You know you bought a fixer upper when

You mop the floor with a putty knife in your hand.
You clean the blinds with a high pressure hose nozzle!
You clean the carpets with a scrub brush.
You spend two afternoons mowing down waist high grass!
You paint over graffiti inside your house!
You have to replace the bathroom vanity counter top because it is covered with cigarette burns!
You need a forensic scientist to analyze the goo you find! (I watch too much NCSI)


BUT I AM SO THANKFUL for the goo, slime, graffiti, soap scum, paint splatter, gum on the tile, and all other things. Because of these unsightly things, we own a nice house that cleaned up very nicely! I can't believe we are home owners IN CALIFORNIA! I think this is a miracle. When we moved to Mongolia in 2005, I thought we could never afford to return to this state. I really thought we would have to move away to a more affordable area. That would be fine, but family is close to here and after world travel and living---there is no place like home. Have I told you our new house is less than two miles from my high school. I have lived in Yucaipa for 19 years of my life and it is comforting to have a homecoming and not have to learn a new city.

The house may sound yucky, but with 12 gallons of paint and a half gallon of nice stain on the cabinets, some light fixtures and major scrubbing it really looks nice and I am thankful.

Weston has names for all our homes. He can't grasp street names or city names so he really likes to have a name for each house. In Mongolia, he calls it, "The Mongolia house." Our rental house this year was called, "The Bunkbed house," and this one is called "The Tree House." I like that name. There are about ten mature trees on this lot, so the name fits. I think that is a good idea to name houses. Last winter I read Anne of Green Gables and I thought it was cute that they named houses. Weston started it on his own. What a smart boy!