This Old Brick House

Reality.

May 25, 2019 No Comments

One common thing we hear after someone sees our house pictures online is that they CANNOT believe that we were so lucky to get an amazing house on an amazing piece of land. Though I do agree that we were fortunate to buy a house on a beautiful piece of property, I’m going to give you a little dose of reality when it comes to our house. Showing you beautiful “snipits” of our house just felt kind of wrong, when there is still SO much to do, and so little time.

So here’s reality friends! Reality is this. We have work to do. Lots of it. Behind all of the pretty little Instagram squares and Facebook posts, we have this. A pretty brick house, set on a beautiful piece of property that has a to do list that could reach ceiling to floor. Here’s SOME of our list, in no particular order:

House and fence power washed..ONE acre worth
House painted
Back porch cement relayed because its caving in
Concrete filled in under the windows
Bedroom renovation
Bathroom down to the studs
Second bedroom renovation
Living room *current workroom*
Laundry room 1/2 finished
Office shiplap 1/2 finished
Door in need of paint
Front porch needs relayed as it is caving in

Whole house roof replaced
In need of two garage doors
Landscape needs a bit of help
Two trees have to be taken down in our front yard
Kitchen appliances, kitchen countertops
Outdoor garage bathroom renovated

Aside from all of these pictures, I landed on the bottom of our property tonight staring at this barn. This barn sits at the end of our hill, overlooking a pretty little lake. I often look out of our kitchen window and dream of what it may become. Will it be a place that my kids will use to play “pretend?” Will it be a barn for several little ducklings and chicks? Will we transform it into a pretty little she-shed?

Whatever it may be, tonight as I looked at the barn, I started thinking, “WHEN are we ever going to get to work on this barn when we have a living room, a bathroom, a roof, and two bedrooms (etc. above) to finish??? And then it hit me. I have 18 summers left with my sweet little girl before she grows up and moves out. Although dreaming of all of the possibilities seems fun and may overwhelm me, I’m choosing to not let it. I’m choosing to focus on the amazing things we have already accomplished. I’m choosing to find the greater joys in life than just checking off the points on my checklist.

So here’s to a summer of lovin on my babe, being a present wife, spending more time with family and friends, mindfully working on the house and in the midst of everything, CHOOSING joy.

“The only difference between a road block and an adventure, is MY perspective.” -The Far Green Country on Amazon Prime…watch it!!

Thanks for reading buds!
XO

Jenna

Dom

Life.

Unpluggin.

April 16, 2019 No Comments

I’ve been overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the fact that Sadie has grown before my eyes in a mere six weeks. Overwhelmed that before we know it, she will be walking. Overwhelmed that we said we would start redoing our second bathroom when Sadie turns one. BUT what about our living room? BUT what about all of the trim we have yet to finish? BUT what about the office that is only half-shiplapped? BUT what about the laundry room cabinets?! When I think about anything to do with the house lately, I’m consumed.

Isn’t that how life is? Constantly threatening to consume our thoughts, our time, our whole beings, instead of just laying back and enjoying the ride. Life will consume you, if you let it. So, for the next couple of weeks, I am going to unplug, log off, and get outside and oh this postpartum momma couldn’t need anything more.

P.S. Here’s a pic of Sadie lookin like a total butterball.

P.S.S. Excited to show you all of the house updates soon. . .stay tuned!!

Love you buds!

XO

Jenna

Life.

Baby.

March 21, 2019 No Comments

Well, house plans went on a bit of a hold because our sweet Sadie Rose came into the world on March 3. Grant stayed home for two weeks and he officially went back to work this Monday, so its up to me to tackle these poopy diapers now. I sat down at the computer today and went down memory lane, remembering what it was like to be pregnant. Just two and a half weeks ago, I didn’t know that I had a sweet baby girl dwelling inside of me.

So, because I love reading other women’s birth stories and I don’t ever want to forget the subtle details of mine, I wanted to put Sadie’s birth story into writing. So here ya go:

It was March 2, Grant and I had just got home from a birthday party and got ready for bed and we were going to watch a movie but nine o’clock on the dot hit, and contractions started. I remember thinking, these feel a bit different than anything I’ve felt before? A mix of anxiety and happiness started to settle in as we decided to start timing the contractions. Could this really be it? Would I really get to meet my baby soon?

