Let the Lists Begin!

The decision was made that we are moving... then I was up all night thinking about how I so do not want to live in the middle of no where and amongst other less-than-fun things, with a herd of goats in the back yard. My number one fear you ask? Where will I put all of my kitchen stuff?? There isn't enough cabinet/counter top space!!

I keep telling myself that it will be an adventure!

My little mental chant has become; "remember, it's an adventure! A second car, no more ugly notices from the credit card companies, and an actual savings account with money in it!" It didn't help me sleep much, but it at least I haven't backed out yet! We'll see if that continues though, John and I go out to inspect all the work that will need to be done before we can move in and all the work that will need to be done to stand living there. It won't be easy, or cheap - but the cost beats paying rent by a long shot!!

So far, from what we already know about the property and what my brother (who is out there tending to the livestock daily) has told us, we know that we will need to:

1. Install insulation and Sheetrock on the back wall (which also happens to be the kitchen wall) to keep the house cool/warm and most importantly, the critters out!
2. Rip up the carpet from the living room/dining room. Years ago we had some pipes bust and it flooded the main areas of the house. The carpet should have been ripped out then, but better late than never. We've decided to go with an area rug over the smooth cement slab for the time being rather than re-flooring the house.
3. Install a new front door (hopefully just the door knob) so it will do little things, like LOCK!
4. Paint! okay, so obviously this isn't a necessity - but! I will lose my mind looking at bare white walls with the stains of our childhood juice boxes and such! The kitchen cabinets, walls and the main areas of living space. I think we'll also paint what will be our bedroom and leave the 'office' space white for the time being.
5. Install a ceiling fan in the living room. For the foreseeable future we won't have central heat or air in the house (nor is there a fireplace) so we will jump on anything that will allow us to cut back on an electric bill and not smother in the Texas heat.

All of that is just to move into the dang place. We know we'll have more to do after that. The back door (formerly beautiful french doors) have been totally destroyed by the darling goats and will need to be replaced. The central heat/air unit will need some serious work if it is repairable at all. The "big" bathroom's bathtub needs to be pulled out and replaced - in the mean time we just won't be using that bathroom or that end of the house at all.

Let's just call it our practice run for when we actually buy our first home. I'm sure it'll be a "fixer-upper".