Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for!

Last Sunday, Wade helped me lay all the footings for our posts and everything is in! It took less time for us to do six footings then it took me to do the two that I had done by myself. It was so much easier to have one person ensuring the post is vertically level while one lays the concrete than trying to straighten it after. Such a relief to have it done and the nice weather has been holding. I found a chainlink supply website that sells a special version of a floor flange made of galvanized steel specifically for mounting chainlink posts onto concrete. I ordered them and they’re on their way.

We closed on our new house and are calling her The 1885 House (she was built in 1885)! After closing, I took Wade there (he hadn’t seen it yet) and he loved it! Such a relief! Now begins the countdown. My deadline is to have a Rental Agreement with our new tenant signed in 10 days or less. Also, I have to get the vacant unit listed. And come up with an application. And screening process. Sometimes I’m glad I move forward so fearlessly on things like buying this house without really thinking about everything that needs to happen for it to work. Making it work will catch up. If I waited until I was ready for this, it would never happen.

We switched our insurance and I am so pleased with our coverage and premiums! We are paying over $100/month less for two houses and our car than we were for one house and one car. Yay for savings!

On Thanksgiving, we headed out to my BFF’s new cottage on the lake and celebrated the holiday with their family. On our way back to Milwaukee, we hit up a Walmart in the country (i.e. not-busy) right as their Black Friday sale began and were able to partake in some Black Friday savings.

Since we finished our Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving, I was able to work on painting our front decks. And great news! I finished!!! Since we had our steps rebuilt, it’s all fresh wood and I put a finish on it to protect the wood from dry rot. When I was first putting it on, it looked awful and all I could think was, “What have I done?” But as it absorbed and dried, it looked great. I think it’s stunning!

With all these renovations, our backyard has become a massive trash pile. We tore down our deck, a fence, and several feet of brush and concrete, as well as all the linoleum/plywood I removed from the downstairs kitchen. Yes, it’s a huge trash pile. I scheduled a guy to come take all our trash and take it to the dump for us. He comes Sunday and I am so pumped to get our yard looking pretty. Next summer, I will lay some seed, a new concrete pad, and do a little landscaping. It will be so nice!

On Saturday, Wade and I celebrated our little family Thanksgiving, just the four of us. When I first joined the Army and we were celebrating holidays by ourselves overseas, it felt lonely and empty at first, but over the years, that became our tradition. Wade LOVES cooking our holiday meals and he makes all our favorite family recipes from both sides of the family. Even when we celebrate with others, we always schedule a day at home to have our little Thanksgiving. While he cooked, I cleaned up our side yard. It was full of debris from the squirrel nests our builder had pulled from the attic. There were also some vines growing on the house that I pulled down. It looks great. I can’t wait to get to the backyard next week!

And the Thanksgiving dinner Wade made was AMAZING.