubt.

I'm not sure how well I've written this post and I'm not going to re-read and edit it because I need to sign off for now and just want to post this so you all have something to read. Sorry I don't have any pics of the kids to post today. I'll update on them this weekend for sure~!!!

LOVE AND BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!!!