Nitty Gritty......

Where have I been?  I've been a little down about people for the past few days.  My husband wisely told me to NOT post anyting last night and I'm glad I listened.  I wasn't down about anything to do with the house or my family but just some things that have been going on in our periferal life.  I was wondering how to keep from becoming jaded about everything, how to stay positive when you see people  intentionally do harm to others.  I was even more down about some people seeing this and not standing up for what is right and just going with the "flow" and not having a backbone.  I was really feeling, and maybe still feeling, that some people would much rather see you fail than to succeed.  So that was one thing and the other is that I guess I have unintentionally offened someone who has read this blog.  I try to be very conscientious about what I write but please also remember that I am coming from my personal experience and that by reading this you are in a way reading my diary.  Shame on you!....O.K., I have left it out for the world to see.  Back to my bad mood, yes, I need to get this out.  As you may recall I like to get advise from others.  I usually call my dad "Sage Butch" when something is troubling me.  I just wanted to share what he told me just in case you ever get to feeling like I did.  He told me that we can't control how other people act, feel or what they do we only have control over how we act, feel and what we do and it is a choice.  He said that you don't have to look very far to find people that would like to see you fail but if you look just a little bit harder you will also find people that want you to succeed.  He quoted a good family friend, Alan Lewis who says "Life is too short to let other people ruin my day.  They are not that important."  My dad didn't realize that I was writing down what he was saying and took my long pause in responding to mean that I was crying so he left me with this final pearl of wisdom "It's O.K. to cry, sometimes it's theraputic."  Thanks Dad.

Now where did I leave off.....Oh yeah, I had just blundered that whole deal.  I guess I was possibly a little glad that it had gone south.  I am not a risk taker when it somes to money.  Look, this was going to be a risk and a lot of worry and work.  I'm not necessarily afraid of those things but did I mention I have three kids?  John took the inititive and decided to get in touch with the Mr.  They met out at the house and really went through it and took stock of the condition of the place.  A week or so after that they come back with an offer that we could all work with and we signed an agreement.  The next step was to get some funding for this project and pay for the property.  We worked with Cody Black at Arvest Bank and he was very realistic with us and has just really been great to work with.  He was a little concerned that we would not be able to get it to appraise high enough to cover the cost of reconstruction but it all just flowed very smoothly.  The only hiccup came with the title company and we got title insurance and it was all taken care of.  I highly recomment getting title insurance.  As much as I hate paying out for something I may never need, I think it is a smart way to protect your investment.  We also had to get construction insurance.  We worked with Farm Bureau Insurance and, as always, Chris Muldoon was great to work with.  As a matter of fact he sold me a life insurance policy on John just in case I kill him over this project. : )  The final step is the closing.  It only takes about 30 minutes to officially accept money from the bank and buy this property, just a few signatures to saddle myself with big o' debt.  When it was all done I started crying, really this very emotional.  They were not really tears of joy, I just couldn't believe that everyone involved would actually let us go through with it!  This is crazy to buy this OLD BURNED DOWN HOUSE!  But what's done is done and we now shift our focus to Randy Kersey.  He is the contractor that gave us the estimate.  John already knew him and I met him for the first time when we were figuring out all the details.  Randy is a very personable guy with a giant smile.  It is obvious that he has this inner happiness that no one can touch.  As he walked through the house with me he seemed very confident and knowledgeable about what it would take to fix the place up.  I guess I can say this now, he even said that if we decided not to buy the place he wanted to buy it.  That really made me feel better.  So now we have the go ahead and Randy can start to tear the thing apart and get all the bad parts out.  The picture below show the work he did after just a couple of days.  Now keep in mind that this was wet, dirty, molding and just gross work.  It really says that the American work ethic is still alive out there!

Kitchen family room area

This area is in the family room, and build in desk has been removed

Dining room, notice the solid wood walls. 



The larger furniture is sitting outside, all ruined awaiting disposal.