Home Tour



Good morning, y'all!! It's been awhile since I've stopped by my little corner of the blog world, but I'm excited to be back today and give you a little peek into our home and some of my favorite places and things you'll find here. Thank you, Mia, for nominating me. You can check out her beautiful home here. 

 

 

When you first walk into our home, you'll be greeted with our entryway collage and table. I love this little collage because half of the things I made myself and I'm immediately reminded to keep my mind on Him no matter what.

 

 

Once you're in our entryway, you can turn to the left and enter our living room. This is our favorite room to cozy up in during the winter months. Turn on the fire, maybe pop in a movie, read books together, whatever. It's a cozy place to be together.

 

Our kitchen is a work in progress for sure, but I love our white cabinets. This was the biggest project we took on ourselves before moving in. Refinishing cabinets is not something I'm in any hurry to do again, but I'm thrilled with the results.

 

In our den, just off the kitchen, you'll find my little office space. I love this area. I found the most perfect desk off of Craigslist for a steal of a deal! Now you know where I'm sitting and working on posts. :)

 

My final place is our bedroom. It, too, is a work in progress, but it's our little retreat and I love it. That little pillow, I love you because, has a pocket on the back to slip little notes into with reasons why you love the other. I'm a sucker for those kind of notes.

 

There's a little look into our home. I'd love to show you more glimpses as I finish projects and we make more updates. Now it's your turn! I'd love to see your favorite places or things in your home! I'm passing the baton to another real life bestie of Mia and I, Angela at A Wife Well Lived.

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He is faithful!!!

Happy Monday! I hope you had a good weekend. We had a good, full weekend. Friday night we had a delicious Mexican dinner with friends; Saturday morning we witnessed the baptism of a friend's little boy in our pool and Saturday night brought a fun family pool/pizza party; Sunday was full of church and family time. Busy weekend!

I thought now would be a great time to share how the Lord brought us to our new home. It was not an easy or fast one. But, it was such a sweet time of growth and fellowship with Jesus that I wouldn't change a thing about it.

Our last home was the first home Robert and I bought together. It was a cute 3 bedroom, 2 bath home and it was ours! We loved it. So many sweet firsts occurred those first few years we lived there. That's where we started our family when Collin was born in February 2009. Then, in September 2011, Emma was born. That home holds a special place in our heart for sure. But, by the time Emma joined our family, we had outgrown our home...or at least we weren't comfortable in it anymore.

Robert's parents live in Chicago and come visit as often as they can and I hated not having a place for them to stay. Plus, as a stay at home mommy, the walls of our little home were beginning to close in. Can anybody relate to that?!

Well, one day the kids and I were out running errands. While we were out, I noticed a "For Sale" sign in a neighborhood Robert and I had longed to live in one day. Out of curiosity, I followed the signs to the home so I could snag an information sheet and see the details of the home. I was shocked, in a good way, at the price and promptly called Robert to tell him about it. He, too, was pleasantly surprised. Thus, the wheels began turning.

After much talking and praying, we decided to bring a Realtor to our house and talk about putting our home on the market. We were nervous! Yet, excited! Our talk with the Realtor didn't go as well as we had hoped, but we ultimately decided to list our home. Selling a house is not easy...at all! From keeping it spotless for showings, to the highs and lows of constant showings, it's exhausting!

After 4 months of having our house on the market, receiving one offer that was insultingly low, we talked with our Realtor about taking our home off the market. We just weren't convinced it was the right time for us to sell anymore. But, she encouraged us to keep it on the market a little longer and just see what happens. About two weeks later, we were under contract on our house!

I'll be honest, it was bittersweet  for me. I was excited that after all this  time and stress we were finally under contract, but it was bitter because I didn't know where we were going to live. There was one house that we had looked at several times that, on paper, was the perfect house and an incredible deal. Everybody was on board with this house, except me. I just knew it wasn't the house. But, I didn't understand why I was so polar opposite from how everybody else felt. What did they see that I didn't?!

We made an offer. And immediately my heart sank. I had absolutely no peace about that house. The owners took quite a while to respond to our offer, which left Robert and I more time to talk and pray it over. And as the weekend went on, Robert felt more and more reservations about the home, too. Thus, we walked away from that house. I immediately felt peace about our decision to walk away from the house, however our move out date was fast approaching and we had no where to live!

My parents graciously opened their home to us for as long as we needed to find our house. So, most of our possessions went to storage, while we moved into my parents home. We continued to faithfully house hunt, but the Lord kept telling us to wait. And wait. And wait. Seriously, I have countless passages, spanning many weeks, that the Lord gave me during that time that speak of waiting on Him and His timing. We didn't understand why He was telling us to wait, but we knew He had a reason for telling us that and our job was simply to obey.

Time passed and still nothing. We continued to look at homes both online and in person, but none of them were "the one". And then I received a call from a dear friend's mom. She had just visited an estate sale in her neighborhood, which is the exact neighborhood Robert and I longed to live in, and thought we might want to walk through it and check it out, in case it went on the market. She warned us that it needed a lot of updating, but that the bones of it were good and she really thought it might fit our family perfectly. So, the next day we went to the estate sale.

