~ from my home to yours, living the Working Pantry lifestyle ~ surviving today's economy ~ a can-do spirit and attitude ~

Monday, September 26, 2016

Our Journey to A Mortgage Free Home … #7

(Previous posts can be found HERE.)

After posting the last post I received the following question …

Where did you guys stay when working on the house? Did you have a camper?

I’ve been telling you that we knew what we wanted and that we were determined.  Well, if you haven’t believed it before now, this should convince you.

We (my husband and I were empty-nesters at the time and still are) were renting and had been since moving to the area.  In January of that year our landlady told us that since her husband had recently passed away she was going to have to move from their home to a home of her own.  She told us not to worry though, that she wasn’t going to ask us to move because we were such good renters and she had a beach house she could move to and that’s what she was going to do.  

February 1st she gave us notice that we had to be out by the end of the month and my husband had a week long work related trip out of town that he had to take that month.  We had been working on the house but it was in no way near livable.  We had no family that lived anywhere near us.  We had a serious problem!  

After much prayer and a kind offer we decided to put almost all of our worldly possessions in storage and move into … a good friend’s brother’s garage … yes, a garage!  The garage was not attached to their house and did have a mini kitchenette and a bathroom/shower so we set our bed up in the garage part and used the mini kitchenette and bathroom/shower.  All it cost us was the electricity we used. We lived like this for about 4 months until we could get one room of our house livable and then we moved into it.  This was some of the hardest days of the whole journey.  Our friend (and his wife), whose brother’s garage we were living in fixed supper for us several evenings every week.  They really went the extra mile to help us through this difficult time and we will forever be grateful to them.  The upside of it though, was that we had the money we had been paying for rent to use on our house.  Remember we were paying as we went.


All I can say is that where there is a will, there is a way … as hard as it was; it moved us closer to our goal more quickly than we would have gotten there otherwise!

Are you ready for some more pictures ... here you go ...

Last week I left you with us completing the foundation, sitting the house down on it and tying it down with the hurricane straps.

This week we're going to go inside ... are you ready???

Have I mentioned that the inside of the house was dirty ... even after hauling load after load after load of junk out of it ...




We swept and swept and swept and swept the floors ...





... and the walls and gave the whole inside a thorough cleaning.   My husband patched the hole in the roof and the one directly below it in the floor.

The house was full of small little rooms and we knocked out some of those wall studs and made a living room/kitchen/dining room combination, a half bath, a master bedroom, master bath and 3 closets.  Since we had knocked out those stud walls my husband had to build a very strong bridge to go across the 'big' room in the attic.  This bridge gave the 'big' room the support it needed.  (Our entire house was and is 925 sq.feet.)



Next, my husband ran the wiring ... and this was about the time that we got the notice that we had to move out of the house we were renting.

Next, the rush to get one room ready for us to live in!

Until next time,
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.