Yikes!!! What have we gotten ourselves into?!

A kitchen shot before the man we bought from moved out.



The downstairs....a dark and scary place


The front porch. I don't quite know what to do with this as it is so small. I think we will build an addition on and change the front of the house to a large entry way.....we'll have to see.

I didn't get a good picture of the kitchen before we ripped out the cupboards. Here is when we were measuring for new cabinets and the man we bought it from was still in it. He was packing up everything so it is crowded but it is a good sized kitchen. New flooring and drywall. A tree fell through the roof last year so the kitchen and living room are in pretty good shape. A good clean, new cabinets and a coat of paint and voila! We will be done that part.

Here is a great picture of the hallway before we tore out the carpet.

This is going to be my office. The man we bought it from was a collector so every room was so full you couldn't even walk into them. He had a lot of stuff to move and he got it out by the deadline which was amazing! He did a great job. We really rushed him as well. We only had about 3 weeks to move....CRaZy!

This is the sunken living room. It has a nice bay type window. Lots of light and a really high ceiling. I am struggling to think how I am going to decorate it. I love the gas fireplace, it just needs a bit of an update...I will worry about that later when we have moved in.

Here is the other end of the downstairs. It was a little kitchenette. It has a raised floor so we took that out and all the cupboards. We are going to make a bigger window and make this our spare bedroom! Have no fear, future guests out there, it will be beautiful in the end! (I hope)

This is why we had to rip all the carpets out. It was very stinky in the basement. So much so that we needed masks on. He has an older dog that had health problems that used the basement as a bathroom for the last couple of years. It is way better now that everything is ripped out. It was more work than we first thought as all the drywall is soaked as well, so we had to rip it all out.

Call me the great Carpet ripper!!!! Of course the underlay was glued down. Nothing comes out easy!

Here is my hunk of burning love with a power tool....uggg uggg. That floor was nailed down super good. It took forever to take it out. He finally reverted to a skill saw...more power!

Nice behind shot!! Of the basement of course.

The little bathroom downstairs we have yet to rip out but will be next!

No surprise, here is Dela again! She is so amazing. She has even come to the new house to help and cheer us up. She was so full of encouraging thoughts and muscle strength, we got all the walls upstairs washed down and ready to paint! I don't know how I could have survived this last month without her. Thanks Dela!

Here is the baby of the family not quite knowing what to do with herself. He sat like this, her butt on one stair and her feet on the other watching us forever. She looks sad in the picture doesn't she. Between living at grandma and grandpa's (which she loves...lot of treats) to being drug to the reno house she doesn't know what is going on. It will be better once we have our stuff in and she figures out this is home. I have to watch her outside because of snakes. I think a bite from one of them would kill her.

My next post I have some of the beautiful reasons we bought here and some progress of what we are getting done. It is getting better I promise.

Moving = Cleaning and lots of heavy lifting!

I don't know what we would do without the gospel in our lives. Not only does it bless us daily with knowledge and a closeness to Heavenly Father....it has the Elders Quorum, the best movers, and Relief Society, the best cleaners. It sure makes life a lot easier!


Here are the guys struggling with the heavy stuff. This is our pool which weighs a ton and took four guys to haul up!




Next....My antique stove that weighs almost as much as my piano...yup I have an old upright grand. They groaned when they saw that one. Lucky for them we didn't have a place to move it yet so Sean and Tyler wrestled it into the truck the next day! Then Sean and Mac wrestled it into our house (damaging the side of it...sniff so sad!)


I was almost hoping they would drop it as Russ Tanner said that is what happened to theirs in the last move. It got dropped and insurance paid them really well for it. Oh well.

Here is Cinderella cleaning! London is an amazing worker. She packed up half of our house herself. She helped clean and haul stuff out! I think she is just great! She isn't ever very excited to do the work but then she does it willingly! What a great kid. She thought I was crazy to want the deck scrubbed.

Mihoko Karaki scrubbing my windows with a tooth brush! Wow they shone! Mihoko is one of my favorite people. I have so many in Brooks but she is always so fun and kind, I love her. I hope to be in as good of shape she is in at 70 something. I have to get to work as she can kick my butt in every way!