And y'all, for me, it was almost "love at first sight". There were things about the home that concerned me and made me wonder if it would work for us, but there was so much potential there, too! I tried really hard not to get too excited, though, because Robert was very unsure about the house and about the timing of buying it. I knew I needed to respect him and not push him at all, so I went to the Lord all the more. I prayed and sat in His presence waiting and asking Him to clearly open or close the doors to the house. And He did!!

He first started with Robert. He softened his heart to the home and the timing of buying it. Then, He moved to me and calmed my anxieties. Finally, He very clearly showed us through Scripture that it was time to move on the house, trusting Him and allowing Him to show us His faithfulness.

And, oh how sweet it is to wait on Him and His timing. He worked things out in ways only He can. There was no doubt at all that He lead us to this house, that He was fighting for us and this was why He wanted us to wait on Him and His timing.

We closed on our home in December and promptly began updating and making it our own. On March 5, 2013 we moved into the most perfect home for us because it is exactly the home He lead us to. Our hearts desire is to use our home in a way that brings honor and glory to Him.

I believe He was honored and glorified this weekend when we witnessed the baptism of a friend's son. Baptism always chokes me up because of what it represents, another soul that has been added to the Lamb's Book of Life. But it was even sweeter this time. God was, and is, using our house to bring Himself glory and we are just very thankful to be a part of His story.

We look forward to our days in our home and continuing to give it back to Him; moving over so He can take the reigns and use our home to reach others for Him and bring honor and glory to Him.

Until next time,
Kristal

No Sew Curtains!

Ok, I'm clearly behind the times on this front, but I just discovered how to make "no sew" curtains. And I love them!! One of my girlfriends just bought her first house, I'm so happy for her, and has been having a great time decorating and getting all settled into her new home. One of the things she did was make some adorable curtains for her kitchen. I was asking her all about it so I could try my hand at this, too.

So, off to Hobby Lobby I went to find some material and the tools I needed to make my own curtains. Since our fellas are roughing it in Alaska, and having a great time I might add, Mia and I have been having a great time hanging out together. She came over for dinner this weekend and we decided to knock these curtains out. :) Although they are really easy to do, it was a really good thing we were doing it together...two brains are definitely better than one. :)

This was the magic ticket in making these curtains happen...

 

 

I had my damp cloth (I promise it's clean!) and iron and we were off!

Iron, iron, iron

Check it out, I made a hem!

And here's the finished product! :) And, a really cool thing that I didn't even notice until after it was hung, is that the fabric matches so nicely with the curtain in the den!! I'll have to show you around our house sometime and all the work we've done since we moved it. That'll be some fun posts.

 

 

Until next time,

Kristal

New neighborhood, new neighbors

When we listed our home for sale in April 2012, we weren't sure how everything would play out. We just knew we would trust the Lord as He lead us, whether that was selling the home or staying a little longer in that home. The selling process was not an easy journey. The more we house hunted, both online and in person, the more excited we became for our next house. And, of course, with every house showing we cautiously, yet excitedly, wondered if "this was it." The longer the process went on, the more discouraged we became. So much so, that we even talked with our Realtor about taking our house off the market. She encouraged us to stick with it a little while longer and shortly after that, we went under contract and sold our home....with no new home on the horizon. It was an interesting, stretching time. My parents graciously opened their home to us while we continued to house hunt. We faithfully sought the Lord and His direction in leading us to our new home. It took several months of waiting, per His leading, but we eventually were lead to our new home. Well, new to us. :)

We had no idea, at the time, how very perfect this home is for our family but we see it more and more everyday. And while the neighborhood was one we longed to live in, we had no idea how wonderful the neighborhood would actually be for us, either. Being an older neighborhood, with many people being the original owners of their homes, there is a great sense of community here. People are genuinely interested in knowing you and your family and helping you anytime, in any way. We have learned that first hand.

Many of our neighbors came over to introduce themselves and welcome us to the neighborhood within the first few days and weeks we lived here. We had some unexpected drainage problems with our yard, requiring us to remove a whole row of landscaping in the front of our house. A whole row of Holly bushes...that had been there since 1975. You can imagine the depth and width of those roots. Robert had a good time pulling them out with a truck. Not without trouble, though. It took borrowing our neighbor's chains to pull those suckers out. But our neighbor so willingly offered his assistance to us. It was so kind and different from our last neighborhood. We're embarrassed to admit that after living in our last home for 5 years, we only knew the names of 3 of our neighbors. So sad. That's why we've been so encouraged by our neighbors involvement and interest in our family and vice versa.

Having a large yard now, our push mower didn't cut it...unless we had 6 or so hours to spend push mowing the yard. However, we had not yet purchased a riding lawn mower by the time our grass needed mowed! So, Robert decided to break the mowing down into different days and began mowing our front yard first. One of our neighbors saw him out there mowing, and after talking with Robert, gave us his extra riding lawn mower to borrow for the summer! So very kind and such a blessing to us!

We are so thankful to be in our home and this neighborhood. We're very much looking forward to this summer and being outside more, playing and enjoying the pool, and getting to know our neighbors more. Waiting on Him was so very worth the wait!