July

Blogging is so annoying now. It’s really so much work to transfer pictures all over the place. I wish I could take a web design class for dummies. Or maybe I  could get someone to teach me the dos and do nots of word press but it’s fine! I’ll keep on keeping on.  July was really crazy for our family. Lots of people were on vacation at the Multicare hospital in Tacoma where G takes Nuclear Medicine call.  I believe he had call for 3 weeks in a row. Sometimes he would work till 3-4 am then have to go back in at 7am. I felt so sorry for the guy. It was great timing for extra money though because we ended up buying another house in a nearby Lacey neighborhood. We had put an offer on the house in August 2012…Yes I wrote that right! AUGUST 2012 but the owner was short selling the house so it was back and forth and we really didn’t hear back for months. Finally, at the end of June this year the bank agreed to sell us this 4 bedroom house for $160,000. Which we thought was a pretty good deal and decided it would be a good investment. It was bananas though trying to manage our own house, 2 kids, our 3 jobs (G has 2, me 1), and get paperwork, financing, and work on the house. We redid the yard, painted the entire inside of the house which included EVERYTHING, closets, ceiling, etc, and outside fence, all new carpet, new above hood microwave, fix leak in outside faucet, replaced blinds, repair dryer, re caulk showers, toilets. Greg cleaned the entire house himself. Luckily, we did hire our neighbor who did all the indoor painting. He did the most amazing job. All the blinds had to be taken down, light fixtures, closet doors and shelves to paint the inside and he did almost all of it by himself. We were going to the new house at least 1-2 a day to water the grass, and fix or clean things and meet people who were interested in renting. There was a family that was squatting in the house while the home was in limbo. We were sad they trashed the house because when we walked through the house in 2012 it was in really nice condition. We had to patch several holes that had been punched in the walls before we could even get the house inspected! Phew..it was mad work and several thousand dollars with home repairs and closing costs. But we got a renter in the house 12 days after closing so it all worked out in the end!

We really try not to travel outside of the Northwest in July and August because no where in the U.S. is it more beautiful than here! July was really hectic but I still managed to hit up my grandma’s pool with friends. My parents live on the Puget Sound and it was really great to go boating, crabbing, shell collecting this summer. I’ve lived in 8 states but the smell of salty sea air and the noise of seagulls will always be home!