I had contractions for about two and a half hours but they were spread out and sporadic, but they began to get closer. 16 minutes apart. 9 minutes apart. 2-3 minutes apart. Meanwhile I texted my family, and gave them a heads up that I thought I was in active labor, and my sister suggested that I take a shower to see if the contractions stalled at all. Still the contractions remained 2-3 minutes a part, lasting for 30-60 seconds. I labored until 3 A.M. and my contractions were still 2-3 minutes apart, lasting for 30-60 seconds. I did not have much down time between contractions and the whole idea of sleeping between contractions, or packing for the hospital between contractions, flew right out the window. Grant and I were both so confused. All of the books said to follow the 5-1-1 (5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute, for 1 hour). THEN MY WATER BROKE. I may have watched one too many YouTube videos of people giving birth in the car, so these haunted me a bit. So I yelled to Grant, “OH MY GOSH, ONCE YOUR WATER BREAKS, CONTRACTIONS SPEED UP, AND MY CONTRACTIONS ARE ONLY 2-3 MINUTES APART!!!” So, Grant sprinted upstairs, tried to pack some last minute things into our bags, tried to find my pants, and thus set in his slight panic, “WHAT KIND OF PANTS DO YOU WANT?! WHERE IS YOUR SHAMPOO?! WHAT SHOES DO YOU WANT TO WEAR?!” Meanwhile, I am mid-contraction thinking, shoot he has to remain calm or this is going to be one chaotic mess. I have never seen Grant “frantic”. . . until that day. So he came running downstairs and I said to him, “Whatever you do, I need you to remain calm.” He took a deep breath and we calmly both walked past my puddle of water laying on the floor, hopped in the car, and headed to the hospital. We called our midwife and doula and they both said it was our choice if we felt the need to go to the hospital, but they didn’t sound worried. So, I called my backup doctor-AKA-my sister, and she stated that her contractions were all spread out for all three of her births and that I may still have lots of labor ahead. So, we turned around and headed back home.

Do you think I got out of the car? No. I put that Jeep seat in full recline and geared up to labor in the garage. After an hour and a half in the garage and driveway, Grant’s gas light went off. Well, the teacher in me, always having to be prepared, told him we NEEDED gas, no exceptions. So, we headed off to Speedway at 3:30 AM and filled the tank, meanwhile I am praying that I magically would need to go to the hospital in the midst of the full tank fill-up. Much to my dismay, we headed back home. This time, I went inside and labored for about an hour or so until things got significantly more painful. Then we headed to the hospital. At 5 A.M., I was three centimeters dilated and I was happy to hear that I had progressed a little. A few hours in, the nurses and my midwife thought I was having back labor, because my contractions were double peaking, and I wasn’t progressing much. My goal was to get through labor naturally, and this slow progression didn’t help my internal state of mind. However, I remember thinking, “Can it really get much worse?” Grant specifically recalls the determination that he saw in my eyes, as each hour and contraction passed. I did feel determined. I know it was because of prayer and because I had prepared my mind for nine months. Grant and I did a 12 week long course called, The Bradley Method, that was taught by our doula. That class was instrumental in helping us prepare for this whole birth experience.

By the way, I wish I had a sneak peak video of Grant during my entire labor process. I could cry just thinking about it. He was my biggest support and encourager. He locked eyes with me, time and time again and breathed through the contractions with me, I have never felt closer to another human being, it was beautiful.

Then, after an amazing position suggestion from our doula- (JEANETTE ALBRIGHT- Look her up and book her, you won’t regret it), contractions sped up and I started pushing. I tried pushing standing up, pushing laying down, pushing over a squatting bar, I tried it all. An hour and twenty minutes later, adrenaline was pumping and all I remember was someone saying, “You can grab your baby!!” and that ladies and gentlemen is literally the moment that our lives changed forever. Tears staining everything, Grant and I held on to each other and our baby. We were both in awe. In the midst of all the excitement, we forgot to check if it was a boy or girl and Grant was the one that got to shout it out. We both were frantically searching for the body part when he yelled, “IT’S A GIRL!!!”

A girl. Our beautiful, chubby-cheeked, mop-headed, little baby girl. We will never be the same, Sadie Rose. Mommy and daddy may gain a few extra wrinkles from the lack of sleep, but oh how we would do anything for you, wrinkles and all.

House projects will pick up soon, but for now, we are going to enjoy as many baby snuggles as we can before these fleeting moments are forever gone.

P.S. I always knew that my parents loved me, but I never realized to what extent that was or how deep that love truly, truly was, until we had Sadie. UGH IT’S JUST ALL SO BEAUTIFUL. BRB, going to get my Kleenex for the 100th time this week.

