our tooele townhouse.

i have to laugh.  i wrote this post the week after we moved and got all settled in to our place in utah.  funny thing is i kept deleting the photos and taking new ones or waiting for the rooms to be "done" before i posted...

well, now we're GONE and BACK in our house in idaho falls.  i'm gonna post this to journal the crazy 6 months we spent in utah and the place that we lived during that time!

I WILL GET BACK ON TRACK WITH THIS BLOG!  I WILL! I WILL!!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

moving day from idaho falls.  so thankful for the many hands that came and made light{er} work of moving our entire household out of state.  we fit everything into a 26 ft. truck with room to spare. luckily we have a rather large storage room in the back of the I.F. garage so we left boxes and things in there that weren't necessary to bring on this move.

here we are- still a family of 5! 

(i was 5 months pregnant with camden!)

brady loves to drive with chris in the big truck whenever we move...he's had the experience quite a few times!!!

zach and olivia rode with mommy.  the back end of the van was stuffed full of things i didn't want in the truck.  bikes on the back. we got into SLC at around midnight.  zach has spilled water all over himself and was completely soaking wet.  

we met up with chris' sister, nickie and her husband, nick and they took the kids for us for the first two days so we could get unpacked (and "celebrate" our 11 year anniversary, which was the next day!) there's nothing like unloading a u-haul to say "cheers!"

the u-haul out front of the new place-

and the tour of the new place...

let's start on the outside.  

when you enter the from the front door you are in the living room. we brought our "boogery" furniture with us after we sold the better formal living room couches.  

(sorry- no pic! this was one of the pictures i deleted. then when we got our new IKEA couch, a steal for $200 of KSL.com)

there is a cut-out in the wall from the kitchen to the living room. it really opened up and brightened the space and helped me keep an eye on the kiddos.

then there's the eat-in kitchen.  it's bright and airy, though small.  i had like a 2 foot counter space, but i made it work.  i actually really enjoyed the amount of sunlight in the kitchen and the fact that it overlooked the backyard so i could keep an eye on the kids.  they played out there for most of the whole month of may, but once it got into june a heat wave came through and it became too unbearable to be outside until around 7-8 in the evening!

my sis-in-law, nickie gave me the white buffet, which is still a work in progress.  it served as my office area/command central.

                          




i hung a map over the dining room table in august so we started to learn about states and capitals.  the kids asked tons of questions at every meal and it really sparked a lot of conversation.  i actually kind of miss having a map over our diningroom table!

                            

we had a small pantry in the kitchen which i was SO grateful for, but i still needed more space, so luckily this white cabinet that we had fit in this space by the garage door perfectly.  i could keep all of my baking goods in there and the kids have their chore charts inside one of the cabinet doors and the right side is all homeschool (we homeschooled for the first few months of this school year as we were actively working on moving back to idaho).

                        

off the kitchen we have this great deck where i transplanted some of my favorite perennials, columbine, for a little summer color. turns out that they don't like as much sun as they get here and the heat.  i don't think being in a pot helped much either.  one of the pots didn't make it since i seriously neglected it.

i transplanted some succulents {hens and chicks} from home in Idaho as well and they did well.

then i bought some late-season perennial black-eyed Susans for a deal and a little salvia so we have some pretty color out there.

it's so nice out here all afternoon and evening, we really lucked out having such a nice area to bbq and eat and a private nice backyard.

the view was beautiful too.  {almost} makes me feel like i am looking out at the ocean.  the mountains are the stansbury mountains in the great salt lake.



upstairs we have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  the bedrooms were all very small, as were the bathrooms.  but they worked and were fully functional. i was grateful to have at least two bathrooms! 

i had to get seriously organized in the kids' rooms but we pulled together a lot of little projects that have been on the "to do" list for a while.

it's was super hot upstairs all summer and finally started to cool down by the beginning of october.  the upstairs was almost unbearable during the heat of the summer, especially being pregnant!

master-

i was really glad that our dresser fit in our room.

