A New Home... FINALLY!

Back in March I wrote about finding the perfect home.  Well, as beautiful as it was (as you can clearly see from the past photos) it was.  I started looking at ways to purchase it but everywhere I turned to get financing to start the buying process it seemed to just be dead ends.  I kept hearing "NO", "Sorry", "There is nothing we can do at this time" and other such lovely phrases.  I was beginning to give up.  I was feeling trapped.  Then last month I came across a foreclosure.  I was huge, 7000 sqft huge on 6 acres.  Two basements, 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, garages and even an inground pool with a pool house.  I was able to contact the owner and we walked through.  The person abandoned the home with a $45,000.00 tax bill sitting on it.  The home is valued at $570K.  I managed to negotiate the taxes and a price for the fixer upper for just $250K.  We signed and now were living in the middle of the National Forest.  I am in love with this place! 

The photos of before and after of the interior are on my personal facebook page but I had to update my blog now that I have established internet and officially have been here for 1 month and 2 days!  I promise to start making more of an effort to postings! 

The neighborhood is so quiet and friendly.  Its very quiet here and being apart of a multigenerational home was insane at first but now that everyone has gotten their sync down its becoming more fluid and natural. More to come later :)

Peacefully Yours ~ Gato Provido

Homemade Nestle Quick Syrup

I stumbled upon a recipe the other day and decided to give it a whirl.  Boy was I pleasantly surprised!  My kids LOVE chocolate milk; however the price of nearly $5 a gallon is not a fun experience much less buying a thing of Quik syrup at $3.50+.  I found this recipe and had to try it out.

Homemade Nestle Quik Sauce 
1/2 c cocoa powder 
1c water 
2 cups sugar 
1/8 teaspoon salt 
1/4 teaspoon vanilla 
1 teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in 1 teaspoon of water. 

Combine cocoa powder and water and stir over low heat until cocoa dissolves. Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Boil gently 3 minutes and add salt and vanilla. Finally stir in cornstarch mixture to thicken. Pour into a clean glass jar and store in the fridge.

 When you finish this it will be VERY runny.  I was worried it would not be the same thickness quality.  Trust me.  It will after it is cooled.  Don't add more cornstarch!  

Saturday Night Nothings

Well the kiddos are staying with mom & dad tonight so its just me and Leon in the house.  Dont really know what to do for dinner as much as I would like to cook up something like this there is really not that many people here to eat something like this up!

Low Country Boil

Ingredients:
1/4 cup seafood seasoning (such as Old Bay®), or to taste
5 pounds new potatoes
3 (16 ounce) packages cooked kielbasa sausage ( or similar), cut into 1 inch pieces
8 ears fresh corn, husks and silks removed
4 pounds fresh shrimp *Optional....peeled and deveined
1 Beer (optional)

Preparation:
Heat a large pot of water (+beer if using) over an outdoor cooker, or medium-high heat indoors. Add Old Bay Seasoning to taste, and bring to a boil. Add potatoes, and sausage, and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the corn; cook for another 5 minutes, then add the shrimp when everything else is almost done, and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes. **Note...here in SC we DO NOT peel the shrimp.
Drain off the water and pour the contents out onto a picnic table covered with newspaper. Grab a paper plate and a beer and enjoy!

However... This picture I thought interesting.  Its a burger patty wrapped in a mat of weaved bacon slices and hotdogs inserted into the patty.  This is baked in the oven and looks a bit like a skinned & sunbaked tortoise.  Omit the turtle head, legs and tail and I am game for this!  Not the biggest hot-dog fan.

Other than that not much else going on.  I made homemade croutons today which was awesome.  They taste so much better than storebought.  I had a 1/2 loaf of bread I made and it got a bit hard because it was uncovered by my invisible child "NotMe Bunker" and therefore instead of letting it go to waste I cut it into cubes, splashed with olive oil, garlic powder and rosemary and oregano and baked in the oven at 300 for 10 minutes until the bread started to toast.  Took it out and let it cool on a rack and man I couldn't help not grabbing a piece and just savoring all that flavor!  Trust me once you do it you will never buy storebought again!

 

Perfect Home Found

Well we finally found it.  A perfect fit for all of us.  I am so tired of living in a neighborhood with annoying and trashy people.  Believe it or not just 10 short years ago this neighborhood was excellent.  Everyone helped each other, people were kind to one another and then people started to go away.  Some foreclosed, some moved proper and some stayed.  Trash moved in and people began to quit caring about their neighbors.  Luckily a good family moved in next door to us.  They remain quiet and to themselves as do we. However other people have not. They stole, robbed and became caustic to one another.  We have had enough.  We are done with dealing with other people interfering with our way of life, our joy and having to worry day and night are we going to be taken advantage of by common lowlifes that reside here in Woodbridge.

But then we found this treasure away from here.  It was absolutely perfect!  We are in the process now of trying to get qualified to get it.  It is a perfect fit for everyone in our family including my parents who need some peace and quiet finally and not to be bothered with the idiot next door who has to constantly fire his heifer girlfriend's daddy's .50 caliber at all hours.  That household already ran off another neighbor down that way because he was firing while his and his wife's baby was trying to rest.  Needless to say I pray that we are able to finally leave the Trashbridge neighborhood.  Its not just the people, in the past few years we have had 2 drug houses raided, felons caught and even a murder.  Not to mention an 8' loose alligator near here.  I really truly am done with this place.

 

Crepe Myrtles and a beautiful circle driveway

 The living room is tiled.

 The sitting room pictured below is done in beautiful wood. This wood came from a mission.  The doors are over 100 years old. The brick you see in the photos were taken from old chimneys and homes in the area.

The Firehouse Chihuahuas office!  Here we will be broadcasting

and birthing our little pups!

The screened in back porch gives a break to those annoying summer bugs!

No more annoying trashy neighbors!

Future Chicken House

The back porch looking at mom & dad's place

Talison's Room

Kiara's Room

Kids bathroom.  This will be updated with a double vanity.

Laundry

The laundry room is right behind me and in front of me is the stairs leading to the basement.

Family Game Room looking into the Guest Bedroom

The Guest Bedroom area located beside the game room.  This room will be repainted from green to a greyish blue.

  The Workshop 2 Photos Below

The workshop leads directly to the guest bedroom and the family game room.

I cannot get over how beautiful these stairs are!  They lead to the master bedroom.  The floor in the master bath is HUUUUGE!  Its done in grey honeycomb tiles and the standing shower is a Symphony Shower!

 The master bedroom with his and hers closets and a secret "Narnia Closet" just for storage/etc!

Narnia Closet Entrance & Inside

3 Pics Below My & Leon's Closets

 Below is mom & dad's private two story with garages and a fenced in back yard just for them to enjoy and relax in.  I plan on putting in a stair lift for them as well.

Mom & Dad's fenced yard

 Here are a few photos from the main house I forgot to add to the start of the page.  It was the last few photos I snapped before leaving!  Beautiful daffodils, the inside of the future chicken house and left SOLID oak  doors, the workshop and lastly the cast iron fireplace!