XO

Jenna

Home.

Favorites.

February 15, 2019 No Comments

Here are the top ten most amazing products we have used so far that I had to share! Click the pictures below to check out the following products on Amazon!

Minwax polycrylic. We used this to paint our tables and chairs that had chippy paint. You put a light layer of polycrylic on pieces that have chippy paint, and they do not chip. This WORKS! I love this product.

2. Rust-Oleum, I used this flat black product on our banister. The key to this process is sanding first and then painting this rustoleum on top. This paint is really watery, so we had to tape off our wooden staircase, but it worked wonderfully and made our banister look good as new.

3. I LOVE this label maker. I started to label all of my baking goods and then I scavenged the house to see what else I could label. This comes with black and red labeling tape. This is the best!

4. Google WiFi-This was highly recommended by a co-worker of Grants. This product connects to your existing wifi package and serves as a router replacement, so it can allow the wifi signal to carry throughout your whole house. We did get to see what our wifi was like before hooking these up, and the signal did not carry through our entire house. Now, we get wifi everywhere! Without it, we would have only gotten wifi on our first floor, and our outdoor nest cameras would not have been functional.

5. Outdoor Nest Cameras-BEST purchase ever. Okay, so here’s the deal. I may have watched one too many Making a Murderer series, which seriously may haunt me forever. I love murder mysteries but then I become so terrified to be in my own house I can barely shower without checking to make sure someone isn’t plotting my murder. After Grant debating if we really needed these, and me convincing him that this is the only way I will stay sane if he is gone, we religiously researched what the best product out there would be. We almost bought Arlo cameras (wireless) but several reviews said they had to change the batteries quite often and getting up on a ladder every couple of weeks, didn’t sound sane. So, we hired an electrician, had him install four cameras and BOOM, I am fearless. These bring so much peace to my mind! You receive notifications if a person is spotted or if there is activity and then you can speak through each of the cameras, which is amazing. You can control and view everything through the nest app. We also have a nest thermostat and baby monitor, so we love having everything in one, functional app!

6. With helpful tips from the painter that painted our family room, we painted all of the doors in our house. We used this roller and then smoothed it out with a paintbrush in needed spots. We did other doors first without using these mini rollers, and the doors took twice as long. This is my favorite mini roller by far!

7. Painter cups- BUY THESE. If you paint furniture casually, or have big house projects going on, you will want these either way. There is a magnetic strip on the inside of the jar and if you need to set your paintbrush down, or touch something up, the paintbrush attaches to the magnetic piece. We started off with one of these and ended up buying three more.

8. Wooster shortcut paintbrush-Thanks to my Aunt Madeline we discovered this amazing little brush. This not only saves your hands from painter cramps, but it allows you to get in all the tough to reach spaces.

9. Simplisafe security system-Ya. Maybe it was overkill but what can I say? Now I am for sure safe. FOR LIFE. We bought this Simplisafe system because this was one of the few systems you could purchase but didn’t have to pay for a daily package. Since we chose to do it without a package, we can still arm/disarm our house, but the system will not contact police. This comes with a motion sensor, door alarms, etc. and I can still set it when Grant is gone and then he can disarm it when he gets home.

10. Dark Chocolate Oreos. You’ll thank me later.

Home.

Progress.

February 14, 2019 No Comments

AH! Exciting things are happening this week around the house, can’t wait to share those pictures with you soon. The past week and a half we have gotten a LOT done. Our upstairs rooms have carpet and we MOVED IN. Our bathroom and laundry room, on the main floor, were tiled, & are up and running. Our family room was painted, (the garage door to that room was sanded of all the dog scratches, thanks Dad, Hunter and Jack!). We jacked our kitchen floors so that we can prep them to lay our new floor. Then, the laundry room was painted and shiplap has been progressing on the our walls of our office–I think this is going to be my favorite room of the house. It has a lot of character and it also came with amazing built ins!

Finally, our ducts inside of our house were all vacuumed out. We received a video of all of the gunk cleaned out of our vents…let’s just say, this was probably one of our BEST financial investments.Click here to see a short clip of the clean out! It makes me wonder if everyone’s house is that bad…or if it was just ours, GROSS! For those of you curious, we used a local company called Dunn-Hill Duct cleaning, and they were amazing. Follow the link to check it out! Dunn-Hill Duct Cleaning

Thank you for following along on our journey, buddies!

Jenna

Home., Life.

It’s The Small Things.

