goodbye to this old house

We closed on selling our first house today....you know, the adorable old house that we bought just a year and half ago.  We are approaching a very bittersweet time in our life--moving.  I have lived in Cape Girardeau for 2 1/2 years now and Eric is approaching 4 years.  He has seen an entire group of students from start to finish in their time at SEMO.  We've really grown to love living here over the past year and half (or so).  I'll admit, it was hard for me at first and that is why the love has been more recent.  After we got married, I joined Eric down here and it was just hard to make friends (outside of our students).  I think I had this picture painted that we would get to hang out, play games, do whatever with a group of friends, but they were hard to come by.  It seemed like a lot of people were from here and had family here, and that deep community that I so longed for and knew in Columbia and Jeff City wasn't forming the way I had envisioned.  It was a battle for me because I knew our purpose here was for the students, but I selfishly wanted other friends too.  Over time, God has answered our prayers for friends and although we are excited for our move and the next step God has for us, we have formed some friendships that we will definitely miss.  If we had known we would be moving at this point, we probably wouldn't have bought a house when we did.  Let me tell you though, we loved our home.  It will forever hold a special place because it's the first house we owned owed.  It is where we brought Cooper home from the hospital and he spent his first 8 months.  We specifically chose to be located close to campus hoping to make it easier for our students to come over and we enjoyed having them in our home.  We even had someone live with us for a couple of months, while in transition before getting married.  We got to try our hand at some DIY projects and house updates.  And God was able to take a place that had been a psychiatrist's office and then her home (not saying psychiatrists are bad or anything--but we were guessing from the Darwin symbol on her car that she wasn't a believer) and make it into a home used for worship, prayer, discipleship, and family.  All praise goes to Him--for the opportunity to have this home, for selling it quickly, and for the way He has grown us during our time in Cape Girardeau. 

Closing day--Oct 2011

After coming home from the hospital

Cooper's first room

Coop's nursery

The days of Eric & Kelly Barb, the couple, are slowly winding down...and we are preparing (as much as we know how) to become a family of three.  I have now moved to weekly doctor appointments and everything is still going great.  We talked with our doctor yesterday about signs of labor, when to go to the hospital, and just got to ask her some questions about "how will we know?"  It's funny because I get asked all the time if I have had any contractions, lost my mucous plug, or if the baby has dropped.  And generally my answer is, "I don't think so- but I don't know what any of that feels like..."  We do have a small bit of progress though, because as of yesterday, I was dilated to "almost a 1" :)  I know that I could hang out there for weeks though.

I can't believe the summer is winding down.  Classes start back at SEMO on August 20th.  We have had a busy and really great summer: Summer Missions Orientation, Super Summer, two baby showers, time with family and friends, a trip to southeast Kansas, Campus Missionary Training, buying a new car, taking a couple of classes at the hospital, and getting the nursery ready for Cooper's arrival.  So do you want to see pictures?  I think we have all the necessities and all the things we don't need too.

We decided to piece together our own baby quilt.  (It is actually completely finished now and ready to be picked up!)  It was the inspiration that we built the room around for color.  I wanted something bright and fun--and to stay away from pastels or strictly blue and green.  The fabric is Alphabet Soup Boy by Riley Blake designs.

Here is the dresser that we got from an antique store and Eric painted.  I love the color!  He also updated the hardware.  We got the prints on the wall from Etsy and the dresser is also acting as the changing table.  In the next few pictures, you will see our new comfy swivel glider, Ikea spice racks turned into bookshelves, Ikea curtains, and homemade artwork.

Cooper also has his own rocking chair, that was made by some friends of Eric's from his hometown.

And then we have the crib, name on the wall, and storage unit with shelves, drawer, and laundry basket.  We haven't gotten everything put away, so the shelves and crib are currently acting as the catch-all.

I hope that helps you get a feel for the room!  I didn't have a great way to take pictures besides going around from wall to wall.   We're excited for our little man to arrive and be able to put all this stuff to use.  Who knew such a little thing could have so much stuff?! 

makeover monday

Here's a post my husband wrote yesterday....and I'm just stealing it for my blog! I'll insert my comments/additions in blue!