                               


the baby was in a bassinet-sized pack-n-play next to the bed and the closet is super tight so that we had to pack away half of our clothes!

ready for baby...

scored the rocking chair ($8) and the baby blanket ($3) at D.I.- one of the only things i liked about tooele!

the view from our bedroom was beautiful too.  green mountains and beautiful sky.  this was taken the beginning of may. i wouldn't mind if i could have this view in idaho falls...




olivia's room-

super small.  big enough just for her, but that's all we needed, i guess.  i finally put together a few little things that her room had been waiting for a while.  i love the picture above her bed, which my mom gave me and i re-framed. it's hard to see in this picture but it's the girl in the hollyhocks.

we hung a bunch of her pictures on the wall with some clothespins and tuelle.  i am making her a little book for christmas full of some of her favorite drawings so she can look at them when she wants.

and i FINALLY finished olivia's hexi quilt just in time for her birthday!  i worked on it for a full year and am so happy with the finished look! 

after i finished her hexi quilt i had to make a mini quilt and pillow for her dolly bed!  her great-granpa morgan (papa) made all of his great-grand-daughters these adorable doll beds and dressers! what a special keepsake!  she loves them!!!

i finally took the 20 minutes to paint her lamp which i got for $1 at a yardsale and the lampshade from D.I. for $1.

her quilt is from my aunt donna {for FREE} thank you! the other side of it actually has a pattern which is really pretty, but not the colors or style i am going for.  i actually really love the simple pink with dark pink checked look.  it looks really good with her hexi quilt!!!

i framed some scrapbook paper i had gotten for her room and spray-painted a few D.I. and yardsale frames i had.  i was going for a fancy chunky look with them...

we're didn't use the bunk bed because it was too big for the boys' room, so i used the ladder as a blanket rack in olivia's room.  she has a few cute quilts and pretty afghans that were made for her when she was a baby.  i have also found a few thrifting.

still need to print photos for some frames and planning on making a chalkboard to go inside of the big window frame.

boy's room-

finally pulled it all together... to make it work well for the two boys, ....and then we moved!  i never got pictures. this is what it looked like for the first few months-

brady's space artwork that he drew when he was in 1st grade.

the sign is a find from grammie morgan, its' a saying she always says to brady especially.

brady's corkboard and a little place for them to hang their baseball caps and lighter coats

poor zach, when we first moved in he had either been sleeping with brady in brady's bed, on the floor in this make-shift bed by himself, or with brady on the floor!  at the end of may we went back to idaho falls and got his toddler bed since the bunk bed was too big for their room.

i re-painted it and poly-urethaned it for protection because the last time i painted it i didn't do the protective coat and it got pretty banged up in the garage.

kid's bath-

also more decorated than theirs was ever in I.F. because it was a long project...

i finally made this barn board towel hanger, which only cost me $4! and took me 10 mins.

downstairs-

we had a storage room/laundry room and a half bath.  

in the daylight basement was our family room/play room and a patio door that led to the backyard.  

there was a sandy area that we used as a sandbox-

the kids loved having a trampoline! we got it for them last Christmas

so that's it!  our place in tooele.  the town was ok.  we had everything that we NEEDED but it never felt like HOME.  I was very homesick the whole time we were there.

the kiddos didn't have many friend there and they missed the easy pleasures of coming and going and bike riding all over the place like they did in our neighborhood in IF, but they have did really well playing with each other over the summer and we tried to get to different parks several times a week to stay sane.

this momma was pooped out though! i had a nap with zach in the afternoon almost every day!  our days here were simple but we tried to fill them with as much fun, exploration and love as we could. we read lots of books, built lots of legos and played lots of games.

it's was very hard being in a new place but we tried to stay positive and focused on our personal and family goals.  chris worked extremely hard for our family and we both prayed fervently that our efforts would pay off and that we could get where our family needed to be.  we are so thankful to be back in idaho falls! 

feeling human again. (written at the beginning of june...) moving and packing tips.

finally i am back in my groove.  i am so grateful for this.  it is so awful to feel so inhuman when you're incapacitated with morning sickness {ie: all day sickness} and crippling fatigue.  i feel incredibly blessed to have felt better within a few weeks of making this big move and even more blessed to continue to feel well and to have gotten everything unpacked so quickly.  by day 3 we were very much settled in!

this is our 14th move in 11 years, i kind of consider myself a little bit of an "expert" on moving by now. in case anyone else may find it helpful i thought i'd include a few tips of how i organize, pack and get unpacked quickly.  there's nothing like making a fast transfer so your days of limbo can be limited.  it's so much more settling for everyone when everything is back in its' place and your new home actually FEELS like home.

