Water pipe Update...

It has now been over two months since a water pipe busted in our wall and leaked all over our crawlspace. On Friday they finally came and fixed the laundry area! The crawlspace still had a bit of moisture, so they decided to run fans in the crawlspace all weekend. We have had a lot of frustrations with this company and our house insurance (first time we have ever had to use house insurance). The fans ended up running another 5 days and then they decided to respray this chemical that helps keep mold away. As I type, currently, they are under the house putting in the insulation. This has been an adventure and, oh wait, there is another crawlspace! We actually have two crawlspaces because there was an addition added onto the house at some point. We are now getting estimates on the other crawlspace!

Meet Oreo

We already have a dog, cat, fish and turtle, but with all this land, we know we will be adding to the crew.

Here is what I would like to add someday: More fish, goats or alpacas or both, one more cat and dog, and definitely chickens. As we all know though, this could change multiple times. I used to want to be a vet until I figured out how much schooling was involved! Ha!


Meet Oreo Von Egypt! I had heard that a friend from church would trap cats and relocate them. I happen to run into her at the hardware store one day and told her I wanted another cat for outdoors. A week or two later she called and had a cat trapped. He had been hanging out at the local CVS, which was very unsafe. I thought at first, that he might be feral, but this is the most friendly cat in the world. Poor guy's tail is broken, but he goes on walks with me, chases the dogs if they are being too nosy, and is just all around fun!!

protecting the back door

My two kitties!

1st day we got him

taking a walk on our trail around the property

Week Two- Skylight Leak and the list goes on

We have now been in the house for a month and a half and here is what we know so far...

1. Skylight in master bedroom leaked- Got bed wet, repaired it twice, but it seems to be fixed.

2. Electricity- Right now some of the shed lights don't work if it rains, there is a problem in the garage, and we have a light on the front porch that we don't know how to turn off.


3. Overkill- This house has 3 A/C units...yes three! The one that works the best is outdated and the refrigerant used will be outlawed (repairman's words) by January. The second one needs to be repaired because it keeps randomly shutting off (or just replaced because its old). The third one has a leak and can be repaired, but was suggested to replace. Luckily these all work fine for heating, but by the spring we will need to decide how to proceed.

4. Trees- This place has a lot of trees and I absolutely love it, but two of the trees (one of them is the best on the property) is interfering with the septic system, so they need to be cut down. Then there are 3 other trees that are too close to the house and will need to be removed. All five of these trees are too close to the house for us to cut down on our own.

5. Crawlspace- This house has two crawlspaces. Luckily we have one that is being repaired because of the pipe breaking. The other one needs to have all vapor barriers removed and insulation removed and replaced. Then it needs to be sprayed because it has mold.

6. Kitchen needs updating

our 3 different floors

7. Master bathroom is right off the kitchen instead of near the master bedroom.

8. Random trash is on the property- see pictures below. Some are good treasures, others will be a bit of a challenge to remove.

9. Hot tub does not work and needs to be removed, but once it is removed, we will have a hole in our deck and that will need to be repaired. Right now its our greenhouse.

10. Windows- At least half of the windows need to be replaced.

11. There is no gas in the gas tank which is used for the fireplace (that might be ventless, we are not sure) and the wood burning stove, Apparently it hasn't been used since 2012. Gas prices are not fun for just this small amount, so we will be converting these to something else (not sure what yet). I would like two fire places. One an electric and one wood burning.

Childhood Memories- Week 3

I had to laugh when I saw this scene. It brought back so many memories as a young child. If anyone has lived overseas, they have, at some point, gotten stuck in the mud. My parents are very experienced with this, but they are not used to Virginia's moisture! Now they have learned to not park by their RV!

Join Me!! - Day 4 Water Pipe Breaks!

This house is going to have lots of exciting and frustrating changes, so join us as the Simpsons and the Bush's join forces and create a Woodland Wonder


Day 4

It was a Friday and we had just moved to the house that past Monday. We were putting the washer and dryer in and a pipe broke in the wall. Sadly we had not had a chance to know where all shut off valves were, so lesson learned- on Day 1 know where all water shut off valves are!

It was night, we couldn't find the shut off valve and the water was flowing and flowing and flowing. It was gushing so much that it was coming into our shower on the other side of the wall. I had remembered during inspection asking the inspector where the water shut off valve was. He told me the crawl space, so I yelled to David and my dad and they raced outside under the house to the crawlspace. Finally they found it, but by that time, the crawlspace had quite a bit of water, the walls were soaked, all the insulation was soaked. It was a disaster. It took a week for it to all dry out. Insurance is paying for it, but to this day we still have no insulation and no wall behind our washer and dryer.

We spent two weeks with no dryer and our washer in the garage. After that the company came back and put our washer and dryer in, but still have not fixed the parts that got wet.

Our crawlspace- lots of damage!

Checking moisture levels

pipe repair, floor damage, and MOLD!!

all the old insulation moved out

washing machine in the garage for now

hanging clothes outside, but in Virginia this is hard to do because of all the rain and moisture

crawlspace door needs work!!

Woodland Wonder

We bought this home because of a couple things. First, it was two 10 acre plots (20 acres), it had relatively flat land, the house was livable, and my parents were able to build on the other 10 acres. The kid's bedrooms were upstairs, the house was sort of an open floor concept, the front porch was awesome, the house is set away from the main road and there is only forest beside and behind us. Here are the pictures before we moved in

The back of the house

The sitting or living room

sitting or living room

kitchen facing the dinning room

dinning room facing kitchen

gas wood burning stove and door to garage

Other living or extra sitting room

Master bathroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master closet

upstairs bathroom (kids)

Kid room

Garage

Unusable hot tub

Carport

Gazebo

Storage shed 1

Storage shed 2

Back yard

Back yard

Now it makes sense why we call it woodland wonder!