Start again

 Am I the only one who dreams about blogging? I think about posting, Dream about  posting however I never really end up doing it. Well now it’s time to get back onto it.
Over the last year and a half our life has changed more than I could have every dreamed, or expected!! We have lived here and beautiful Southern California there is nothing in the world that could take me back to our first dream house!!  Now we have a life here it is perfect it is wonderful and as always full of so many challenges!!!
Our boys have just started back to school, and I have starting studying for my a credential that should help me at work, and as always working to keep our house and family on track for life!!!
There are many things I will post about in the coming weeks... Its all about accountability right?
-Owning to renting
-smart home to not smart home
-making new friends as an adult
-working with the challenges of Ewan
-how to transition to a public school education.
-doing what you love and getting a paycheck for it!

2.0 House

This is our cute little house in Cali!  I cant wait to decorate and make it our own.  

This is my quote for our new home

Even though its not super small, it's gonna be a change for our family! 

Barber Dream house 2.0?

So yes I stopped blogging for a long time.  Well no good reason, just didn't blog.
I feel that its time to revisit.... because.  well

We sold our Barber Dream house! 

We are moving to southern California!  More on that in a few days.  We move May 26! Just wanted those who still look at this from time to time to know! :)

  

So many things I could write but for now I'm just going to share the beautiful photos of this house from our listing.

"JUST 2 YEARS OLD...THIS CUSTOM RAMBLER BUILT BY LODDER HOMES OFFERS THE HIGHEST QUALITY THROUGHOUT*THE MAIN LEVEL LIVING HAS VAULTED CEILINGS PROVIDING OPEN, SPACIOUS LIVING AREAS THAT FLOW INTO THE KITCHEN*GOURMET KITCHEN WITH KNOTTY ALDER CABINETS, SOLD GRANITE COUNTERTOPS, GAS COOKTOP THAT INCLUDES CUSTOM PULL-OUT SPICE RACK AND WALL OVEN*JUST A FEW STEPS OUT TO ENJOY THE COVERED PATIO*MASTER SUITE OFFERS A JETTED TUB AND WALK-IN SHOWER, DOUBLE SINKS & IS ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE HOME FROM THE OTHER BEDROOMS FOR PRIVACY*ENGINEERED HARDWOOD AND TILE FLOORS*PLANTATION SHUTTERS*GAS FIREPLACE*LOWER LEVEL OFFERS ROOM TO ADD BEDROOMS, BATHROOM, REC ROOM AND THEATRE ROOM...AND...HAS A WALK-OUT TO THE SIDE/BACKYARD*3RD CAR GARAGE BAY HAS EXTRA HEIGHT FOR YOUR TOYS*HURRY!! THIS ONE WONT LAST LONG!"

Office and back to school

So I tried it out and I LOVE IT!!!

It took quite a bit of work and help from the wonderful hubby but I LOVE how it turned out.  

Back to school and Office Organization.

As I've stated before I LOVE back to school!! I love school supplies and all that!  I don't know why but $.50 box of crayons make me GITTY!!!!
My oldest is heading back to school (3rd GRADE) in just over a week and I'm ready to help make this the best year yet!!
In the past few years, we have made homework more of a kitchen counter/table process.  HOWEVER I don't think that's gonna work for us this year.  So I'm working on ideas to make this happen!

Right now we have a BEAUTIFUL OFFICE!!! honestly dreams can come true in here!! :) jk

However as you can see its pretty tight and doesn't give us a good space to do some tutoring and team work on homework.  So I'm thinking of new ideas and ways to switch things up.  

Here is the plan.  Not sure what we will officially do but this is whats going on in my brain! 

Go from this beautiful desk, 

and take off the extra side and make it this!

Am I CRAZY? I'm not totally sure I'm doing that,... but I think i am!!! I'm gonna try that and see how that works first.  I'm not even sure the desk will allow me to do that! but I think that will give me a big open space to try! 

Im excited to see how that works out!!

and as we get closer to school starting we will be building a wall for studying and help with getting everything done!! 

yard woes step 2

This winter had been a really tough one for us with owing a home. We have had one flood after another in our basement. So far we haven't really had any really bad damage, however it still totally sucks!!!!!!!

Issues 1:

Our drain pipe wasn't working correctly in turn putting all the draining water right up next to the house and filling up our window wells with water, which in turn leaked through causing our basement to start accumulating water.

We have done a few things to fix it so right now we aren't having issues. We also have clean up down to a science!!!

Pump the outside and shop vac up the inside! 

Issue 2: our new found one :(

Our master tub leaks. Come to find out, with the help of a local plumber, it's the faucet that is leaking. So we are getting that fixed. However with that we noticed there is a lot more water then would just be cause by that leak.