whenever we know we're moving i always start to begin packing non-essentials as soon as i can. usually i have 2 weeks notice-1 month.  this last time we had 3 months, which i'm sure helped a lot since we were still dealing with sicky momma, lots of house and landscape projects, finding renters etc.  luckily, between a hugely helpful husband (when i saw him for about 24-48 hours every weekend) and a wonderful mom who flew across country to stay with me and the kiddos for a WHOLE MONTH to help out!  my father-in-law, dan was a HUGE help in assisting us with our main bathroom remodel. after chris got the bathroom tile surrounding the tub and floor demolished he came and helped us figure everything out and helped tile it and grouted the floor for us.  my mom was a champ and grouted the shower for me.  my mother-in-law julie also helped out a ton too as we got yard work and house cleaning done.

so, i begin packing away anything unnecessary in every room, clear a space in the garage (or pick an available space if you have one that can be dedicated to mounting boxes).  like things go in like boxes, no just throwing whatever in with whatever.  that seems like common sense, but you'd be surprised by how many people just start throwing things in boxes!  no wonder it takes forever to find everything!

step1- i always start with closets right away.  get everything out of there that isn't going to be worn in the immediate future.  i pack my clothes in a box and chris' clothes in his own box.  when i can, i stick belts, jewelry and shoes in as well.  I try to limit us each to one big box when we move (this is clothing that has been hung or is laid on shelving like our sweaters).  other clothing stays in the drawers, for everyone.  on moving day, we take the drawers out, move the dresser into the moving truck and then put the drawers back in.  same when we unload truck.  clothes are already where they need to be on move-in day!  i have 1 large black heavy-duty trash bag that i stick all of the hangers in.  I label each black trashbag with a strip of masking tape and black sharpie marker.  i usually have all the clothes hung up by day 1 or 2 of move-in.

step2- after closets i usually move on to books and children's toys.  pick out everything the kids don't play with on an every day basis.  usually that means that they have a small pile of books, Legos, and a couple of other toys left out for the duration until we move.  this is a great time to consider which books and toys you can haul off to DI or sell in a yardsale if you are having one.

i keep my kids' toys in plastic storage bins, ranging in size from small-xlarge depending on the toy. everything is labeled and has a picture so older and younger kids know where to put their toys away.  i have been lucky enough to use the same moving boxes since we first moved from Twin Falls to Idaho Falls (they have lasted us 4 moves now...) they are sturdy boxes a friend got us for free from a box factory there and i have tried to re-pack the same items in the same sized boxes according to their labels.  the same size boxes that i have used for mine and chris' clothes i also use for toys, books and games.  i take the toys out of the plastic containers and double-bag them in a grocery bag.  then i can stack the containers inside each other in the box and stuff the toys in and around them.  doing it this way i am able to utilize one box to pack anywhere from 4-6 boxes of toys.

step3- decorations.  again, i start in the master bedroom and kids' rooms because that's where i've already been focusing my attention.  i just take down their pictures and decorations in their room and put items from one room in one box.  if there is extra space i'll look for little things that belong in those rooms, like misc. toys that didn't already get boxed up or roll up a few items of their clothing just to secure the items in the box from moving around.  typically i only use bubblewrap on kitchen items and glass decor.  most of the time i can pack the kids' pictures back to back so the glass can't break and their decor tight enough that nothing can move around and break.  if it's fragile, mark it so!  each kiddo gets to pick ONE stuffed animal to keep out through moving day, the others go into another large black trash bag labeled stuffed animals.

so bedrooms become pretty bare.  just clothes that need to be worn hanging in closet, bedding and dressers with clothes inside.  i usually leave one lamp in the master bedroom and pack up everything in our nightstands that is not needed.

on moving day the rest of the clothes in the closet get moved in an overnight bag.  i usually wash everyone's bedding the day of the unpacking part of the move.  if i can't get to it right away then we have sleeping bags that are easily accesible.  it is soooo nice having all the beds set up with freshly laundered linens.  each bed and it's entirety of bedding gets thrown in it's own black trash bag and labeled.  put their pillows in too.

couch pillows all go in one bag.  extra blankets in bags...you get the picture.  it's helpful to have these black trashbags full of squishy items to pack in and around things, as well as to stack on top of items that can't take a lot of weight or that are awkward, like couches or pianos.

