New Decisions

I have decided that I need to get back into the groove of posting on this blog. In order to facilitate that, I will be posting something every day. This may get ridiculously boring, as I don't have that much to say!

Fortunately for you few who actually stuck around my latest dry spell, Sparky and I are buying a new house! Well... new to us. So that should provide some "meat" for the blog in the absence of any adoption news.

Just to catch everyone up I will divide the next part into two sections. 1) Adoption info 2) House stuff.

1) Adoption Information:
Since I have been a little glum lately, partly because the family member mentioned before had a party to anounce the gender of her baby, (I will never be able to do that. Also, everyone there naturally began reminicing about thier pregnancies and babies. Every woman present was talking about when she found out the genders of her babies, how the sonograms went, delivery, etc. Just another reminder that not only will I never be able to have a party to anounce gener [if I wanted] I will also never be able to participate in those conversations. They are sure to come up at every baby shower or baby event for the rest of my life. I will just be that woman in the corner with no story.) I decided to call my agency to see how things are going.
They told us from the get go that we can call, preferrably no more often than once a month, to ask how many women have our profile (if any). I also know that they will only be able to tell me the current number of women that have our profile, not the number they have sent out total. The woman I talked to told me that one potential birthmom currently has our profile. She isn't due until fall, so it would be quite a wait still.
This is encouraging, although I have no idea how many other people's profiles she has. She could have a stack of 40 families to choose from.

2) House Stuff:
My grandpa built a log house in 1980ish. All. By. Himself. He didn't want any help. He did everything from laying each cinderblock in the basement, to puting on the roof, and everything in between. He was a tool and die maker, very organized, and a left brain thinker. All the pipes in the basement have a small manilla tag on them telling whomever it may concern where the pipe goes and what flows through it. My mom took off the faceplate for one of the light switches and inside he had tucked a diagram of where the wiring for the electricity went. He also made maps of the property and labeled every tree on the premesis.
Someone else in my family was going to buy this house, but changed their mind due to work.
This property really will be perfect for Sparky and I. It has much more room than our current townhouse and 5 acres of land to expand on!
My grandpa had the basement full of his metal tools, and now Sparky can fill it with his own! Or Sparky may claim the garage space. What is very convenient is that Grandpa wired the house with special 220 volt sockets for Sparky's welder (well, he wired it for his own welder, but Sparky's can now plug into it).
The house needs some renovations.
First of all, it barely has a kitchen to speak of. The "kitchen" is on one 10 foot wall with a fridge and a sink. No oven. No stove. My grandpa and grandma didn't cook so they had no need for an oven or stove. They just got a hotplate in case they wanted to make eggs or something.
To make a kitchen possible, my mom and dad knocked out a wall for me while I was at school Friday. I have measured and remeasured and remeasured everything and designed a new kitchen on Ikea's kitchen builder program. I like it a lot. :o)
The house also has the lack of a formal master suite. We are going to knock down a wall upstais between two bedrooms to make one large room. In this room we are going to add a bathroom.
This will leave a large closet (I mean really large), two bedrooms, and another small bathroom upstairs.
On the main floor we took out a wall that created a little laundry room/entry hallway between the front door and a storm door (to keep the heat from escaping the house). This really opened up the laundry and kitchen and feels so much larger. This room opens into a dining area and a small couch area. Down the hall is a full bathroom, a bedroom (becoming my craft room), a very large living room, and a fully enclosed porch.
The nice thing is we will be able to instal the new kitchen, renovate the downstairs bathroom, knock down the wall upstairs, and add the master bathroom before we move in!
Now, I just need to put my current house on the market. Anyone want to buy it?