Trim The Tree Thursday-The Cove-My Crazy Week!

Please visit Cami
She has winter decorations up and some romantic valentines day decor they are just beautiful!

I have been at The Cove-the Billy Graham Conference Center at a conference all week. My valentines decor is out-just not photographed yet. I apologize!


The Cove

You have to check it out! We stayed there last year for a conference and I fell in love, this week just deepened my love! If you are ever in the Asheville, NC area you simply must check it out. The entire downstairs walls are made to show photos of Billy Grahams ministry, life, and family. There are also thousands of gifts that he has been given from around the world. It is simply amazing the ministry that he has lived.

My Crazy Week

This starts Sunday morning-early-before we shower for church. My brother in law calls and asks if he and my father in law can come and take showers. They had been hunting in Alabama and had come in at 2am to find his new condo flooded. Being guys, they decided they could still sleep there. (not even close to what I would have done) So the main water line had frozen and busted.

So now my brother in law, whom I love dearly, is living at our house for a while. His kitchen cabinets, tile, garage ceiling, etc. have been ripped out. They are trying to dry the carpet and go from there. Thank the Lord for insurance!

Monday I had to leave for the conference at The Cove. This was refreshing. All except for the fact that a good friend of mine told me on Sunday how she was able to refinance and get a superb low rate on her mortgage. We had been thinking about this for a while now and new now was the time. The only thing, my friend said, "you better call soon, she's 3 centimeters dilated". Now, I have never had a child, so I was assured that meant she was going in at any moment. So although she was off on Monday, I called and left her a message.

Now phone reception at The Cove is quite limited. In order for me to talk with the loan officer I had to press my face against the window of the front door of Pilgrims Inn or stand outside in 10 degrees. I did go off and on-inside and outside. I did this for about an hour. She told us great news-really great news in fact-so say a little prayer it all goes according to plan. We are getting our home reappraised as well-this means a few final details are yet to be done. You know how you start a project and get almost finished, but never quite finish? Well, this is all my husband knows, and we have done quite a bit of work on this house. So I call and let him know all the details. He agrees he have some work to do.

So I get in late last night. I decided to leave a little early. Everyone else was getting back later today but I needed the time! I have a hefty list of to do's in order to be in tip top shape for the appraisal.

So here are a few hopeful to do's

• new back door & air vent
  
• we converted our back porch/mud room into a laundry room (taking the laundry out of the kitchen) and there is only a storm door there, in order to count this as new square footage we must have an exterior door and a vent from the central heat and air running to it.

• stage office as bedroom
• when we bought our home they called it a 3 bedroom with office simply because the previous owners had converted the smallest bedroom into a family closet. we converted it into an office, but in order to get top appraisal we have some staging to do.
  
• frame around dishwasher
• when we bought our home there was no dishwasher so we put one in and have yet to frame it out or secure it in-it still will tip a little if I have all the heavy things on the bottom and pull it out-not so good!

I think these are my main things. The dishwasher just needs to look finished so we get top dollar for a renovated kitchen. We need the appraisal value for 4 bedrooms and extra square footage/laundry room. Quick Tip- Keep a list of updates you have made to the house. You will be amazed at what it looks like on paper!

We need to get all of this done, have a house guest, finally take down our outdoor lights, and help some friends move. Do you think we will get it all done? Probably not! We will try!

Action Plan

• Laundry
• Work out at the gym
• Start on office de-clutter in order to stage as bedroom
• Get an estimate on an air vent in the laundry room

I think that is enough for today!

5 minutes-Make a yearly birthday action plan. Write out all of the birthdays you need to send cards for-write them in order according to the date. Decide on a budget if you are giving gifts as well and write that beside it. This will be your go to for birthdays and birthday gifts. Take this with you if you haven't bought your birthday cards for the year yet, that way you won't forget anyone!