~ from my home to yours, living the Working Pantry lifestyle ~ surviving today's economy ~ a can-do spirit and attitude ~

Monday, September 26, 2016

Our Journey to A Mortgage Free Home … #7

(Previous posts can be found HERE.)

After posting the last post I received the following question …

Where did you guys stay when working on the house? Did you have a camper?

I’ve been telling you that we knew what we wanted and that we were determined.  Well, if you haven’t believed it before now, this should convince you.

We (my husband and I were empty-nesters at the time and still are) were renting and had been since moving to the area.  In January of that year our landlady told us that since her husband had recently passed away she was going to have to move from their home to a home of her own.  She told us not to worry though, that she wasn’t going to ask us to move because we were such good renters and she had a beach house she could move to and that’s what she was going to do.  

February 1st she gave us notice that we had to be out by the end of the month and my husband had a week long work related trip out of town that he had to take that month.  We had been working on the house but it was in no way near livable.  We had no family that lived anywhere near us.  We had a serious problem!  

After much prayer and a kind offer we decided to put almost all of our worldly possessions in storage and move into … a good friend’s brother’s garage … yes, a garage!  The garage was not attached to their house and did have a mini kitchenette and a bathroom/shower so we set our bed up in the garage part and used the mini kitchenette and bathroom/shower.  All it cost us was the electricity we used. We lived like this for about 4 months until we could get one room of our house livable and then we moved into it.  This was some of the hardest days of the whole journey.  Our friend (and his wife), whose brother’s garage we were living in fixed supper for us several evenings every week.  They really went the extra mile to help us through this difficult time and we will forever be grateful to them.  The upside of it though, was that we had the money we had been paying for rent to use on our house.  Remember we were paying as we went.


All I can say is that where there is a will, there is a way … as hard as it was; it moved us closer to our goal more quickly than we would have gotten there otherwise!

Are you ready for some more pictures ... here you go ...

Last week I left you with us completing the foundation, sitting the house down on it and tying it down with the hurricane straps.

This week we're going to go inside ... are you ready???

Have I mentioned that the inside of the house was dirty ... even after hauling load after load after load of junk out of it ...




We swept and swept and swept and swept the floors ...





... and the walls and gave the whole inside a thorough cleaning.   My husband patched the hole in the roof and the one directly below it in the floor.

The house was full of small little rooms and we knocked out some of those wall studs and made a living room/kitchen/dining room combination, a half bath, a master bedroom, master bath and 3 closets.  Since we had knocked out those stud walls my husband had to build a very strong bridge to go across the 'big' room in the attic.  This bridge gave the 'big' room the support it needed.  (Our entire house was and is 925 sq.feet.)



Next, my husband ran the wiring ... and this was about the time that we got the notice that we had to move out of the house we were renting.

Next, the rush to get one room ready for us to live in!

Until next time,
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Our Journey to a Mortgage Free Home ... #6

(Previous posts can be found HERE.)

 We have the land ...

We have the house ...

and now it's time to give the house a foundation ...

First we had to get a permit, dig the footer to very rigid specifications, have the digging inspected and then we could finally get the concrete poured.  You see those thin long pieces of metal ... those are hurricane straps that had to, by law, be installed.  Yep, we live in hurricane country!



The footer was deep and wide ...



Another view ...  my dear husband worked so hard ...



A closer look ... it had to have a final inspection before my husband could start laying the blocks for the actual foundation. 



After the footer finally cured ... TA-DA ... my husband laid the first block for the foundation!


My husband laid block after block after block ...


and there had to be pillows laid underneath the house too (for support of the house) ...


Making progress ... see the little air flow vent ... there were so many small details that had to be included.  Do you see the clip board with the orange looking piece of paper on it.  That was our building permit which had to be displayed on the outside of the house at all times.  If the building inspector had come by and it had not been displayed, we would have been fined!


More air flow vents ...

I'm sorry that this is not a very good picture, but you can see that the foundation is completed.  The house is ready to be lowered down on it and tied down with the hurricane straps ... and inspected again!

So, what do you think so far ... ain't she pretty????

Until next time,
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Our Journey to a Mortgage Free Home ... #5

Last week I showed you the outside of what would become our mortgage free home and I told you that in the next entry I would show you the inside.

Well, here you go!  Don't say I didn't warn you ...


This was after multiple loads of 'stuff' were hauled out of the house and before it was moved.
When I told you that the house was literally a 'shell' I wasn't kidding ... no walls, no insulation, nothing!


This bed headboard and foot-board was one of several things we still had to deal with ...


this was in the kitchen ... 

I still vividly remember how dirty everything was!  I literally felt like I needed a bath after being inside.  Needless to say the first thing we did after getting the house moved onto our property was to finish emptying out the inside (which included getting rid of the above kitchen cabinet/sink) and giving the place a good sweeping and cleaning!  Did I mention that I used gloves and a face mask while sweeping and cleaning ... can you see why!!!!

Next, this baby's got to have a foundation!

Until next time,
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Our Journey to a Mortgage Free Home ... #4

In the last entry I left you with this description of the house we purchased to move on our now cleared lot ...

Just you wait to see what we moved onto this nice clear lot ... I can't tell you how many people questioned our sanity when they saw it!!!  If I had been them, I would have too!!!

Here are a few hints:

it was old (built in 1932) ...

it had been a house and had served as a church at different times ...

it had a huge hole in the roof ...

it had a big hole in the floor directly under the huge hole in the roof ...

it had no inside walls, only studs ...

it was home to many creatures ...

it was full of trash (this is an under statement) ...

it had been neglected for lots of years ...

it had been used for storage for all of those 'lots of years' (You know the kind of storage where you just open the door and throw it in?)

the structure was sound ...

it was what we could pay cash for ...

Are you ready to see what I was talking about???

It's okay if you 'think we were crazy too, plenty of people did' ....

Just feast your eyes on this beauty .....


(above) ... the front ....



the back ....


one end ...



the other end!

Go ahead, feel free to laugh ... (Looking back, all I can say is that we were determined, we had a goal and we were not going to be deterred!)

Through laughing?  

It does look pretty bad doesn't it?  Go ahead, you can say it, you won't hurt my feelings!  

Okay, now you've seen the outside, want to take a look on the inside?

We will ... in the next entry!

Until next time,
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.