So, Kelly and I have been beginning to think about the nursery for Baby Barb (we find out Monday if it’s little boy Barb or little girl Barb), {we want to know your guesses} and once we find out the baby’s gender, I’m sure nursery prep will kick into overdrive.  The room we are going to use as the nursery is on the main level with our bedroom, but has been our guest room up til now.  We have an upstairs bedroom that we had been using for craft room, sewing room, storage, etc.  It needed a little freshening up before we moved the stuff up there to make it the new guest room, so that was part of my weekend project this last weekend. Here is a picture of the space when we moved in:

It was pretty white … and dingy/dirty white at that, but we didn’t do anything to it initially just so we could get things settled in the main living areas.  This is how it was being used since we moved in:

So, Kelly and I are usually land on the pretty conservative side when it comes to picking colors.  For the downstairs in the house we wanted to go with a tan/beige-ish color … and finally landed on a color called “ashen” which actually reads grey on the walls in some lighting, and more tan in others.  We looked at a lot of different color chips, it took us a while to make that decision, and we love it.  For upstairs though, it was kind of a whim.  {We're talking just stopping by Lowe's and picking out a color in less than 5 minutes- with no research or looking online for ideas- this is huge!} We were in Lowe’s, looked at paint, Kelly looked at one of the “inspiration pamphlets” they have there and said, “what about this”:

And this is where we are so far … still not sure what to put on the walls as far as art or anything, and haven’t picked out window coverings, but that will come … I’d say we are ready for guests.

The pine trunk at the end of the bed is from Kelly’s family. It was something that she received from her grandparents old house. {My great-grandpa King built it and it was in my grandparents house as long as I can remember} I’m still working on painting an old dresser I’ve had since I was a kid to eventually put in here. We bought the old fruit crates for $10 each and the chair in the corner for $12 (all of the other similar chairs we found were in such worse shape, like you couldn’t sit on them, and cost $10-20 more) at an antique store in Cape. We turned the crates on their ends to use as side tables with a shelf, and we painted and re-upholstered the chair … I didn’t get any before pictures before I painted in white (it was just finished wood, and looked pretty rough) but it had this seat on it (which I know someone will probably love, and wonder why we covered it, never fear, I didn’t ruin or get rid of the original fabric):

 

We think it has turned out great so far.  Looking forward to hosting any and all guests in the future! I repainted the rest of the upstairs as well, and we’re working on getting it organized to still have a seating area and space for all of the sewing/crafting stuff … so maybe that’s a future post.

-E

Here are some close up pictures of the crates and lamp.  Eric didn't mention that we got the lamp base at Goodwill for $9.  It was brand new from Target (tag still attached) but was missing the switch (Lowe's called it an 'on/off adapter').  So $3.50 later, we have a brand-new working lamp!  It had been a bronze color, and also got spray-painted white to brighten it's life a little.

Eric has also helped update our home for spring summer/whatever it is around here.  He is the real crafter.  I just come up with ideas or show him things I like, and he implements!  It really works out well- because he gets to put his creative juices to work and I always like the end results! 

Here are a couple of pictures of our updated dining room corner shelves:

And here are some pictures of the updated mantle- in much lighter/brighter colors than the past few months!

Well that's all of the DIY around here for now.  Eric is still working on the dresser- so I'm sure we'll have some updated pictures once it gets added to the room.  He also has ideas for what to do in the landing area at the top of the stairs- especially now that we have lost our storage room!  And don't forget....we want to hear your predictions on Baby Barb!  (And I know....I haven't put any preggo pictures up- so maybe those will come soon too).

Our new home

I know that I haven't posted anything really about our new home- and we have been in it for 1 1/2 months.  Well, I thought I'd try to do some short posts just to show our friends/family that live far away.  We haven't done anything major to the house- just new carpet and paint.  So today, I'll show you the living room.

Here is the front door/living room and then you can also see through the opening into the dining room. The walls were just all dirty-off white... (Don't mind me- I'm just trying out the key to the front door. We can only lock the doors with keys, both on the inside and outside, which I found out is a safety thing so if someone punches out your windows, they can't just turn a deadbolt. Genius!)

