Frustrating Foreclosures

Our prayers go out to Boston and each family affected by the recent tragedy. We're praying for comfort and healing and justice served to those responsible for this disgusting act of hatred and violence. Our troubles are so little compared to what these families are experiencing. 

Frustration: to make (plans, efforts, etc.) worthless or of no avail; defeat; to disappoint.

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This is the perfect definition of what our "home buying" process has been.  Yes, we haven't been looking for an insanely long time, but nonetheless it is simply stupid the loop holes we have gone through.  I wish this was a more positive post in which I get to share that we've found the house.  Sadly, I'll have to leave that for another day.  I suppose the following is more of a venting/explosion of fiery rage on my part.

1. You will wait for what seems like forever.  The first house we made the leap to put an offer on fell through...after waiting a total of 8 days.  Sure, that's not a long time in the grand scheme we call life, but when you're waiting to see if the house of your dreams is yours, well, that's eternity. The banks communicate on their own time...which leads us to point numero dos.
2. The banks can be stupefyingly ignorant.  And that's putting it nicely.  Here has been the general timeline for each house we've been interested in:  We put an offer in on the house. We wait, wait, wait for 3 or 4 days. Then we hear the bank has decided they'd like to extend the "bid opening period" for another 2 or 3 days. We wait, wait, wait. Then we find out that we did not get the house (the crowd erupts in a thundering boo) via online, when the listing moves into pending status. Then we finally receive a phone call 3 days after that, that we did not get the house. DUH.
3. In our price range, there is a limited selection of homes to choose from. Basically, we're choosing the house with the lease amount of work.  But, on a positive side, more projects to blog about!  So, overall, we're ok with this point.
4. You have to stay on top of those banks like white on rice.  Seriously, there is little consideration for the buyer out there and if you're not calling and emailing everyday, pertinent information may never get to you.
5. First time home buyers, like us, might have a tendency to let others take the reigns in home searching.  But it's vastly important that you do your own research into every aspect of the home, neighborhood, city, and schools. This is one of the biggest decisions of your adult life...I don't want to leave that up to someone else to decide!  One home we looked at seemed like a great fit for us. The price was good, it was in a good neighborhood, and the city and schools were very nice. Diving deeper, we discovered that the house already had a government appraisal done and lead based paint was found inside the home. Not good. And that information was no where on the listing of the house. Of course that would have been found during an inspection, but we saved ourselves a few hundred dollars by finding out before!

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I am sorry for all the negativity.  This has been our experience so far and it's just frustrating when you're trying to find something you love and you've never experienced this process before.  Not everyone's experience is like this.  On the positive side, foreclosures have great potential to be turned around.  They could be worth a whole lot more with a little TLC.  And we truly are looking forward to some projects around the abode. We just need it to be livable for our Little Miss!  Hopefully, we'll be posting soon that we found our home...our home that we can't wait to put some love into!

FREE Spice Storage

We have a ton of baby food jars left over from Maddy's food lying around the house here. And instead of pitching them (well, recycling really), I wanted to make use of them for our spice storage. This way, the storage will be uniform and I can eventually make cute labels for them. The cupboards were a complete disaster to say the least. We always struggled to find the spices we needed, especially the tiny ones that seemed to float to the back abyss of the cupboard.

Forgive the chipboard, brown (ugliness). Straight out of the 70's those are. I had $0.00 for my budget this time around so it was time to rummage the house for left over boxes. I found two cereal boxes that we were throwing away and since they were the same width, it was decided that these would make a great riser for our cupboards.  Risers at stores and online can be found for inexpensive prices, but use what'cha got, right?

I measured 4" for the first height, 3" for the second and 1" for the third and shortest "step" (Oops Alert: I totally measured that last step one inch too short) . Cutting the boxes hot dog style, they ended up pretty straight. It helped me to just measure and draw a line around the entire box. I pasted the cut-outs together with Mod Podge and just to cover that cereal box beauty, I slapped some craft paint on them. The paint and Mod Podge also did a nice job of hardening the cardboard for better stability.

Eventually, I plan to convert all my spices into baby food jars or another variety of small glass jar with a more permanent label attached to them. I will feel much more motivated when I can put these beauties in their rightful place in our new home! But, for now, this is a great storage solution and it's a heck of alot better than what it was before.

Ah...much better!

Upholstering An Ottoman

I decided the other night (at 9:30p.m./ bless the hubs little heart) that I wanted to rearrange the living room a little. Our sofa was an "L" shape, one side having a chaise lounge. And with a baby swing and bouncer next to the end of the chaise, we had about one foot of space to get at our dining table. Not convenient. Luckily, our Ikea sofa allows us to remove the end of the sofa so that's exactly what we did. Here is our sofa in its original formation:

And here is what it looks like now...