January 25, 2019 No Comments

This week we made some more baby steps and man do those baby steps feel good. We are officially DONE with demoing (we still have to redo the 2 bathrooms upstairs but those are projects to be later addressed). Our laundry room tile is being put in, the drywall and electric is done in the laundry room, and our entry wall is nearing completion ( I will share all of the before and afters with you someday soon). All of the NASTY trim is being painted, can I get an amen to the fresh feeling of clean, new paint?! New door knobs and hinges have been put on doors upstairs and the upstairs closets are lined and ready to go. We have spent so much money on cabinet liner and I JUST found the best cabinet and shelf liner of all time. Click the link to check it out! Con-Tact Brand Zip-N-Fit

On another note, this past weekend I had a family shower that was absolutely beautiful. Grant and I have been so blessed and have had five…yes five wonderful showers for our future babe. You better believe the first thing I am doing on move in day is setting up that nursery and filling it with all of the wonderful items we received from all of our dear family and friends.

Some pictures of the past week:

Thanks for reading buds!

Jenna

Renovations.

Progress.

January 15, 2019 No Comments

So much has happened the past week!

After knowing there was water damage to the entry wall, when we tore it apart, we realized that the entry wall was only being supported by an inch of supporting beam in basement (see slideshow below). This was a HUGE discovery…because it could have been a WAY bigger problem later on down the road.
The plumber got a LOT of our old pipes out and replaced them with PVC.
Our laundry room was moved from the grungy basement to the main floor! Thanks to the plumber and our ultra handy friend John!!
Our friend Adam and my father in law SLAVED to get the particle board out of our future living room. Only 4 rooms to go!
My mom, aunts, mother-in-law and Grant helped tackle a lot of painting jobs. Feels and smells a lot better. Specifically, our bedroom, master bath, and nursery have all been painted and are ready for carpet!
The downstairs bathroom has been re-wired and re-framed and is ready for drywall. We picked out all of the tile, lighting, the sink, shiplap, etc. and I look forward to sharing the final transformation with you soon!
Our broken window has been taken out and is being replaced with new glass.
Thankful that next week we get our vents cleaned, carpet will be installed, the painter and drywall-er will come to tackle the big rooms, and the entry wall will start to be boarded up!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We have a little less than one month until move in and cannot believe it. I am finding so much joy (finally) in watching little things come together and I get more and more excited to move in and tackle the do list with Grant, bit by bit.

Thanks for reading, buddies!
Jenna

Life.

The World Still Spins.

January 8, 2019 No Comments

Two days ago I felt so accomplished and amazingly grateful for this opportunity we’ve been given. Yesterday I had a melt down in Lowe’s. Today I maybe got slightly annoyed with the plumber’s timeline and considered reading some plumber manuals and DIY’in it myself. You see, this whole fixer upper thing isn’t the blissful elegance of demoing and purchasing that I once thought it up to be.

So today, I went back to work and then I intentionally made time for some actual self care so that I could really focus on what matters. I’m 100% certain that God wanted us to be in this house so that I would be tested 1,000,700 times and finally learn my lesson that the world still spins, the sky doesn’t cave in, and life still moves on, even if everything doesn’t go according to MY plan (hiring pest control, hiring a tree service to chop down an uprooted tree, and getting quoted $12,000 to replace two sliding glass doors…just to name a few).

In lieu of all the craziness that my mind could easily dwell on and write about, I wanted to share our pregnancy announcement video with you! Wishing we could have captured every person we shared our exciting news with, but this is just a fun glimpse of sharing one of the greatest blessings of our lives with several of the people we are closest to. HUGE thank you to our friend Levi Hutmacher for editing and putting together this awesome video for us! Baby Sims is soon to make a debut around February 28th and we can’t wait!!!

https://youtu.be/C88CsxOdGX4

Thanks for reading buds!

Jenna

Home., Renovations.

Week One.

December 23, 2018 No Comments

Last Saturday I woke up extra early because there was no way this giddy girl was getting extra sleep on the day that we got the keys to our house. Not long after, I grabbed gallons of coffee and donuts for all of our amazing family and friends who graciously demanded that they were coming to help, and I then headed over to our house to greet everyone.

