This is a
part of mine and Riley’s life that because it involves so many other people, I
will leave out a lot of the (unpleasant) details.
By
November 2014 house remodel #2 on the farm was DONE!!! Myself and the Seller
were very pleased with this. He decided he didn’t want the risk of putting a
tenant in there again and the cost of the 2 remodels were more than he could recoup
continuing to rent out the investment property so he had to sell it. He had an
appraisal done on the property and I listed it for sale accordingly!
Here are
the photos of when the second renovation was completed as the house went on the
market up for sale just shy of a year ago!
She's no looker and still has no curb appeal but at least she was all cleaned up and ALMOST everything in working order!
The deck is 515 square feet, I measured!
Done again. Dining room.
Living Room
Living Room
Kitchen
Kitchen
Backyard
Backyard
I have always loved these 2 mature mesquite trees and how they just seem to beautifully frame the shop!
A view of the entrance to the carport, the gate to the back part of the property (about 6 of the 8 acres is rural and fenced in, separate from the "front yard" part of the house/property)
This is a tack shed on the property.
3 car carport/shop
The chicken coop is right there to the right, inside that covered awning area.
A shot of the back 6 acres. =D
Changes abound!!!
The house
went on the market and I was excited! I was happy to see it looking so good
again and I hosted a few open houses to drive people to the house since it’s in
a very rural area. Things didn’t go as planned. There was hardly any interest
in the home and when I would have someone come out to see it they either were
just curious to see what it looked like after the remodel (nosy neighbors) or
they were wanting a rent to own option which the Seller wasn’t too keen on!
In my
life, the second week of November was a giant turning point. The stress my
relationship was under with my fiance got to be too much and after arguing
daily for about a month and finally sitting down to talk, we ended our
relationship. Problem was, I had no intention on ending the relationship and I
had vested my entire life and my business on this move to a new town. Riley had
only been in his new school for maybe 2 months, if that. Add to that that I was
heartbroken because nobody likes the end of a relationship but I knew that if
we did proceed to hack away at it that if a marriage did happen, it would eventually
end as our views on parenting were so far apart…that any compromise seemed
impossible. So, since I wasn’t planning on having to move AGAIN we hadn’t been
saving money. Both of us had put all of our extra money into fixing up his Mom’s
house that we had planned to buy. I think we sunk about $3000 into that house
in two months, repairs that were greatly needed. But then at that point in my
life seeing the end of my relationship it felt as though all that money had
been wasted, on a home I’d never own, belonging to a family I’d never be part
of. The magnitude of the situation I was in got to be too much for me to bear.
When venting to my Mother on the phone (who lives in Louisiana) she told me
that Riley and I needed to come out to see her for Thanksgiving and just give
myself a chance to get away. So we did just that. We loaded up in the car and
hit the road a few days before Thanksgiving when Riley got out of school. The
week following the break up, while still living together, Chad and I didn’t do
much talking. We had talked about how it was obvious I couldn’t move out right
away so he’d have to be flexible with me. And we needed to at least be friendly
with one another or it’d be unbearable for both of us. Since we both agreed on
those things, that’s what we did. So our trip to Louisiana and Arkansas (where
I’m from, where most of my family is, where my youngest son lives) was great!!!
I’ll share some photos below because it was such a wonderful time!
Thanksgiving in Louisiana and Arkansas!
When I go back home several times a year to northern Arkansas it is a 23-34 hour drive. This was my first trip heading to West Monroe, Louisiana and so when we left home and my GPS said 19 hours I was like "Woo hoo, I can do that!". A little known fact about me, I love road trips. Particularly, I love driving, as these trips going back and forth to places we've been so many times there is less "road tripping" and sight seeing and more driving through the night to not have to deal with traffic and fellow travelers! So I almost always set out midday or in the evening with the intent to drive straight through and every trip I've made by myself or just me and my boys, we always made it straight through. #motivation #loveit
But honestly I don't do it alone. I always have a monster (or 5) on board and generally a jug of my homemade sweet tea to make the drive a little easier! And it works! =D
Coming into West Monroe! It was my first time there and I swear you drive through Texas for 12-13 hours (no lie) and about an hour before you hit the Louisiana western border you go from wide open plains to TREES!!! Being from Arkansas with tons of big, huge, beautiful green trees but living in Arizona the last 15 years...I LOVE TREES!!! So that is always one of my favorite parts about going back home!