Because our Little Miss is well on her way to darting around the house, I wanted our "coffee table" to be safe for her, functional us, and nice to look at. Since our new ottoman was part of the sofa, it already had legs and was somewhat padded. Here is the end result of transforming this could-be useless piece into a conversation starter: (So happy!)

The very first thing I did was iron my fabric just to work out all those ugly creases. I used a high heat setting because my fabric was made of 100% cotton. (Always check what the fabric is made of before ironing!)
I wanted to add more padding not only to fill out the ottoman more on top, but also to protect Maddy. Laying the batting out flat on the floor, I placed the ottoman in the center, making sure that all sides wrapped around.

And those funny looking legs? Those are temporary until I can find ones I like! Pulling tightly, I made my way around the floor, stapling as I went. The staples are about 2 inches apart. I folded the corners as I would a present, again pulling tightly so it's not excessively bulky. I then trimmed the excess batting so it would not interfere with the legs.

After all of my stapling was complete for the batting, I flipped the ottoman over to make sure the top looked good and wasn't wrinkled.

Then it was time for the fabric! I decided to purchase outdoor quality fabric because it still felt soft, but it would be slightly more durable with the kiddos. Laying that flat on the floor, just like I did with the batting, I placed the ottoman in the center and made sure that all sides of the fabric wrapped around the sides of the ottoman. Starting with one side, I pulled the fabric tight and stapled the fabric across the inside of the ottoman about 3 inches from each end. After stapling the first side, I moved to the opposing side of the ottoman and began to staple there. Eventually, all the sides were then stapled.

The corners I had to play with in order to get the right fold so the fabric wasn't bunched looking. I folded the corners similar to how I folded the batting. Then I stapled the crap out of it so the fabric would not come loose over time. Finishing all the corners, my ottoman is complete! I screwed the temporary legs back in and until I find new ones, those will have to do.

 

A look again at the finished product. I really like it and it looks like Little Miss does too!

  
Budget Breakdown:
Fabric from Joann's: 60% off sale made the fabric $6.99/yard = $15.00
Batting: $6.99
Ottoman base: already owned
Ottoman feet: already owned
Staple gun w/ staples: $12.00

Total Cost: $33.99

Saving Moolah: Baby Clothes

Happy Valentine's Day! 
There are two things that are very true of our lives right now. One, that we are on an extremely tight budget when it comes to everything. And two, that kiddie clothes can be obnoxiously expensive. Clearly, a tight budget and expensive clothes don't make a cute pair.

Before Little Miss thinks it's way too cool not to have the brand names out there, we shop resale stores. The plus side to resale shopping:

1. Prices are wonderfully low
2. Some outfits still have the original tags attached (never worn!)
3. Brand names are all over those racks; you just have look 
4. That money left over in the budget can be used towards something else
5. Throw those clothes into the wash for a once over and they're good as new

The down side to shopping resale:

1. We don't always find what we're looking for (size, season and style)
2. We need a boat load of patience to look through every rack in our "size section"
3. Having the patience to look also means you have less time to do other things
4. Stores are sometimes cramped with all the big ticket items they get (beware to those of us with claustrophobia)

This past weekend, we got out to our favorite resale shop to look for summer clothes for Maddy. We also had a little incentive to go because we received a gift card for Maddy during Christmas. Our Little Miss is growing so fast that she now needs some 12 month clothes! So here's what we were able to find:

• A dress for Easter weekend
• 6 onesies
•  2 summer outfits (tops + bottoms)
• 4 summer dresses (with diaper covers)

These lovely little things were all brand name items (one outfit with the tags still attached!) and priced anywhere from $11.00 - $18.00 / piece at regular department stores. If we had bought everything full-priced, it would have cost us a whopping $200.00! Whoa...tooo much. We were lucky enough, by using the gift card, to only pay $18.00! The amount of savings is worth the time and effort in resale shopping. And we will gladly keep doing it until it's "too cool for school".

Baby Proofing

She is officially on the move. And fast.
We had decided a while back that we had to get our behinds moving on baby proofing the house before Maddy started sprinting around. It still felt early to be doing such things, but it's really never too early to make your house safe, right? As first-time parents, the idea of baby proofing seemed completely daunting which is why we probably put it off for as long as we did! Here are some things we realized along the way:

1. Yes, they say this in all the baby books you'll find, but do get down at Baby's level and crawl around (the whole house). You'll see differently at that level and you'll most likely find things to proof you otherwise wouldn't have.
2. Think Baby. They will get into everything. Anything that hangs, flashes, makes noise, is shiny, opens, closes...the list goes on. That placemat you have on your table with the vase of flowers/cup of hot coffee on top? Baby will swipe that right off the table while you're trying (unsuccessfully) to get her strapped into her high-chair. Fail.
3. There is such a thing as overkill. We felt like we didn't want to raise Maddy in a padded room just so she would never get a boo-boo. Our babies, as much as we love and smooch them up, will get lots of bumps and bruises. So go ahead, remove that table cloth and wind up those blind cords. For us, it is not the end of the world if we miss a few furniture edges.
4. Baby proofing seems to be a never ending process. Maddy is learning to move around so well and get into new things each day. When we think we're good, we realize what else needs to be proofed!