step4- move on to other home decor and pictures.  i have a large, tall box (about 3') that I put large picture frames and wall hangings in.  usually this goes in the back of the car with me on moving day. any other decor items that are awkward to pack (like wreaths, globes, shutters, mirrors) i usually put in a pile in an area of things that will go with me instead of taking up a lot of space to pack.

when packing decor use extra towels and rags to wrap things in.  like i said before, if you pack things tightly they can't move around and are less likely to break.  you can use styrofoam plates in between kitchen plates.  i usually wrap glasses in bubblewrap.

by packing in stages like this its' less overwhelming.  if you have the time you can focus on one room a day.  we had a large house in idaho falls with about 3600 sq. feet and i had a LOT of stuff because i'd been "collecting" items to refinish and sell.  i had a LOT of things to go through and subsequently had to take much more time taking pictures of items and selling them online and doing a huge yardsale.  i also went through ALL of my craft and sewing items and seriously got rid of probably 80% of it.  i knew that most things i just didn't care about anymore.  any projects i really still wanted to do i packed in the drawers of my entertainment dresser.  i allowed myself several fruit boxes of unfinished items to be done within the year, a box of kids' craft items, ONE plastic bin of fabric (yeah this was HARD!  this was also other than the fabric i had stored in the drawers for specific projects).  anyhow, i seriously decluttered and downsized the amount of items we had and IT FELT SO GOOD!

step5- just keep at it!  every day try too accomplish a task; whether it be kitchen cabinets, cleaning a room or packing specific boxes.  as i pack i also clean.  it makes moving day so much easier!  wipe baseboards, blinds and ceiling fans down.  wash any spots on walls and spackle/paint touch-up where needed.

i'm really not an expert of course, but these are things that have really helped me.

on moving day make sure to take charge and let people know where things go.  have every box go where it's supposed to go!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so here we are, in Tooele, Utah!  a place i never thought we'd live!  i had imagined moving somewhere in the salt lake valley whenever i thought of moving down here, which was pretty much inevitable for Chris' career path.  anyhow, when reality hit i knew the valley just wasn't the place for me.  not the environment where i personally wanted to raise my family, even if for a short time.  too crowded, too busy, too much concrete!

we were so lucky to have friends, chad and candice hymas that we had been neighbors with in Twin Falls who had now moved to Tooele.  they had been renting a townhouse for a year and a half and just bought another house there.  we had been in contact through facebook and i asked her about the townhouse.  at the time we were looking at a large home comparable to ours in west jordan.  it turned out to be a scam, which i had a bad feeling about from the beginning.

i wanted specific things in our new place in utah.  first and foremost i did not want to spend more money than our current budget in idaho falls for a rental, even though we would be renting our place in IF for several hundred more dollars.  this was a tall order.  housing in utah is typically 48% higher than in idaho!  to keep within this budget i even looked at 2 and 3-bedroom apartments that offered ammenities like storage to make it workable.  i did not want to be over $1000 since utilities would also run more expensive in utah.  the goal of this process was to continue to become debt-free over the coming 1-2 years, so living below our means was very important to us.

moving out of the valley was not only attractive to me for my personal purposes of not feeling like i could be at home there, but also because rentals were much more affordable.  it just so happened that chad and candice's place was actually exactly what we'd been looking for- a garage for storage, a separate family room for more living space and place for toys, crafts and guests. a deck AND a patio so we could continue to enjoy outdoor living with our grill and patio table in the summertime, our own fenced in backyard and more than 1 bathroom.  those were my requirements and i feel like God actually handed this place to us!

it's a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom, 3-level townhouse with a walk-out daylight basement with sliding glass doors in the family room to a patio into the backyard and a deck off the kitchen with sliding glass doors. the kitchen is small and not evenly remotely as nice and wonderful as my newly remodeled kitchen in idaho falls (ahhhh.....) BUT it is open and bright and sunny.  it works, my whole 2 feet of counter space =) and i am actually really enjoying cooking on a gas stove.

the backyard has a beautiful view of the stansbury mountains in the great salt lake and we have gorgeous views of the mountains from the front of the house, specifically the master bedroom, which is small, but also works just fine.

another post with pictures of the place coming soon....one more small project to finish the living room before i can take pics!