We Did It!

AFTER!

BEFORE

We have officially bought, flipped, and sold our first home- closing June 26: 1 year and 8 months after purchase. Our first (and last) successful flip for a solid profit! It's been difficult and inconvenient at times living in a home we're fixing up, especially the kitchen remodel. A lot of sweat and labor. But if it gets us closer to where we want to be then it was worth it. And we've thoroughly enjoyed living in this fabulous home in the meantime. We went from camper, to 1,296 square feet, and ....Back to a camper again! Yep, that's right. We have another camper parked in our yard. The last one we lived in and sold for a profit. Hoping to do the same with this one. We may park it on our generous friends yard or if we find that perfect lot of land for sale, we may park in on our own turf! Will we live in a camper through the winter in Alaska you ask? Well....probably not. But we'll see....

Before

After

My husband, Chadd, does incredible work. This place went from Eyesore to Accent. We have had countless strangers stop as they drive or walk by and shout, "We love what you've done with the house!" And they haven't even seen the inside!

Kitchen After

Kitchen/living Before

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After

Another great accomplishment is that I completed a triathlon! The Gold Nugget Triathlon, an annual all women's event, is 500 yard swim, 12 mile bike, and 4.1 mile run. Whoowee! I won't say it was a breeze. If you're as competitive as myself, it's nearly impossible to "take it easy." But thanks to my incredible friend Vera who got me signed up and swam or ran with me every week, and my co-worker who lent me her awesome racing bike 2 days before the race, I finished 44th out of 211 in my age class. There were 1,448 women competing in the entire race.  see for yourself!

Third Newbie: Chadd is full force with the new business Apex Building Solutions. He's getting jobs in and also enjoying working double-team with his friend who owns Walby Homes Construction. The bookkeepping still lands on me, but we're keeping things a bit simpler this time. 

Memorial Day weekend family fourwheel camping trip. You can't tell, but I am completely covered in mud.
Thank goodness for awesome rain gear! )h, and That's Darius on my back.

Swimming in Cottonwood lake right near our house.

Family affairs-- our boys are running circles around me, literally. So much laughter, and so much crying! I once asked a dear friend Danielle who had 4 boys at the time what the secret was to raising boys. She replied: "Don't care about dirt, and don't care about noise." Boy, is that so true. And I made the mistake of pulling Chadd's mini Djembe drum out of storage in my dejunking frenzy. Oh man.... Darius at 1 yrs old can now rival his brother with noise and mess. He's a natural at pulling organized dishes out of the dishwasher and pestering his brother to steal his toys. And though Cyrus as shown some increased maturity at age 4, the most typical behavior stirs in inner knot thinking, "Ugh, grow up and act like....you're not four!" Naw....he's a often a delight. But I definitely have to get them out of the house or we'll all go crazy. Luckily we have a nice lake right down the road, a great yard, parks in town, and hiking trails a short drive away. Cyrus impressed me breathless last week when he bounded up the back of the desperately dusty Butte (the side without stairs that is unlisted), while I huffed and puffed with Darius in the trusty Ergo on my back. Unfortunately coming down was not the cake walk up had been as we mistakenly got on an old abandon horse trail that was nearly impassible. But with a little life metaphor a perhaps some toddler shoulder riding, we made it down alive. 

Darius summitted the Bodenburg Butte!

So, closing and moving in 19 days. Packing and homefying said camper. Enjoying my mommy break two days a week when I put on my Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner hat. Oh, and did I mention Chadd starts an away job tomorrow morning working 7-9 days away/2 days home for 2 months? There's lots to do: Right now we have 3 guys from Lancaster, PA lodging in our newly purchased camper who just got back from summitting Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley). Our church Northgate Alaska is meeting in a tent with evening potlucks all summer. This weekend the boys and I are going to the Rodeo with our friends and hiking Lazy Mountain (not lazy at all) with my co-workers. King (Salmon) Fishing is starting and dipnetting with a visit from my father from L.A. in July --Chadd is taking off for. Hoping to fill our freezer with 110 Salmon in our 2 district allotment this year! 

Come visit! Though, you might have to set up a tent until we have our home built :)