I got to the house, and the owner had left stuff in every room and he was still there working on one of the rooms. All of my giddy-excitedness flew right out the window and the tears started to flow. I cried to my husband, to my mom, to my mother in law and father in law… but then again, what haven’t I been crying about these days?! Pregnancy hormones are legit. For a person who was already a crier, this third trimester Kleenex addict was already in need of a happy pill. So when it comes to unexpected circumstances like this? I am most definitely in need of a boost. In the moment it was hard to see, but looking back, I can definitely say that it was a great reminder that I can’t plan everything out, that this experience is going to be one of the hardest, most rewarding things we have ever done, and I just needed to continue to rely on the fact that God wanted us here. He wanted US here. For a reason, for a purpose.

The day clearly moved on and I was able to sit and marvel in the fact that we had 12 people surrounding us who worked for countless hours on our house. We can’t get over that. We felt so loved and in that moment, Grant and I couldn’t ask for much more.

Here are some pictures from our work this past week. Can’t wait to continue to show you progress. Reality is, we have a lot of work to do, but we are making baby steps! Excited to continue to share our journey with all of you!

The padding underneath the carpet had completely disintegrated. That may help age the carpet for ya 🙂

Capping the plumbing in order to get the demo going!

Love having people gather in our backyard. It was such a beautiful day!

Tearing down the moldy wall, so they had to wall off the room.

I loved witnessing the revealing of the bones of the house!

Bathroom demo with my dad and his friend Craig. So thankful for their expertise!

Had to sneak this one in there. We had a 3D ultrasound yesterday. You can catch a glimpse of its face here. Baby is happy and healthy!

Thanks for reading buddies!

XO Jenna

Home.

Our First Home.

December 14, 2018 No Comments

Hi we’re Jenna and Grant. Our journeys became one in August of 2015. We have lived the blissful newlywed days, we’ve gained financial freedom after paying off an extraordinary amount of college debt, we have learned how to fulfill our travel dreams on the cheap, and finally, we have learned how important personal counselors are for marriage, for life, for everyone. We always dreamed of starting a family and purchasing a home where Jenna would be able to live out her passions of interior design, knowing the only way that she could ever stay on budget would be with a guiding hand of her money-savy husband.

To give you a little background, we are currently pregnant with our first baby and due at the end of February. We also decided to buy our first house, fixer upper style. This house comes equipped with squirrels in the crawl space with their winter supply of walnuts, 1960’s original mustard -yellow carpet, and black and white checkered vinyl flooring. We figured what better time to buy and move into a 3,600 square foot major fixer upper than two months away from our due date?!

This journey was a long one for us. Filled with many moments of questioning whether God wanted us to purchase this home. Last December, we heard about this house from our friends and future next door neighbors. They had gotten wind that the owner was possibly going to sell his home and asked us, “You aren’t looking to buy a house are you?” Not long after, I walked around the property and was able to creepily peek through the windows and I immediately fell in love.

May of 2018 rolled around and I convinced Grant to come see this amazing project that I knew he would NEVER go for. In that moment, I would have bet millions of dollars that Grant would strongly and politely decline but much to my surprise, that was not what happened. He apprehensively walked through the house, thought about it, and he loved the potential this home had. I had to ask myself if I was married to the same methodical, safe-playing husband. When I started to doubt if we should really pursue this, he remained grounded and he encouraged us to see that this would be a wonderful place to raise our children.

After a lot of decision making, we put an offer in on the house, which by the way, was still not on the market and we thought, this is it. We have ourselves a house ladies and gentlemen. Psych. The former owner, (whom by the way is the kindest soul on this earth), decided to list the house on the market. Long story short, one hundred showings (literally), and three offers later, he took it off the market. Again we told ourselves… THIS IS IT!!! WE HAVE OURSELVES A HOUSE! Wellllll, this time, the owner decided that he wanted to explore some options for keeping his childhood home. Did I panic? Sure did. I spent numerous days spouting off all of my worries to Grant and that was his cue to calm this proclaimed worry-wart down. We sat down together to pray and asked God to close any and all doors if this wasn’t meant to be. We prayed for God’s direction and hand to be in all of this.

Now, I know that a house does not mean everything. I have always been so passionate about the thought of purchasing a piece of history thats a bit rough around the edges, and turning it into a comfortable, cozy, and safe place. It’s not the house. It’s the feeling that we can mold a house with an unending to do list of projects, into a place that can become a sanctuary to gather, to raise our future babies in, and to hold years and years of memories. All of the feels.

So here we are. December 14, 2018. God aligned our doubts, and fears, and come tomorrow we get the keys to this old brick house fixer upper. I would love to share every single detail and type for the next three and a half hours, but I have decided to leave it right here, with an ever so thankful heart. This is where our homeownership journey begins.

Thanks for reading, buddies.

Jenna