So, we started moving today, and are sleeping (or should be at nearly three in the morning) at the new house… it’s been interesting so I’ll tell you a little about it.
At the new house, it's a good sign.
We had been praying for a place where our monthly expenses would be significantly lowered… a place we could buy, that would be cheap. We prayed with the knowledge that our goal of reducing our expenses would probably be neither comfortable or to a place we wanted to stay long-term. We were right. But we do feel blessed!
We found a 16×76 mobile on 1.5 acres outside the city limits, a small mostly mobile home development. It’s not a great neighborhood, but we’re in a pretty good part of it, right across from what will soon be a beautiful field of corn. The mobile is small for us. We had been in a house that was about three times the living area of what we’re now settling into. Unfortunately, we pretty much filled that much larger house, and wouldn’t have minded a little more space. A family of ten seems to need a lot. 😉
We know that this means downsizing our ‘stuff’ and stopping ‘stuff’ accumulation. This is probably a really good thing, as we both come by the ‘hoard’ing mentality honestly. Our method for moving: take what we want, garage sale what we don’t, donate what doesn’t sell, and trash what’s not worth donating. With this method, we hope to get down to mostly fitting in our new home.
Our goal is to pay it off in two years or less, then save money and buy either land or a more permanent house (goals subject to change as the Lord leads). We are currently paying about 1/2 of our previous rent, but on a four year land contract.
So we make four trips of van+trailer, one with an additional truck and suburban (thanks Nate and Becki!) and had a break for pizza in the middle. Sometime before the second trip, the air conditioner in the new house quit working right (the rest of the night was excessively warm). After the second trip, when the washer was set up and Nate and I were getting the dryer hooked up, the washer overflowed it’s drain (seems to be a chronic problem). As we got back from the fourth trip, just as we pulled up, the house went dark. No power at all. We checked, and found that the main breaker (100 amp) in the main breaker box was bad. Not simply tripped, but no power even if flipped and then flipped back. It was also pretty warm. I think we must’ve been using a lot of electricity…
Fortunately our well is powered prior to the main breaker box (bad design, as it doesn’t have it’s own switch) so even without power, we still had water and would be fine. We spent the rest of the evening in the dark. After the kids were all in bed, and the helpers all gone home, L and I took cold showers and headed for bed. As I was trying to fall asleep, I thought, maybe I should check that breaker one more time.
Lo and behold, when flipped off and on, everything in the house started right up! Praise the Lord! And, apparently the air conditioner is working fine too 🙂 My thought went to thanking God, and then I realized I hadn’t even asked Him to work things out for us. But, on the bright side, I hadn’t whined about what He’d given, either. Anyway, tomorrow we’ll try to do a little settling in, but at least we’ll have power and hopefully cool air. And that’s day one of our moving adventures…