Barb Bateman came and helped. The bedroom was the last done. As you can see I still needed to pack up my closet! It only took them an hour to wash down walls and windows so that was pretty good! I was Barb's visiting teacher. She was always fun to visit! Best cook ever!

Sherraine Crapo, Relief Society president and never misses out on giving service.

Patsy, my neighbour and friend...scrubbing away!

I missed pictures of Carol Cyr, I just love her and Joanne Buteau. Thanks for all the help guys.

Jump! One last time.

Even though we were crazy busy packing we had to take a break for our favorite activity Bridge jumping. We will really miss our neighbourhood bridge. It is the most amazing spot for some local fun! It made it a perfect farewell that Dela, Alex, Teesha and Suzi (cousin) could join us.

Cooling off!

Action shots

It was really fast moving so you had to work to stay in the same spot.

London and Alex getting ready to take the plunge. Teesha when she jumped one time got water up her nose and she made a mistake and said nose up! So the rest of the jumps we kept asking if she got Nose up?

Alex's shorts were like a floatation device. It was so funny that they puffed up like that! Made her little bum look huge!

Jump London Jump! Doing tricks and spins! We will really miss our own private jumping spot but we will be back to visit! Plus now we have our own waterfall in our back yard....we will continue to find fun in Medicine Hat!

Our new house...the work begins!

Our first project! Getting rid of these ugly junipers. You can't even walk on the sidewalk. Sean got to use his brand new moving toy...a chainsaw! It is a good one.

Sean in action. Don't you just love the wood chips flying in this picture?

Our shop and other outbuildings. The guy we bought this from collects junk and is a hoarder. All of this is going to be cleaned out at the latest by the end of Oct. He has been selling stuff off and is taking the rest to auction. It is still looking pretty junky but better than it did!

This is where the snake we saw was...the story is later in the blog. I love this little gazebo I think. I want to take out the yucky hot tub and replace the decking there, screen it in and put our patio furniture in there. Just a coat of paint will do a lot!

Here is the barn. It is a little broken down but I am so excited to make it into something. I want this to be a summer kitchen and guest house one day. I know it could be amazing. I would love to work on this first as it is a fun project but we can't even think of it until the rest of the house is done! It is a bit broken down and needs cleaning out and shingles but other than all that it is great! Next spring we will get a coat of paint on and clean up all around it. There are lots of fences falling down and plenty of weeds if any of you want any!

This is a picture of more weeds and outbuildings. If you can see behind some buildings in the distance that is Redcliff. It is pretty much straight across but a big river valley separates us for now. They are going to be building a highway across in the next 10 years. So that will be way quicker for my Brooks friends to visit.

This is the master bedroom. It is the old living room before they added the addition so it is quite big which is nice. It has a nice broken down deck as well! I think we will really like this room. We will add french doors and build a sturdy big deck.

This is kitty... the only brave one to use the toilet. Just looking at the picture I want to gag! She is getting picked on by all the other cats there...so sad. They are wild and mean and living and pooping under our deck. Sean caught a kitty yesterday. Good thing he was wearing gloves, it almost clawed him to death and you should have heard the racket! We need to figure out how to get rid of them so we and kitty can live in peace.

London working ripping out carpet and tiles. My amazing girl!

Here I am with my dust mask scraping up the wood flooring that we found under the carpets. It is very old...but not nice. I was hoping for a minute we found hardwood...just cheap stick on tiles. They are really fun to take off...most of them came out really easy.

London was working so hard she broke her little hammer! She really has been amazing. She is a handy little thing ripping up stuff and hauling it out. A real helper!

Is this ever going to end? London took this picture in mockery of her mother's hair!! I know it is ugly but I had to add it as my look is just how I feel.

We got the big guns in to help us with the hard stuff and real heavy labour. He was outside weed whipping trying to make it so we aren't so scared to walk around. The first day we ran into two for sure maybe 3 rattlesnakes. We were walking the property with my Dad when London starting running and screaming....what did I do? I went running and screaming too! Once she was safe on a high up thingy she was able to tell us she saw a snake. Sean didn't believe her but went to investigate and found one curled up against a building. It was pretty small but London claimed in was littler and going in the other direction...so thus maybe it was 3 snakes.

