n8 & Bett’s House Update AGAIN

Our close date will be the week of n8’s birthday, somewhere between Monday, September 17 and Friday, September 21. (n8’s birthday is Friday.) We have to wash all the walls and ceilings before we commence priming and painting (they are dusty and cob-webbed), so we may shoot for Monday so we can have all surfaces somewhat clean by the time our work crew arrives to prime and paint that weekend. At least we hope that we have a work crew. We are still accepting volunteers…
The inspection was earlier this week, and from it we learned that no major pipes are damaged, which is a very positive thing. The “water damage” is likely from a perpetually leaky basement, which is (mostly) the result of the fact that there are no gutters and the ground slants slightly INTO the house, which means all the rainwater drains down to the basement. We also have no functioning water heater, most of the plumbing needs to be redone, and the breakers also do since a lot of the wiring is corroded and we are more likely to start a fire than trigger a flipped breaker. Among other issues.  We are also accepting donations for these basic house fix-ups. If anyone feels led to donate about $5,000 to us, contact n8 for our bank account number or send the check to his office address.

We’re hoping that after a week or two of hard labor (and many volunteers??), we can move in. Hannah told Mommy today that she wanted to take a nap at her new house, the one that has a big spider next to it and a playhouse too. (The last time we were there, a giant spider had formed a web on the side of our house, which was apparently memorable enough to her that the house is now the “Spider House” instead of the “Playhouse House”.) We are glad that she is getting excited to move in, and praying that she will adjust well… hopefully before #3 comes 2-4 weeks later.

Wall update

Praise God, there was no lead found in the paint on our walls.  We were dreading what that would mean.  After using a self-test kit, we found no traces of what could be lead, so I went ahead and removed all of the wallpaper.  In the next week, I’ll be taping and spackling a few cracks (got good at that in our other house), then hopefully painting.  We “moved” in, and slept here last night, but the only furniture we have is our bed, a nightstand, and a couple of chairs and small table left be the former owners.  A small (2 ft. diameter) table has become our everything table – eating, reading, TV, etc.  Tomorrow night we hope to get our furniture over, if we can get into the warehouse where we stored it.  We have to give 24 hours notice, and we forgot to do that yesterday. I’ll be doing some touch-up painting tomorrow, but things are coming along.  We’ve found most of our kitchen boxes and so we went grocery shopping, spent about $150…stocking up again, since we discarded/gave away all of our stock last year.

And we have hit the 2’s

Our daughter is now two and boys does she show it sometimes. She absolutely refuses to say “two”. If we tell her to say “I’m two” she just looks upset (and possibly throws herself on the floor and protests that she is one. I didn’t know that the protesting of age advancement came so early.

She is also completely girl. If left to herself she will almost always pick out a dress to wear. If she can find them, her necklaces will not leave her neck. And she is constantly talking about baby dolls. This is what she calls anything that remotely resembles a baby. Even children that are very obviously older than her by a year. Grandpa and Grandma gave her a stroller and a baby doll for her birthday. The moment she realized what it was, a huge smile was stuck to her face for the next hour while playing with it. This stroller has succeeded in making both of my children happy. It can hold dolls in the chair and it has a little basket for other things, which my son has now decided is a great place to carry his cars. Our only problem now is which one gets to push it around the house carrying everything.

Here is a note of praise. We have lights in our bathroom! Okay, kind of a weird praise, but since we moved in we have been using a lamp plugged into a room outside the bathroom to give us light. We can finally get rid of one more extension cord. Hopefully next weekend we can get rid of a few more.

Love you all

Miki

Korsmo update

Sorry Nate & Bett, this pregnant lady probably won’t be offering her services for priming services either.  Although maybe you could recruit James in September when we’re down for a baby shower around the 22nd.  And I could possibly do a little bit of painting?!

Our house is almost ready to live in.  We’ve been painting a bit of the trim (which is quite a lot! windows frames, doors, doorframes, baseboards, crown molding…the whole upstairs is the same color)…we couldn’t get the color to match right, so we pretty much have to do a whole section instead of just touching up the bad spots. We also painted the bathroom and it is pretty much ready.  A company came in to clean the carpets yesterday evening…which was supposed to be our last big hurdle.  And then…we took down some wall paper the previous renters didn’t, and discovered a pretty beat-up wall.  Well, I could probably putty up the cracks and smooth out some of the other parts, but we fear we’ve come down to the first layer of paint and it may be lead-based.  So we’re working out that problem.  We may not get in for another few days until we figure out what to do with the wall.  Oh, and we still have to deal with a foul-smelling porch due to puppy doo-doo.  The indoor/outdoor carpet has to go, but underneath is rotted wood, so that will probably need replacing.

So, we’re almost there!  I’ve added a few albums to our gallery.  Three of them are back in Peru, and one is from our time back here.

n8 & Bett’s House Update

The second offer was rejected. We found out a couple days later. There had been too much activity on the house, and indeed, nearly every time we drove by, one or more sets of people were looking at it. The bank was fairly sure they would get full price for it if they waited long enough, and we were too. We increased our offer (a third time now) to the bank’s full asking price, which was still under our maximum for a house, and also less than the house is “worth”.

We found out yesterday (8/8) that they accepted our offer, with one exception: our closing date was moved from on or before August 31 to on or before October 1. The bank needs a couple months to make sure there are no problems with the title. If all is well, we could close as early as two weeks.

So another two weeks to two months of homelessness, then priming and painting and priming and painting…

Bett cannot prime because she is pregnant, and the entire house needs to be completely primed because its previous occupants smoked, and we do not want to keep that smell in the house. We are accepting volunteers for the job at this time. The more the better.

Pictures

I’ve finally posted some more pictures.  Some of are James and Cindy’s house in Moorhead and some are of when they and Nate and Bett’s kids were here.  Enjoy them.

Just a word also about Grandma Veltkamp.  I spent all morning today (8/7/07) with them at the doctor’s office.  Grandma’s blood pressure is  very high.  The top is over 200 most of the time the last week or more.  We are trying to get it down.  Pray for her and the doctors (and Grandpa) that they may know what to do and also that it doesn’t cause a stroke.

We are having a cooling trend right now but the temps are supposed to go in the mid 90’s again this week.  Yuck!! I’m over this hot weather. We are also having lots of smoky days because of all the fires in MT.

Love to you all and we are praying for each and every one of you.  Mom