The first thing we did was go around our home and cover every outlet with plastic plugs, designed so little fingers find it difficult to get them out. If there were any outlets above counter top level, we opted to not cover them because even when Maddy can stand, they are too high for her to reach (we'll eventually be covering them).

We have blinds for window coverings and unfortunately, we can't remove them because of our apartment living status. We found these great circles that you can twist and the cord is wrapped on the inside, shortening it. For the metal beaded cords, well, they don't wind up so well so we just gathered the end up and clicked the unit shut.

 

Our TV is a flat screen that does have a pretty wide base on it, but we were still nervous about it toppling over onto Maddy if she yanked on it. We purchased two heavy duty straps that could be bolted into both the back of the TV and the stand. The straps can be adjusted in length so if the TV needs to be turned at an angle then it can.

We have a tall bookcase along side our TV stand that can very easily be pulled over. We used Mommy's Helper Furniture Brackets to mount it to the wall. One bracket is screwed into the wall and the other to the back of the bookcase. Then a heavy duty zip tie is put through both brackets and closed.

Our Kitchen/Bathroom cabinets do not have hardware on the outside of them and we also cannot damage the doors (ie. mount door catches on the interior of the door). So, with a helpful hint from my mom, we opted to place Command hooks of medium strength on the outside of the cabinets we needed to keep shut. Then, we placed locks over the knobs. The medium strips can hold the weight of 5 lbs and we thought this would suffice for Maddy until we have our own cabinets.

It is amazing how fast Maddy is catching onto to being mobile. While she is this little and still learning what "no" means, we will proof and proof some more. Eventually she will be old enough to understand what we can touch and shouldn't touch. But then we'll be so, so sad that she is not our tiny Little Miss anymore!

Get it together!

I was browsing through one of my favorite blogs out there, IHeart Organizing, in the archives way back in March of 2010 (I think!) and the incredible Jen caught my attention with her project of the month. In our household we are constantly trying to find ways to be more organized both physically (like space, clutter, storage) and mentally (peace of mind, knowing where to look for things, keeping our sanity). Now I see that January is Home Office month! Woot! So, I borrowed Jen's amazing idea and attempted a "household" binder chalked full of stuff important to our family.

There is a whole lot I'd love to fit into this binder:

• House Cleaning Checklist
• Menu Planning
• Bill Payment Checklist
• Address book
• Emergency Contact Info
• Travel Checklists (we visit family out of town often)
• Product Warranties/Instructions
• To Do Checklist
• Blog Post Ideas
• Important Dates to Remember
• Password/Log-In Info
• Personal Sections for Goals/Resolutions
• Monthly Calendar
• Kid's Daily Routine/Schedule
• Auto Maintenance Checklist
• Pockets to hold checkbooks/envelopes for date nights, cash, gas
• Finance/Bills Checklist
• Our Monthly Budget

The sections in red are the things I'd like to include in our binder right away. To narrow down the list a little until the binder gets fuller, I plan to use dividers labeled with the following:

• Emergency Contact Information
• CPR Illustrations for Infants
• Household Cleaning
• Menu Planning
• Household To-Do's
• Household Info (Important Dates, Password Info, Auto Maintenance)
• Blog Ideas
• Finances (Monthly Budget, Bill Payment Checklist, Pockets for our envelope system)
• Monthly Calendar
• Address Book

We already had a white binder and some pretty scrapbook paper so I just slipped some into that clear cover and Bam! Love it!

I also had these fun colored dividers lying around from our university days. I popped those into the binder and used my label maker to create tags for our household sections.

Here is an example of one of our charts we have for household cleaning. It's broken up by individual days of the week, weekly, monthly,  semi-annual and annual areas. This way, we can list by day what needs to be done around the apartment as well as things to be done monthly and throughout the year. I know they are a little plain, but color printing can get pricey sometimes, you know?

Our address book is its own entity, but I wanted to still include it in our household binder so everything is located in one place. Every member of the family knows what's in it and where it is.

 

We keep our binder in our Dining Room sideboard, right underneath our little office nook on the wall. As far as what's in the rest of those cubbies? Well, that's another project in the works!

 That's a wrap on our Household Binder project. I am really excited about how our binder is going to help us get organized and keep organized! How about those of you out there? What sort of small household projects are you working on?