Updates and Laura Love

I feel like I've been posting often an excuse for my absences. This time, I promise, it's a good one. We found a place! It's a very nice mobile home which has been very well kept by it's previous owners. There is an amazing 2 car garage where my husband can have his little shop and we can also fit a couple goats in there (haha!). It sits on almost 2 acres with a beautiful view of the Maine hills. It's zoned rural/residential so we have neighbors but can still enjoy the freedom of having chickens and the like. We are actually under contract and should be closing on it near the end of May. Our home inspection came back and was very good so that takes a lot off our minds. Of course, at this same time of trying to buy a house we've had a few hiccups that have had me running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

In the last post when I said that you should always be frugal and be saving to have that cushion "just in case" I wasn't joking. We've had a couple issues these past weeks for which I'm glad we had that cushion. My husband fell asleep on his way home from work and flipped his vehicle. He is okay, just had to get some stitches, but we now have some hospital bills as well as a new vehicle that needed to be bought. After that all got taken care of we found out my car has a cracked head. Plus, money is flying out of our hands left and right for this whole home buying deal. If we hadn't had that cushion we very well may have had to put off buying a home. It's well and good to tell people that saving is key but another to tell them that it really does help when you need it.

Other than that life has been pretty quiet. The weather is getting warmer and with that comes a lot more time outside and a lot less time spent wasted on the internet. I've been trying to save now more than ever with the time coming closer that we'll be on our own again with "real" bills. I've been trying to stock up on pantry staples each week when I shop so that when we move in our pockets won't be so hard hit stuffing cabinets. We've also taken to hitting the thrift shops and Goodwill a little more often hoping for deals on things we'll need. I've spent my little bit of  "fun" cash trying to complete my set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I've got just over half now, after finding another at the Goodwill for 99 cents! Now that I've got the first few Laura books I've started reading them. I am so inspired the more I read. We are so spoiled these days! I know that those times were hard times full of work but I wish so badly I had been born then. Everything seemed so more meaningful but simpler. I've already learned many lessons from these books and I know that if we have children they will be a bedtime staple.

What about you? What have you been up to? Any thrift store scores you'd like to share?

Until next time,

xoxo Stacie

The Plot Thickens

I wish there was someone to sit you down when you start the process of buying a home and EXPLAIN THINGS TO YOU IN LAYMAN'S TERMS. We've got our pre-approval letter from a woman whose number was given to us by our realtor, who is going to turn around and sell our mortgage before the ink is even dry on the paper. We'd prefer local servicing. We found some great trailers to look at, yet no one told us that trailer financing is a whole different ballgame than home financing. Now that I've read up on the subject I can understand why, but regardless, couldn't someone have TOLD me this? So basically, what we can afford is an old run down house as opposed to a nice sparkly trailer on a nice plot of land. ARGH! This is way more time consuming, confusing, and stressful than I had ever imagined. What the HELL are we EVEN DOING?

Okay, end rant. The husband has secured a part-time position with the post office on top of his full time job, YES! And, if you could quite possibly click on some of my advertiser links if you see something interesting, you too can contribute to the "please oh please let me find my own place to live" fund. I mean, the quicker we find somewhere to live the quicker you'll see lots of annoying before and after pictures! And who doesn't love those?

Until next time,

xoxo Stacie