The Little Gingerbread House

On Sunday Jim and I went to church at my cousin's ward because she was blessing her sweet little baby Preston. He is the cutest thing ever, and he is such a good baby. He makes me want a baby (but just a little bit). I'm currently on a kick where I don't want a baby for a long long time. But it changes weekly a little Preston helps with that. ANYWAY, as we were sitting enjoying the company of my family my cousin (well really my cousin's cousin) Billy asked us if we found anywhere to live yet. I probably rolled my eyes and said in a stern voice "no" because I'm so sick of looking at townhouse after townhouse. Without even hesitating he said "you know you guys can live in our rental house. I don't know what kind of condition it's in. The renter moved out on Friday and I'm getting the key's from her tomorrow and I'm going to take a look at it". I was a little excited, I didn't want to be super over joyed because as things have gone so far, something bad always seems to happen when we find a great deal. So I asked where it was because I thought it was in Maricopa. He said "Nooooo it's on like 16th street and Roeser, between Southern and Broadway". For any of you who know Phoenix you are now shaking in your skin. This part of Phoenix isn't the nicest of nice area's, I mean it's not Gilbert or Ahwatukee by any means. In fact it's down right terrifying. Just last week we were driving around down there looking at some really cute town houses. There are some really nice cute little neighborhoods down there, but the surrounding areas are pretty scary. I knew He wasn't talking about the house being in one of the scary area's because it Kati had lived there for about a year and a half before they got married. She wouldn't buy a house in the sketchiest part of town. So of course we said we would LOVE to take a look at it as soon as we could and get it all cleaned up so we could start taking some things over there.

So on Monday I had to work until 5 and after work I went to Jim's house. He kept reminding me to call Billy so we could go see it. I didn't want to be pushy but I finally gave them a call. Billy said we were more then welcome to come get the keys and take a look around at the house. It was in a lot better shape then he thought it would be. There wasn't any electricity or water and the upstairs carpets need a little lovin', but nothing that we couldn't handle. I was so excited!! We went out the their house and chit chatted for a little while, and I peaked in on the babies as they were sleeping. They have such cute little twin boys Mark and James. I love them They also help make me want babies sooner, but still we are A LONG way from that. We left and were on our way to our new house on Chipman street. This is what we found (ok so I may have taken these pictures the next day, but it's still the same)

Our little Gingerbread

This is from the front door looking at the stairs and the great room, there's more sq. feet in the right of the picture. I don't know what to do with it all!

The Kitchen. After I saw the house I went a little crazy and bought tones of cleaning supplies, minus the mop. They left that behind for us :) grooooooooooooosssss. I consider myself to be a little bit of a clean freak. I'm sure you've gathered that by now seeing how much I hate camping

The surprise in the over :) it smelled pretty dang sour

I think it was chicken, Jim thinks it's beef. Either way it was left in there for who knows how long, and look at the inside of the oven! What am I suppose to use on that!?! Anyone!?

This one is the best. Like I said, the power has been off since Friday. On the bright side, I'm happy it's Safeway brand?

My camera died after this picture was taken and I'm a little sad because me had a lot more surprise leave behinds!

• In the garage there is a ton of black and white pictures on the wall of small children maybe the age of 6? I said I want to leave it up. It's great (to laugh at)!! Jim said no. In fact he probably said hell no.
• In the master bedroom a toilet bowel brush on the floor and some cleaning supplies in the bathroom (I don't think they knew what cleaning supplies really were).
• In the hall closet some sort of camo bed skirt? I didn't pick it up, but there's something in there.
• The first bedroom upstairs had shoes and a belt on the floor
• The third bedroom was missing the door, the closet doors, and the shelf in the closet. Don't worry, I found them in the garage a little later along with the pantry door.
• The upstairs bathroom is in the worst possible condition ever. It looks like a little boy, maybe even two or three, decided to stand there and just go to the bathroom on the floor, on the walls, on the counter, sink, mirror, you name it and they peed on it. Ok I'm not sure if it is actually pee, but it's a bathroom, what do you expect?!
• The faucet in the kitchen is broken... off. (see the picture of the curdy milk)

I love our little Gingerbread house believe it or not! In a few weeks we can have things looking really good! I enjoy cleaning and when it's my own place I really don't mind at all! I'm so excited to get things going! Jim just let me know that we have carpet cleaners coming tomorrow from 2-4 and the electricity will be on sometime today. Now I just need to figure out how to get water and we will be good.

I can't thank Billy and Kati enough for letting us live there! and for such a GREAT price, free!! It really couldn't have worked out any better then it did. We owe you guys so much! and here is us PROMISING that we will leave it in MUCH MUCH MUCH better condition then we found it!!! You have my word!