Our New House

We began our search for a house in the west in October of 2008. We explored several communities in the Black Hills. Pat took several trips out alone to look at houses and we did a few family trips too. One of our family trips was to Hot Springs the week after Christmas. It was our first time exploring Hot Springs and Pat had found this particular house for sale by owner on craigslist. We made an appointment to see it and ended up looking at two other houses that weekend in town for comparison. My original impression of this house was "it's a shack! There's no way that I'm going to live there!" Pretty ironic -- huh!? Now I'm living in "the shack"! We returned from our trip that weekend and decided we liked Hot Springs but none of the houses were suitable for our family. After a few more unsuccessful weekends of house hunting in the Black Hills, Pat returned to Hot Springs again and took a second look at this house and a few others. The second time Pat saw this house he saw some potential in it. The renter was gone and he was able to take a more thorough look around and starting making plans for how we could fix this place up. It needs a lot of work -- but with a little paint and sanding/refinishing (it has hardwood floors throughout the main living area)-- we could make it livable and actually a nice home for our family. So we decided to make an offer -- and they accepted it. The next week we bought the house. The original plan was to live with Pat's mom and go out on weekends to fix it up. But Pat was much healthier in Hot Springs than at his mom's so we ended up moving earlier. So we're living here as we fix it up.

White picket fence -- encloses the front yard -- we're going to replace this eventually - it's pretty rickety. The renter who lived here prior to us put this up to keep his dogs in the yard. We want to fence a larger portion of the yard - so the kids have more safe areas to play. One of the original owners of the house planted a lot of trees - crab apple (can't wait until spring to see them bloom!), apple and several others. The man and woman who lived here are still living . They lived in this house for about 40 years and planted all the trees in the yard. There was recently an article in the local paper talking about Ben - the man who lived here. He just turned 104 years old and they talked about him being the Johnny Appleseed of Hot Springs because he planted so many trees throughout the town. It's neat for us to think about the couple that lived here and now our family has a chance to revive this house which was a rental for the past 4 years or so and wasn't kept up well.
We have a one car detached garage -- nice brick building that has a chimney for a wood-burning stove - we're not using it for a car - but to store things right now. We're thinking about converting it into a play room/guest quarters - and possibly adding a bathroom here. So there would be room for family and friends to come stay. We also have ideas about adding another bedroom on to the back of the house and making a separate office area for Pat. Currently he's working in the little nook off the kitchen until our bedroom is complete - and then he'll move his office in there. We'd also like to refinish the basement for more area to play.....and the list goes on!
The first project....(on a list of 100+ things to fix :-) )
repainting our bedroom
The windows and trim in our bedroom were painted an ugly orange. I am in the midst of priming (I have to put 3 coats on to cover it) it and getting ready to paint it white. The walls are going to be bone white (sort of a creamy white). It's amazing how a little paint can change things! I am planning to do the same scheme throughout the whole house to brighten it up and neutralize it a bit. Pat will be refinishing the floors after I finish painting. It will be nice to have our bedroom done so we can have more space in the living room. Currently our bed is out in the living room and we use it as a couch/daybed during the day.

So there it is -- our fixer-upper! I'm sure there will be many more posts to follow as we make improvements on our house -- so stay posted!

Saying Goodbye & New Beginnings

Hannah had a wonderful preschool to attend (Volga Christian Preschool) while we were living with Lois. She attended 2 mornings a week and loved her teachers and classmates. I thought it would be hard for Hannah to say goodbye to her friends and teachers on her last day of school. But she had a great outlook -- she told her teachers -- "I'll meet new friends at my new school".

I took a picture of Hannah with her teachers and her friend Marika on the playground her last day of school.
I am thankful for her teachers and the friends she made. She always came home from school cheerful and happy to share with us what she had learned in school. She made great progress on writing her letters and has a love for school thanks to Miss Stewart and Mrs. Algood.

Jacob's goodbye was a bit harder -- he was sad to leave his classmates and move on to another school. He really enjoyed Sioux Valley School -- playing on the playground, the AR reading program, Physical Education and his teacher, Mrs. Vostad. On his last day of school, each of his classmates made him a goodbye card. He enjoyed reading the cards over and over again on our trip out west. Jacob was well liked by his classmates and he misses them. I'm thankful for Jacob's time at Sioux Valley and for all he learned in Mrs. Vostad's classroom.
Here is a picture of Jacob on his last day with Mrs. Vostad....
A New School for Hannah and Jacob -- Bethesda Lutheran School
After touring both the public school and Bethesda, we decided to send Hannah and Jacob to the Lutheran School. It's a small school and they are both getting a lot of attention as the small class sizes can allow more individualized instruction. Hannah and Jacob have both made new friends and it helps being at the same school - they have recess together every morning. Jacob was excited to find out that Hot Springs only has school 4 days a week. They enjoy a nice long 3-day weekend. And he has Phys. Ed. every day! It's also much nicer for Jacob and Hannah to be able to walk to school. The long bus rides to Volga made for a long day for Jacob. Hannah is attending preschool 4 days a week - a nice break for me and Hannah was ready for more time away from home. Tomorrow they are singing at the Bethesda Lutheran Church service for school. The church supports the school and they sing at church about 4 times a year. It will be fun to hear them sing.

Line Dancing

One of the highlights of my time on the farm this past 6 months was line dancing with the ladies at the community center in Brookings twice a week. Lois had been dancing regularly with this group and invited me to join her. I had dabbled a bit with line dancing during college with my sister at a country line dancing bar. But hadn't hit the dance floor since then. It was a fun outlet and good exercise. I brought Luke and Sophia with me every week and they played while we danced. We took some pictures the last time at line dancing before we moved west.

Here we are posing....
And one with the kids....

Potty Success

After 4-1/2 years of having two kids in diapers, we are happy to announce Luke's latest accomplishment -- he's wearing big boy underwear! It is so nice to have only one messy bottom to clean-up throughout the day and think of the money we'll be saving not having to buy diapers for two anymore!

Here he is standing proud with his potty chart.
Luke's greatest motivator for keeping his pants clean this past week was being able to watch his Bob the Builder DVD. Prior to that positive affirmation was the #1 motivator. He loved to hear us cheer after he had a successful trip to the bathroom.
Yeah for Luker!

ski race

A few weeks ago we were supposed to compete in a ski race at Oakwood State Park with Jacob and Hannah. Pat and I were both feeling sick the day of the race. So we had an impromptu ski race at the farm. I made racing numbers for the kids and pinned them to their coats and Lois made a race track for the kids. I was the official time keeper and photographer and Lois raced with the kids. Here they are getting ready to race....

And they're off...
The Home Stretch
Jacob won the race! And Hannah made it around the whole track without falling!
They are becoming great skiers!