See you next week
All Blogs is on a one week sabbatical as is it’s author enjoys some much needed vacation time at the family cottage in Western Michigan.
Come back July 2nd
Stay tuned as All Blogs enters it’s 3rd season. Will they family move to a homestead? Will teenage drama cause premature balding and anxiety? Will PA continue his education? All this and much, much more when All Blogs returns July 2nd.
Sad but True
I know I am sick in the head, but I simply cannot wait to take this group to Cedar Point in the morning. Most adults think… 30 7-12 graders, leave in the wee hours of the morning, stay really late at night, stand in line all day, get on big monsters like Top Thrill Dragster with whining, tired, dehydrated adolescents… NO FUN.
This is where I must be sick. I can’t wait to do all of that. The headaches, the complaining, the annoying drive… All of it makes me misty eyed. I love this part of my job!
I Did It!
Another crazy, yet fun fact is that I was once told this group would never go to Cedar Point. “They don’t like roller coasters.” Hogwash! We’re going and we will all ride until our stomachs turn upside down.
So…
We checked out this house yesterday. This is the finished basement. Awesome baby…. grrooowlll. While not exactly “one million dollars” we do figure that in order to make the basement less laughable, we’d have to invest some cash.
While this house is a lot less money than we could spend, we’re just trying to weigh out what we’d have to put into places like the basement.
Positives
3 nice bedrooms. A big garage. A nice neighborhood. A bargain. (Listed at $15,000 less than appraised value) It’s liveable in it’s present condition. Lots of new hardware that would stay. New siding, roof, sump pump, and more new stuff. Very clean despite it’s old carpets. Very do-able “do it yourself” jobs. Could add a guest bedroom and another bathroom in the basement pretty easily.
Negatives
Not a fenced in yard. Needs almost all new flooring. Bathroom and kitchen are usable but would require some updating. Furnace and A/C look like they are a few years away from being replaced. Small yard and a weird layout in the house.
Beggars can’t be choosers
Perhaps the thing that Kristen and I wrestle with here is that we will be investing all of our money into a house that needs work. If not this house, another one. We simply can’t afford to buy a “perfect house.” What we are doing here… As hard as it is to swallow… Is getting our feet wet and buying a starter home. No matter how much we’d like it to be, we aren’t going to be in the “dream home” category in our lifetimes.
That said
Now that I’ve got that off of my chest. Let me just say that it is so cool to finally be looking at houses.
Another look
Well, we haven’t given up on “this old house” but we are looking at other places in our price range. [At the same time, we’re also doing the loan so that when we find our dream house we’re good to go.]
This house may be a sleeper. Another good neighborhood, another nice lot. It’s got most of the major stuff taken care of so any money we put into upgrades would be much more beneficial to the family. New roof, new bathrooms, etc.
The waiting game
With the Northern Ireland mission trip on the horizon and our family vacation scheduled for next week… I can see this house hunting going into the fall. This is a already a crazy summer… but the fall looks worse!
I’ve been joking with Kristen that I’d like to get the house bought and everything signed so she can move us in while we’re in Ireland. That usually gets me an evil stare!
In other news
Today is our 8th wedding anniversary. 8 years, we’re still alive and kicking! It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long at all. It seems like only yesterday that we were cutting cake and escaping to Kelley’s Island for our honeymoon. How are we celebrating? Well… We get to take 30 7-12th graders to Cedar Point this Friday. How’s that?
Cupcake City, Baby!
With the last few weeks being nuts, it is nice to know that this week I have “jack squat” to do. There aren’t any big projects and I can pretty much coast on some of the projects I have to do. (Video, web, and getting ready for Cedar Point.)
Just one more week
Next week we will be on vacation. We’re not doing anything special, but we are planning on going to the family cottage to spend time with my dad, get some fishing in, and do absolutely nothing.
It’s been almost a full year since we’ve taken vacation time. To say the least, I am ready. I’ve needed this vacation for months. My secret hope was the church would give me a nice trip when they hired a new pastor… But that didn’t happen!
The Home Front
We’ve pretty much given up on the old house. If we could buy it as a single family home it would be a dream come true. But the idea of living in half of it and renting the other half sounds like a nightmare. At the end of the day we just don’t make enough money. While we could buy the house with what I make… I get the idea that in order to “get ‘er done” the way it needs to be done, Kristen would have to work part time. I don’t think we are ready for that.
