Since starting my intentional journey I have been working on contentment. Learning to cultivate contentment in sticky situations, when things don’t go the way that I planned, or flat out end up as a disaster. We have had a lot of unforeseen issues with The Palace and it has become a “learning property” versus a […]

There’s a part in Shrek, where Shrek is talking to Donkey. He tells him that “Ogres, are like onions. They have layers” Well, The Palace is like an ogre. Or an onion. It has layers. Many, many layers. It’s one thing to go into a house knowing it’s a gut job, but in this case […]

Our master bath started out two-tone. A hasty repaint due to some water damage, I’m sure. I picked out some fabric to put in the top window shutters. Wanting everything to flow together nicely, I chose a green paint to compliment the fabric. From the first paintbrush stroke I knew it was wrong. This was […]

On Friday, the dumpster arrived. Finally! Demo could begin in earnest. The kids and I put on our gloves and got to work tossing in things from the piles around the exterior of the house. I took breaks to hop in and organize the dumpster. I wanted to maximize the amount that we could fit […]

It’s demo day, or week, or month. Dumpster Blues When we left off, I thought we would have a dumpster in about a week and a half. Well that week went by and I called to see what the schedule was looking like. The not-so-friendly lady told me that I was basically out of luck […]

I somehow have neglected to fully convey the state of The Palace during those first 30 days. As we waited to be able to get rid of the stuff left behind, I worked to get as much as possible down to the basement garage. This involved many boxes, bags, and trips up and down the […]

A New Day Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed we woke up the next morning ready to go back to The Palace. There’s something about diving into a new project that fills you with motivation. The kids eagerly loaded up and we set off to continue cleaning up the personal belongings that remained. The kids had each found […]

Hey kids, pennies are fun! When we first purchased our home there were only three of us… and one of us wasn’t potty trained. Therefore, renovating bathrooms fell low on the priority list. If it worked, it was good enough. As time went on I wanted to make the bathroom outside of my son’s room […]

Let me take a moment to back up and explain the process of buying a home at sheriff’s auction. Buying a house this way is something many people skip as they aren’t aware of the process. The truth is that you have the potential to find great deals if you’re willing to put in the […]

In June we purchased our latest project, a house at Sheriff’s Auction. We have dubbed it “The Palace.” In May, prior to the auction, we did a drive by to check out the house. We find out as much as we can about a property in order to limit risk. The owner was home and […]