Family Update: Our First Home

I am not sure if you have followed the story of our move to MinArctica (aka Minnesota).  So here is the quick catch-up:

We moved here about 4 years ago due to both calling and career. We have struggled with a few things here and there but for the most part we have enjoyed our new home.  We have been renting since we got here. We  wanted to be sure we found a solid community, church and school system for our family to be a part of. Last year we thought we found a home to call our own, but circumstances changed. First with the home itself and then with work and health issues.  The short version is that God had other plans for us. Skip ahead to this summer. We are all healthy for the most part and have the pleasure of working for great companies and attending great schools. We found a house this summer to call our own and made an offer the day after we saw it.

We did get through the stress of buying and closing the deal on our first home as a family. We worked together to make things happen and the Good Lord gave us mercy and grace a-plenty during this time. Some minor Real Estate miracles also happened that allowed us to close almost 2 weeks earlier than our original closing date. We did everything we could to support that effort because it allowed us the time to clean-up and repair before the end of the month, which is when we have to be out of our current place. In the end, we gave the whole process up to God and let Him work the miracles and motivate the people that were needed to make it all happen…

We are grateful that God continued to show us his blessings throughout this process of finding our first home as a family.

Living Room, before and during remodel

Living Room, before and during remodel

Now, we are in the clean-up n repair stage before move-in, but honestly, the end of the month is coming fast and I am know I’ll need help. I will need help mostly with moving stuff from the old place into our new home. If you are available, I would love the help.

We pulled up the living room carpet because it smelled like wet dog and dog pee. After washing and treating the linoleum tile floors beneath the old carpet. The smell was a little better but still really bad.

We continued by scraping off the old linoleum to get to the subfloor. We are almost done with that process. The plan will be to re-treat the subfloor and then paint it with a sealant to block more stinky from coming through. After that we will add new floor coverings. Finishing these last two steps are not a requirement for move-in.  Air Conditioning, however, is mandatory.

The Central AC is however a major issue. With 90 degree temps and higher (if you are in a closed up house, room or garage) as we try to get work done, is a killer. The HVAC tech that was supposed to come out this week, cancelled. Since our air-handler (the machine that moves the air) is in the attic the company refused to work on the unit, even though the broken component is on the ground floor. This is something I was clear about when IU made the appointment, but this “new” detail was discovered and I got a call the day before they were supposed to show.   I had to call another company to come out, and again, I have been very clear as to the nature of the problem and location of the components. Hopefully, when they show up next week, we can get this resolved.

Master bedroom color palet

Master bedroom color pallet

Finally, there is the paint situation. I don’t know if you have seen the pictures of the house yet, but here is an example in just one of the rooms which just happens to be my bedroom.  The green was so bright and strong that when we tried to color test, everything would get washed out by the green.  So now, we have primer on the walls. We were testing the color palette of the room. We have narrowed it down to the two on the right (of the picture). We hope to decide today and knock this out by Friday. That will allow us to move into this room. Our son’s room is next and we will be working on that tonight.

On the short list of necessary items:

  • Pest control service (tomorrow)
  • Paint the two rooms, being ours and our sons. (Friday?)
  • AC serviced and all the vents/ducts cleaned (next week)

After that the help is required.  I will start moving stuff this Saturday, but all of next week will be moving stuff from the old place. I need to empty it out and just get the stuff to our new home so I can turn in the keys and stop making rent payments. When that is done I can continue the other repair work. And if you are in need of a hands-on D.I.Y. project, I have plenty and I am willing to share my luv of tools.

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Thanks for reading,

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May Jesus have His way with your day

  – Gary C –

Gary Cartagena is a dedicated husband and father.
He is Founder and consultant for Tek Management,
Founder of the Men’s Leadership site: CalebStrong.org,
Co-Founder of the online Bible study app: BibleCounts

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