We pulled out the bottom half of the insulation and it seems we have ground water coming in. Makes me super sad and frustrated,.... But that's the name of the game. 

That's the next project for us!!!

Here are some of the pics I've been too depressed to post 

Yard woes!

So I started this blog as a place to cronical us finding, building, creating and making our dream house.  Sadly things don't always go as planned.  We do have a beautiful home and a project list a mile long.  The thing about new construction however is there is this thing called a yard.   In our first home we loved our little backyard we redid right before moving and it was perfect and wonderful and that was in the plans for our new house.  The part that wasn't planed for were the imperfections.  I've almost written about this quite a few times, but the short of it is... after getting our yard in (about 80%, we still have our patio to do which was to be done this year) we loved it and it was everything we could hope for.  Until one day we started to notice water pooling in our window wells. Through a tough long winter of constantly pumping water out of window wells and cleaning up the floor in our basement, we knew that 2016 summer would NOT be patio..... it would be repair!  :'(
Sadly it was a blame game between the builder and the landscaper so it came out of our pocket,

Podcasts!

Hey! I've decided to try to resurface to the bogging world again!

I wish I could say the last few months were full of All these amazing projects that I'll now share with you....but that would be a lie! I just let life be my priority!!
Any of you read young house love? I miss that blog seriously every single day! I looked forward every morning to their new posts..... That is sadly a thing of the past.

However they now have a podcast!!!

You should listen it it! I'm in love!!!!!!

This week has got me motivated to blog and share about myself again. 

On episode 3 they talk about the scrubber vs the the tidier. I am totally the latter. 

I love it when everything has its own place. Greatful my handsome hubby is the cleaner!! He will dust and vacuum and get every thing looking amazing! Honestly I swear we would never have a clean mirror if it wasn't for him!! This however can cause for some less then perfect conflicts.   I would love it if he would "clean the house" and when I get home, he has dusted and cleaned the mirrors, however the kids toys are still all over the place! :D One of thous amazing things about marriage.  Learning about each others differences. 

So you can join in on their poll here on their webpage!

Show them your love and if you haven't read their blog OR books check them out!!!

And now up and on to my finance portion of the blog! :D Check out the HerMoney podcast.  Not my 100% fav one on choosing how to spend money and getting funds taken care of however a great addition to my Dave Ramsey ones.  (conversation for another day)

I went to a woman's meeting at my work and was able to hear from 4 amazing successful women.  I work for a pretty amazing company where the CEO, President, Site manager, and director are all female.  Even though I work in the business of "men" we are a little unique on that front.  That being said many women in today's world are either in charge of the "budget" or make sure that things are there for the family but forget about themselves.  Welcome to being a MOM!!!
This podcast is more about investing and less about the idea of money and spending and saving. I love that it discusses what it is like to be a working woman and how to save for retirement .  Currently I work in retirements and woman are often pushed to the side and defer to their husbands.  I am TOTALLY one of these people and I see that there is not a problem for this to be an open conversation.  However that is not the case.  Women live much longer then men, 7 yr average, and when the husband dies, often the wife will defer to their children, who are from a different generation.  I much prefer planning together.

Well here are my recommendations on what I've been listening too!

Have a safe and Happy 4th of July!

Fire and Life

Sitting by a fire is one of my favorite places to be.  In the winter it is snuggled up inside with a big blanket and a cup of hot tea.  
In the summer it is under a sky full of stars with a cracking fire and a drink in my hand.  Nothing else is needed.

As I write this I am sitting by the latter with boys in a tent about 10 feet away in my back yard, with a fire blazing!
It's been so long since I last posted it feels as thought its almost as if starting a new chapter.  Our house is home.  And with all of its MANY FLAWS!!! Yes there are many and I will get back to sharing them, and how we deal with that soon but for now I think its time to change gears a bit.
I love finance.  It is a sicking disgusting part of our world, but it is also such a 100% necessary evil!  I life in it, thrive in it and love it.  With a PASSION!! that being said I have made all of the financial mistakes we have all be warned of, but It is time to share what I love and also never forget to live the Dream in my DREAM HOUSE!!! Even if i'm house poor!!
One element I did want more than anything in this home was a fire! I wanted one indoors that I could sit by on cold days, and since we have enjoyed this home for just about two years have used it well all winter long.
We had a fire pit from our old house that we didn't use once last year, however this year due to new jobs and busy schedules it is July and we won't have our first, and might possibly ONLY, camping trip until a few weeks from now.  We gotta live it up and have with a fire pit outdoors under the beautiful night sky!