My boys and I at the Duck Dynasty Headquarters in West Monroe, Louisiana!
Boys being adorable in the hotel
Me and my Riley man
Some time in Arkansas with those we adore!
Part of the middle of southern Arkansas on our way from my Mom's in West Monroe, La (north central Louisiana) to where my bff and family live in north central Arkansas. Almost a straight line north through the center of the state. Trees and wildlife (deer primarily) abound!!! And fog, I do not miss driving in fog!
While there, I kid you not, I never once saw the sun. That to me, being so used to the bright, blissful, endless Arizona sun was pretty dreadful! This was a very soggy, long dirt road to my good friend Alaina's house. She also lives in the middle of nowhere, common factor with my friends and family! But on a sunny day in spring or summer, this road and this area is immensely gorgeous with bright green fields, tall towering trees and wild flowers!!!
One of the days going to my best friend Jeannie's house, this is the dirt road to her house. She lives in flat lands and the area is primarily all farm land. So all the area around her house in a good 8-9 mile radius is ALL farmland. The main highway is raised, due to damaging floods in the last 30 years. But once you turn off that main road you drop down to the rural dirt roads and they're all low, pretty level with the farmland. So when there is a ton of rain and the nearby rivers rise (and they do, at least a few times a year) then the farmland gets flooded. If it is bad enough, then the roads get flooded. A few times, most recently just a couple of years ago, the floods got so bad homes were lost and major damage was done on the nearby towns. These roads make me nervous as I seem to always find myself on them in a car!!!
While in Arkansas to see Konnor we got to go by my best friend's house and she's PURE COUNTRY! Her and her husband (and their kids) live on an acre outside of town and have chickens, lots of dogs they breed and pigs!!! I hadn't had much experience with pigs although...I do love pork! haha! So it was a wonderful experience to get to meet her pigs, talk to her and her husband about what it's like to raise them and I was smitten! I knew right away when I had a farm someday I would have to have pigs! They are such smart and social creatures! I loved how they wagged their little tails when you walk up to them!
One of Jeannie's pigs! So cute!!!!
I am still not a fan of chickens and I'm not sure why, they just kind of freak me out! haha!
Jeannie's dogs looking out to the farmland surrounding their house.
When we went back home to Arizona after Thanksgiving it wasn't too bad because we were only home for a couple of weeks before we left again for the Christmas holidays in the south. Chad and I got along fine, we had a few heart to hearts about how we could be friendly roommates and still split the bills like we were before and make it through until I could put a new plan in place. So everything was shockingly amicable on that front.
Christmas in Arkansas and Louisiana!!!
This was the first Christmas in too many years that all my siblings got together at my Mom's house. The previous 10 or so years my Mother and I both lived in Arizona so we'd celebrate together with my boys but my sister lived in Arkansas and my brother lived in Oklahoma. This year with me coming out, my brother and sister came out as well since they were all less than 8-9 hours away. So my Mom was very happy to have all her babies and all her grandbabies together in one place! We took that opportunity to have some family portraits done by my sister in law who is a professional photographer!
The swampy yet beautiful park where we did our family photos! The grounds were GORGEOUS! And I'm not sure what kind of trees these tall, lanky, mossy trees were but any tree is a splendid sight to me so naturally, I snapped up several photos while there!
One of the docks we did photos on!
My two happy boys, playing video games at Nana's!
My baby boo! He is already 8 but still loves his blanky that he got when he was just 6 mths old. Sleeps with it always!
Riley man on Christmas morning.
So those are just a few photos from Thanksgiving and Christmas! This was a long post with lots of pictures so I'll pick up on the next post in early 2015! Almost got you guys caught up to date, almost!
XoXo,
Elizabeth
