Where you raised in a barn?

In my area (the Midwest) there are barns, and a lot of them.  However a nice condition, sturdy, “pretty” barn are a little scarce.  I was in a meeting the other day and a wedding venue was brought up that consist of some land and a barn.  This certain venue has 72 bookings in 2013 and their minim price is $1,500.  That is right…that is gross of over $105,000!  So of course that perked my interest and my fingers started to search the web for unique barns across America.  I ran into this one in WA where the owners have turned it into a beautiful home while still preserving the raw barn feeling.

This home is on a beautiful corner lot, look at those mature trees!  Anyone that has a new build is drooling right now.

Do you know how much people pay for hand scrapped wood floors?!

I’m not so hot on the kitchen, but that could be changed!

You can find out more on this property HERE.

Would you ever want to re-purpose a barn??

Do I hear Crickets?

Alright I know that I have been gone for.ev.er but you know life has really been crazy and I feel I just now adjusting.  I will be coming back to this blog with great post about homes and decor like never before (ok I just said that because it rhymes).  Hide your kids hide your wives.

Woe is me.

I have this disgusting little habit, one that right now is pulling me from all sides.  It is called having a work ethic.  I work in an office that is made up of me and an assistant, however a few months before I was due I found out that my awesome assistant was going to be moving out-of-town and that I was going to have to find a new one.  Small towns are so hard to find good help in a part-time position especially.  So me and the board worked really hard at interviewing and combing the county to find just the right person, and I offered the job to three different people all who declined it in the end.  How can this economy be so bad if that many people are going to turn down a job?!  I did find a lady to take the job just temporarily until I get back from leave at the end of September but she is only here a day or two a week and the rest of the days we are just closed.  I hate that the office is closed it is driving me crazy, and knowing that people may need information and no one is here, or that there are checks to be deposited or bills to be paid and no one is here to do that.  I have a work ethic that makes me want to cut my mat leave short and come back to work.  Today is the first day that I have made it back into the office and I was only there for 4 short hours but I still thought about Anderson every minute and how I can’t wait to get back home to kiss his little checks and smell his hair and read him a book.  Man this is going to be really hard when I have to come back full-time without him.  I have sent out an email to my board of directors asking for permission to bring him to work with me if I would come in before my mat leave was up….so far I have received yeses!

Everyone said this was going to be hard, and I did have the chance to be a stay at home mom before I took this job but I know that I need an outlet and that staying home all day was not and still is not for me.  I somehow still feel that there are people that look at me a like a bad mother for sending her kids to a daycare just to fulfill a professional need if I didn’t financially have to.

What do you think?  I have heard that “Mom Guilt” will reside in me forever, ugh.

Dear baby boy

Tags

binkie, home, mommy and daddy, motherhood, travel

This Tuesday you will be a month old, I can’t believe it whereas this month went?! Tomorrow we will go back to work already but at least it will be together. I think it will be fine because you are such a good little guy…as long as I’m holding or feeding you. No really you hardly cry at all and everyone keep telling me what a good baby you are helps that you love your binkie and as long as you have that you are golden.

Mommy and daddy are still adjusting to you and your schedule you are eating about every 3 hours just two nights last week you slept 7 hours straight. Give me some more of that! You are enjoying my breast milk so far and do pretty good with the bottle which is good that way daddy can get in on some feelings (and the late nights).

I thought our lives were great before you came along but now I know I was wrong, so wrong. You are the perfect little addition and I now can’t imagine life without you. Everyday I praise the Lord for the blessings he has given us and keep asking myself what we did so right to be blessed so much.

A is for Anderson

Life Changing

Life changing. That is the only way to describe what a baby can do. We were blessed on August 28 with our baby boy Anderson. He is so amazing and brings so much joy into our lives and it has only been 5 days! I have to say that he has already changed so much, I’m scared that i’m going to blink and he is going to be grown. Nights have been kind of long but we are adjusting and I kind of like that special time with Anderson, I sing to him and read to him and just bond. I’m not nursing but I am pumping so I can still provide nutrition for him and I still feel a connection to him through that.

As for my delivery I have to say it went better than I expected. Just had to stay in the hospital for 24 hours after our labor and the we were home free. We are blessed to have such a great local hospital in such a small town. Our dr is a family dr that we will stick with as long as we can because we really like him and he is great with our little guy.

Zoe’s last Photo Shoot

Well as an only child that is.  I know Anderson is coming in just a few short days so I spent some time with my first baby outside this rainy afternoon to get a couple shots of her.  I can’t believe how much these look like fall photos and it is only August!  She never wants to look at my camera, it is like she knows I am a photographer and just wants to be difficult!

 

 

 

Bedroom Vision Board Update 1

Tags

diy, foot board, home, home decorators

Remember this post I did about my bedroom vision board?  Well I can now check off the most costly of the items…the headboard!  I ordered this from Home Decorators online, it was a great sale saving me almost $100!  It took a while to get (my shipping date was even pushed back a whole month once) but it was worth the wait.  It is just the head board, no foot board or bed runner.  I love it though, the color is perfect and will look great with my soon to be tan and coral!  Now just to convince Austin take we need new bedding.  If I can only get Zoe to tear the rest of it up (notice the one Euro shame that has no cover).

Trying to Make Cents

Tags

accounting, blogging, budget, business, dave ramsey, Money

Wow, I don’t really know where this month went!  I have 9 days until my little man comes and it has been a little crazy around the Higgins Home!  I know that shouldn’t be an excuse, but oh well this is my blog and I can cry if I want to!

Austin and I went through a financial class right before we got married called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey.  I cannot tell you what this man has done for our lives and how we spend and handle our money.  Going through his class we paid off $3500 in debit in 90 days!  I love listening to his pod cast, that always kicks me into gear if I get off track he is also on iheartradio!

I also use a great website called Mint. www.mint.com is the website and it helps make budgeting simple! I just entered all my personal information and they download all my bank information into the program then I place it all into categories.  Pretty much like QuickBooks but much easier and FREE!

I love the budget app that comes on this website.  I have just started to use the website, and I can already see a big difference in how I am spending how that I can see where my money is going.  I know that men and women handle money different, so for Austin this website just makes his mad because it points out how he needs to improve ha!

(These are not pictures off my account)  I also couldn’t find a screen shot of the budget page, but trust me it is way cool!  I always get a little nervous when I think about little Anderson coming and adding all the financial stress I wanted to try to get a handle on it all before he gets here.

Bathroom Remodel

We remodeled our bathroom last December and I love it!  I can’t believe that I lived in this bathroom for almost a year before I begged to have a new one.  There is an auction several times a year in Kansas City that we like to go to, and that is where we picked up several pieces for the remodel to save a little dough.

Today I am going to share the “before pictures”:

There is an old farm picture on the back of the shower…with deer jumping a fence and the whole shebang!  As a real estate agent, I am a little embarrassed that I took all these photos with the toilet seat up!

Zoe found a paint roller, and it was so funny watching her carry it around.  Probably she tell her no or one of these days it is actually going to have paint on it.