After Rob decided not to return to school in the fall we had some questions about where our future was heading. Suddenly a whole new world was in front of us. We now had to think about housing, something that months earlier we had not thought we’d have to bother with for a long time in our lives. Did we want to stay where we were? Purchase our own home? Continue to rent? Are we planning to stay put in this area for a long period of time? How long is Rob thinking of working where he is right now? Are we ready to put down some roots?
We didn’t expect answers to these questions immediately, nor were we actively trying to answer them all so that we could draw our map of where we were heading. They were just simply questions running through our heads as the reality of a change in our lives settled in. Those questions continue to work through our heads today also, but probably with less discussion and more just dreams and thoughts here and there. We really don’t know where we’re heading, none of us really do, although some of us have a better idea of where we hope to head in the coming years. Rob enjoys his job and there’s lots of work for him, so for the time being that is where he’ll be. If the Lord puts something else on our path we’ll work with that when it comes. We’re flexible and willing to change, decisions are never easy but we realize that the Lord keeps guiding us along the way and so we just need to continue to trust in Him also when we’re uncertain of our future.
I think the biggest reality that sunk in when Rob finished school was the financial reality. We have much to be thankful for and we truly are, but the reality that here we are in our mid -thirties with no more then we had when we got married … actually less because when we got married we owned (mortgage) our house, sort of makes us want to better understand what the purpose was of these years of schooling. We’re at a stage in our lives where buying a starter home isn’t really what we have in mind anymore. With the kids getting older we’re looking for something a bit more long term that will accommodate teenagers, nothing big, but something a bit more spacious. When we got married we weren’t pay elementary school and high school … now we’re paying full elementary tuition and pre-tuition for high school. We won’t even touch on finding a downpayment after 6 years of school.
I’m content with renting. The math at this time says it’s more efficient for us. A mortgage and property taxes would easily double our current month housing fee. Rob has a harder time with this … he wants something that is his own, something he can work on and show pride in. To me it’s all just earthly treasures … we have a roof over our heads, food on our plates, free natural gas (another factor when thinking of buy … we’d have to actually pay for our heat), clothes and we are lacking in nothing. We did some research on rent vs buy … in the end it’s a long fought battle of opinions and it comes down to what works best for you. We settled on settling in at our current place for the long run, unless the Lord shows us another path to take.
And then … in our attempt to find a friend a rental home we stumbled across a “too good to be true” deal. A magnificent home – 4 bedrooms, sitting room, craft room, main floor laundry, lovely kitchen and dining area and rec room downstairs. Beautiful gardens and a the selling feature was a gorgeous large screened gazebo … Rob said he’d take the place just for that, never mind the large property, secluded area, even more country then what we’re at now. And it was only a small amount more then what we were currently paying. Suddenly our settled minds on staying put were unsettled and we were ready to pack up and move again. We had just told the girls we would be moving and then the following day we received a call. The owners real estate buddy informed him that he could rent the place for much more then what he was asking from us … the price nearly doubled. *Crash*. We had to put away the dreams of the last days and go back to being content where we were.
It being almost three years since our last move it just seemed like we were meant to move again (sort of seems the pattern we take) … we decided that instead of moving from one house to another we would move within our home. Does that mean we’re good for another three years before the idea of moving comes up again?
The one thing we found lacking in our current house is space for the kids. A space to do homework, a space to do crafts, a space to hang out with friends while not being right on top of the adults, And as the kids are getting older this seems more important as we want them to feel the desire to come home with their friends and that the door is always open and yet that they have a bit of room to do their thing. We don’t have a basement for this and the upstairs doesn’t have any space, so we needed to do some revamping. To follow is what we accomplished during the fall months.
Here’s the room that began the cycle of change … Rob’s office
Here’s what we changed it to … The Master Bedroom
For the summer months the door of the office remained closed. The room was not used and it seemed a waste to have a unused room in the house when we didn’t have a huge amount of space to start with. We did a lot of talking and blueprinting to come up with our final plan. It took a lot of work and pretty much felt like we had moved. Rob had to figure out what to do with all his office items, we had to turn two offices into one. We had to find room for the books that were to stay and Rob spent a lot of time sorting through what was to stay and what was to go.
As you will note from one of the pictures above the office had a deep freezer in it. We also had another deep freezer in the shop outside. With lots of kijiji searching we managed to find two freezer (actually four as the first two we got were duds and so we had to drag them back out and buy two more) that were narrow enough to get down our basement stairs (25” wide) but still large enough to hold all we have (both my freezers are usually full most of the year). This was the first task … but in order to put two freezers in the basement that meant I had to do some purging and making space to fit these freezers. Once I had tackled the basement and the “new“ freezers were in we were ready to move forward with the rest of the house.
The Master Bedroom
It’s small, it’s cozy … well more like breezy due to the lovely old window, but it’s cozy under the blankets and we’ve always preferred to sleep with the window open in the winter so now we can keep the window closed and still get the same effect as we used to with the window open.
We decided that we really don’t spend any time in the master bedroom except to sleep and get changed so there is no point in having a larger room when that room can be more beneficial to everyone.
The first few days of sleeping in the room I felt like we were trailer camping … that feeling of walls right beside you when you wake up. And yes, we know that if there is an earthquake while we are sleeping then we will be buried in books … thanks everyone for so kindly pointing this out ;)
As the following pictures will show, in order to fit in this room we needed to purchase a new bedroom set. We found the ideal price for a great price off of kijiji. We originally just wanted the tallboy armours/dressers, but in the end it was a good enough deal that we were convinced to buy the matching dresser and headboard (which you can’t see behind the pillows, but it’s great because it all all kinds of storage space in it and then a shelf like area for us to put our alarm clocks and light … great use of limited space. We decided it was a good price and it made sense to have the whole set so that if we ever do have enough space we’d have a complete bedroom set for our room. We love the tallboys … for years I had said that if we ever bought new bedroom furniture I want something with shelves and not dresser drawers … I love this set, it’s great having shelves!
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