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!

Why Now?

After living in King George for a couple years, we realized a couple things;

I did not like the way our kids were not able to experience certain things by living in a cookie cutter house.
I am an introvert at heart, but with the kids I have and with the kind of things I do, I realized I needed my solace and I couldn't get it in the current house we were living.


About two years ago we started looking for a new house. It started where we just wanted an acre or a couple acres  to give us a little space, but as we searched and new ideas came to mind, we realized we wanted more space than that.

I really felt like God was leading us in this direction. Some circumstances were happening that was putting me in a really bad place and I was getting depressed. I would like to say that this does not affect the family, but if a spouse is depressed, it can make the whole family unbalanced. I was feeling selfish, but we had a long talk and realized as a family we needed to find somewhere else to live.

I began searching 2 summers ago, but back in February we decided it was time to put our current house up for sale. We didn't actually put it up for sale until July (houses were selling quickly in our neighborhood and we needed to not put it up for sale until we found something).

Parents:

As we were searching, my parents made a big decision along with us. Through this long search they made the decision to put their house up for sale in Colorado and get land with us in King George. This opened up a lot more opportunities to find the kind of property that we all needed. Their house is still for sale if you want to share it with others. https://www.trulia.com/p/co/westcliffe/2100-county-road-310-westcliffe-co-81252--2074259744

It was the right timing to start looking, so we started the search and we found something that we thought fit most of criteria! Welcome to the Woodland Wonder!

A Little Bit About Me

Hi-

I wanted to write a little about myself and explain why I have decided to write a blog.

First, and foremost, I am a believer in Jesus Christ. Everything that I have experienced and done is because of God. He has always been a part of my life. He has guided me in everything I have done.

 I am originally from Texas, but spent most of my childhood in Kenya, East Africa and all my married life in Virginia.

I love to travel. I have been to places like Israel, Burkina Faso, England, France, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Canada, Russia, and the list goes on. I have a long list of future places to visit, so I am far from done traveling.

I love the outdoors. I would rather, as long as its not too cold, be outside than indoors any day. 

I do like a good adventure. I have tried most things at least once. I love the water and anything associated with it (Kayaking, Scuba Diving, Swimming, Paddle boarding, Fishing).  Some things I have done- Climbed Mt. Kenya, Scuba dived in the Red Sea, driven to Matzlan, Mexico from Texas (not reccomended), seen the walls of Jericho, white water rafted in Costa Rica and Colorado. I did a Triathlon (Olympic Distance), Repelled down cliffs, ridden motorcycles, taken a shower in a waterfall in the middle of nowhere, been chased by a Rhino in our vehicle, had rabies shots, gone cave exploring, love tent camping, etc. I also like to read a good book and watch movies. 


Why do I tell you all of this? Since moving to Virginia my life has slowed down in the traveling area and sometimes I am sad that my kids will not experience the kind of childhood I had. There was never a dull moment. With that being said- after living in Virginia for 10 years I decided I wanted to give my kids a small glimpse of what it is like to have lots of animals, go exploring, get dirty, play outside, learn to paint, build, care for animals, etc. and I knew land could help with that.