The other snake story is later that same day; I was showing my brother- in -law the deck when I heard what I thought was a sprinkler hissing. I knew we didn't have any way to have water running so I went to the edge of the deck to find the sound coming out by Sean's tire so then I thought he drove over a nail and his tire was leaking so called him out to tell him. Mac, Sean's brother looked at the tire and saw a rattlesnake...a big one coiled up rattling at a cat that was getting way to close! I couldn't believe how close the cat got and how the snake didn't strike. We all gathered around and watched it and then Sean got a rake and tried to pick it up. Well it then climbed a pole on the deck and hissed under the deck forever. We gave up trying to catch it. Yikes!!! I hope they move out before I more in. Once we water and mow they shouldn't be around the house.

This is going to be my laundry room.....pretty isn't it!? The room is small and I am getting the new front load laundry sets...I really want red! Won't that be fun. I think I will stack them so I have more room for stuff and can have a folding table and a couple of cupboards (Our old white kitchen cupboards insurance replaced which are perfectly good)

This is going to be my office for now. I would like to build an addition and have an office in there that is brighter. It is a pretty big room so it will work well.

This is the scary bathroom!! It hasn't been cleaned for some time so we are holding it for now! It is a nice big room so we are going to try to re-design it somehow. I think we will replace the window with glass blocks and have a small jetted or claw foot tub and a shower in it. It has a nice big closet in it as well. We will fix it up ourselves as Sean is pretty good with bathrooms. It is the next project to start while I am cleaning and painting.

The other side of the bathroom is fairly big as it was a bedroom at one point. This is the upstairs. It is not going to be too bad to finish. I didn't show the kitchen or living room yet I will take pictures today. Today we are tackling the basement....prepare yourself. It makes the upstairs look like a palace!

Mini Vacation

Well this is the first year since we have been married that we haven't taken at least a weeks vacation. We love going places and always camp or do some new adventure. Moving in the summer isn't fun! It takes up all you time. I was feeling so stressed we decided to at least try for a mini vacation. So we packed up and went to Couer D'Alene with the Mossey family. We rented a vacation house last minute that was cheaper than it would be for a hotel. VRBO website is amazing. You all have to try it!





The house was two stories. This was the bottom level...much more rustic than the top floor. This ended up being the kids pad! They loved having their own space and we loved them having their own space. It was still really nice. The weird thing about this house was the upstairs and downstairs weren't connected so you had to go out side down the hill to get in.






This is our back yard...a steep hike down and even longer up! It was so beautiful and hot and it was nice to have our own boat launch.

Posing on the pier into the sunshine...lots of squinty eyes. The pier was almost sinking with all of us on and that made Charlie nervous!

There is the house in the back ground. On the last day before we left we tried to pose for pictures.

The gang! It was way too short. It took 8+ hours to get there. We got there early Thursday as we drove part way on Wednesday night. Mosseys got in very late that night. Friday we spent in Silver wood theme park! Very fun! I would go there again. Saturday out in the boat. Both London and I weren't feeling very good so I stayed back and slept in the morning. She was kind of sick the whole vacation. Jack on the way back from Silverwood puked in our car....that was fun! I don't do puke well...ugg. So we spent most of Saturday boating. Sunday was church, walk, supper and games. Then pack up and go on Monday. It was a whirl wind trip. I wish we could have stayed two more days and really enjoyed the lake.

Tyler looks really happy in this picture. I kept wanting more and more pictures and I think he just wanted to pack up and get going! It was a good thing we stayed to help pack up the boat. We drove down to the marina and waited for him to come. He came running down the road because his boat wouldn't start...so we had to take the battery out of his truck and boost it, then drive around again. It was a long morning!

I tried to pile them all up for a creative picture...yeah that didn't work. Dang sun in their eyes!

Waving good-bye!

This was the back yard. It was more mountain like than I imagined it would be. Much like BC very beautiful and full of tree's.

This was an amazing kitchen and I am thinking about kitchens and we are trying to design one for our new house. This stove is amazing!! I think I am going to go with a gas stove top in an island.

More of the inside! Isn't it amazing.

The view from the front window. Much better than a hotel.
It was a wonderful break. Now it is time to get to work on my new place! I am documenting every thing with photos, so get ready!