So… We’ve requested a few visits at other, less cute houses. We’re also moving forward with getting approved on a mortgage. But with a vacation looming and a 3 week mission trip in July, I can’t see a whole lot happening at this point. Even if we made an offer on a house this week… We wouldn’t move until August or September.
To be honest, I’m a bit saddened by this. I long to get my family into a homestead. We’ve rented for more than 8 years… We just want to land!
Surviving Sunday
As I mentioned a few days ago, I got stuck “slumming with the old people” this weekend since PB was out of town. My message, “Shaping our Kids” will be available online later this morning. [Go to Romeo’s website] If nothing else, attendance and the offering ended up pretty good. That should make PB feel OK about leaving town for his vacations and conferences in the future.
I am sure it would come as a suprise to people in the pews of my church, but I really like to play online poker. Not the kind that involves real money… no, no no… just the kind that is Texas Hold ‘Em for free at the many cool sites.
My favorite site is Hold Em Poker. If you are bored and need a new addiction, check it out.
In youth pastor speak… this means I am preaching in the service tomorrow. I know it may come as a surprise, but preaching to this broad of an audience is not really my thing. While I don’t mind it and I’ve been told I do it well… It’s not my favorite thing to do in ministry. Give me a service project any day over this.
This also means that with a long week of Vacation Bible School, I’ve had to do a lot of the work on my day off. [NOW!] So between the graduation party this afternoon and the surprise birthday party tonight… I have lots of thinking, praying, and studying to do.
No clue!
I don’t know why I don’t enjoy “preaching” more. I like to be in front of people and I do like to teach the Bible, but preaching ain’t my thing. For one thing the group size is so strange and the seating so formal that I am left without much room for creativity. Put this with my uncanny ability to miscommunicate when I am nervous and I get a bit jumpy about it.
So what’s the scoop?
Later on you’ll be able to follow the link to the PA Talks section and download the sermon notes. But for now just know that it’s called Shaping our Kids from Psalm 144:12. It’s quite an interesting little thought, guide and challenge. It’s a conditional promise from God to David that if he allows God to win his battles, God will bless his children. In our lives this means that if we allow God into our [the parents] lives and let Him conquer your personal battles, struggles, and what not… That God will bless you by allowing your children to become strong shining examples of your faithfulness. It’s actually pretty cool.
In other news
I’ve been chatting about this house all the time. We haven’t given up and we are still pretty serious about it. But we’re really in a holding pattern as we continue to research it out and really pray about it. We want to do it… But we also want to know God is behind it.
Risk taker or ostrich?
This house-hunting has exposed some things about me and Kristen that I’d like to share.
Risky business
There is little doubt that buying “this old house” would be a massive risk. It’s more house than we can afford [though the mortgage guy is happy to loan it to us!] and it has more projects attached to it than I would know what to do with. I guess that it has 75-100 weekend projects. All kinds of stuff from ripping out the bad part of the barn to redecking a porch or two to splash guards in the kitchen. There are just oodles of little projects like that.
I look at it and say “for every dollar you invest, you get $2 back.” Kristen looks at it as a money pit. The naysayers in our lives say “you don’t have time for that, it will eat you alive.”
All true. But it may be our one chance in our lifetimes where we can take a risk on a “This Old House” candidate and see it pay off. While the naysayers see risk, I only see reward.
Rewards
I mean more than investment income. (Though I do mean this as well.) There seems to be a lot of reward in fixing up your own house. Like Napoleon Dynamite, I’ve got some skills. I look at this and see working on things with the kids and with Kristen. I see them enjoying the barn and the big yard. I see teaching them how to do stuff and learning a lot along the way.
No lone ranger
Just like in ministry. I have to weigh all of this against the impact on our family. This whole idea of risk taking stresses Kristen out. I have matured enough to know that I can’t just bulldoze through her emotions. I don’t want to take a risk that all of us aren’t in on 100%. A big thing I’ve learned here is that while I am a “wild risk taker” Kristen may only be a “risk taker in theory.” A lot to think on!
But, but, butt…
Yeah, there is that. This afternoon we are going to look at some other stuff in the village. Things that need less work, but aren’t quite so cool. Scattered all over are tons of bungalows and ranches. Not as sexy, but a lot less work. We need to at least give this a look.
Money
So I talked with a mortgage guy. For the first time in my life someone told me I had good credit. He said we could even afford a much heftier mortgage than I am looking at… No way! But it was nice to finally hear those words “you’ve got great credit, don’t worry.” Wow.