 We started painting within 2 hours of closing on the house.  We were on a time crunch and it was nice to already have the paint picked out, bought, and ready to go!  Our color choice was Ashen, by Olympic One. We absolutely love the color.  We picked it out thinking it was a light tan....and have found that at some points it looks more gray, which we had actually thought about painting it a gray shade, so it's great!

Winter Mood, also by Olympic One, used on all the trim, windows, and doors

Here is Ashen, taken from the Olympic website. 

So....here are the pictures we took after we finished painting (with the old, full of cat hair, carpet)

 

This next picture is from the day our stuff got moved- as everything is just sort of laying around as we try to figure out how we want it to look.  We also have new, clean, never been touched by cats, carpet!!

 ...and here it is now as it is decorated for Christmas.

I've started collecting the Willow Tree Nativity set.

Eric's grandma made stockings for us...and we actually have a mantle to use!

Eric painted an old shutter that was in this old house that his parents and their neighbors bought and it is now by the front door holding Christmas cards.

Our front door with our "wreath"...something I found on Pinterest and we recreated.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our living room!

failed blogger again :/

Oh wow.  Here we are almost three months later.  I confess that I'm not the best blogger...especially when it comes to being consistent.  A lot has changed in the Barb household the last couple of months- including the Barb household.  Eric and I bought a house!  We had been looking since the middle of the summer- and went out probably 5-6 different times to see many homes in our area.  We actually put a rushed offer out in early August (when we found out there was another offer, so it was our only chance), but realized that we were not into playing the games that this 'for sale by owner' had.  So we kept looking....and then finally stumbled across the house that is now ours!  I like to refer to us as 'home owers' instead of 'owners' because we are far from owning this.  It's crazy when you look at the sheet with what you're actually paying out over all those years.  We even bought something at the very bottom of our price range and are actually saving money compared to what we paid in rent.  So I'll show you a picture of the little guy (on the outside) and then will hopefully get pictures up of the inside soon.  It is an old home (from the 1950's) in a great area of town that has lots of old homes with character.  It's actually on the same street as the first house we put the offer on.  We painted and got new carpet before we moved in and it seriously made a huge difference.  It has some fun features like a fireplace in the living room and built-in cabinets in the dining room.  We have moved down to only one bathroom, but the bathroom has been completely remodeled in the last 3 years and even has heated floors!  The major thing I would want to change is the kitchen.  It has green counters and an old, old green stove.  We plan to do a complete kitchen remodel somewhere down the road.  It is 1 1/2 story, Cape-Cod style.  The upstairs is really neat too- just needs a little love put into it, so that is probably in the future too!  But here it is from the front....

isn't it cute? the yard could use a little lovin' though...

We also finished our marathon last month!  It was such a great experience and we couldn't have picked better weather.  It started out around 50 degrees and was just starting to get too warm in the last couple of miles.  We also reached our goal of raising $1800 for 'His Voice Global' to go for building a 4th orphanage!  Several of our students came and watched us, so that was fun to see them at different points along the route!  I was definitely ready to be done by the end of it, and would have told you that I've completed my marathon and have no desire to do another full again.  It's funny though how you can forget those feelings- and in the back of my mind, I think I might want to do it again sometime in life.  I guess we'll see!

before the race in downtown STL

our cheering section after the race

The last thing I mentioned in my last blog was that I was going to work at the new Chick-Fil-A.  Well, about three days before we opened, I became a manager.  It has been a fun experience so far-- not that all days are easy or enjoyable, but I really like working there.  I have definitely been learning a lot about leadership and business.  It is hard work and we have been really busy.  It has also given me the flexibility to continue to work with the Student Ministry Team!  I work early in the day, so I finish early and still have the opportunity to get other things done.  I feel like I could probably blog about CFA though-- just all I have learned and experienced.  I come home and tell Eric stories everyday.  Like yesterday, for example, the outside door leading into the restaurant fell off (onto the sidewalk) at about 11am right as the lunch rush was starting.  Oh joy!

And I really do want to get better about blogging....so here's hoping that it's sooner than later :)