Earthquake!!!!

Well not a real earthquake but, the earth HAS moved! They finally broke ground! That's right, ground has been broken, no rock unturned, yatta yatta yatta. Can I get a 'finally'?!?!
It seems like this whole process of getting a house built is taking forever & is super stressful on top of it. They say 4-5 months to complete it but, we're guessing it's going to be closer to 5 months. Oh I guess patiences was never a virtue I possessed. I'd definitely rather have everything sooner than later!
I took a total of 7 trips over to the lot since I first saw the sprinkler. 3 of those wonderful strolls down the road were to spy on the digging :) I knew the construction workers all thought I was crazy when I took a picture of the sprinkler but, I didn't want to push my psychiatric status to the limit & take one WHILE they were digging! They worked all day on digging that bad boy up & I wanted a picture of just the lot. I finally snapped this photo when they were on break. You can't see their work trucks in the picture because I stood on my car (that's right & they laughed at me) but, I had to get this great photo.
Now that the house is moving along let's just keep our fingers crossed that we don't have any hiccups with the mortgage. They told us nothing is 100% until we get into under-writing, so happy thoughts only!
Our life is on it's way to becoming something... Well we can't know for sure but, all this is inspiring me to get the creative juices flowing :) In the meantime, I'll be clipping coupons & sewing my little heart out.

It's Raining, Water???

About a week & a half ago we got an email saying that they were going to finally start construction on our house. My first reaction?! Well overly excited of-course! My hubbs told me to give a bit before I went & checked on it, did I listen? I think not! We only live 2 miles away, so no harm in checking on it, or so I thought. A total let down, my excitement went from 1000 to -1000 in a matter of seconds :( Super bummer for me! Boo hoo!
Since we got the email I have driven by our lot a total of five times, a little excessive, but hey I'm so excited that I could not help myself.
Today was fabulous!!!! There is a sprinkler on the lot. Yep, that's right a fabulous amazing exciting little crazy watering sprinkler of joy :) You wouldn't guess that something so little would make me so excited, but I know that just means they will start to dig any day now & we're one day closer to moving in. I'm on cloud nine right now & like usual the hubster thinks I'm out of my mind. No worries, he always thinks I'm crazy :) I know he's secretly stoked too but, we can only handle one crazy person in our house though!
I definitely will be checking on the lot just about every other day now, just waiting for that ground to be broken. We'll have to take a wonderful family picture once they actually do break ground.
Stay tuned for our inspired life, house to home!

Yes, I absolutely for a fact took a picture of the sprinkler & yes, the construction workers were looking at me like I was a wacko :) Hey you have to record memories right?

18 Months of Uncertainty

Well this week has marked 18 months since I lost my job and when we found out I was pregnant with our amazing son. These past months we've had our ups and downs (mostly downs), but we always seem to get through it. I would've never imaged us to make so many sudden changes in our life or be in the situation that we are, but I believe everything happens for a reason.
I have tried my hardest to be super frugal and that is a journey in itself. I've relied on coupons, sales, clearance, craigslist, garage sales, and goodwill. We were so used to going to the store and buying whatever we felt like whenever we wanted. It's definitely a huge transition to decide between 'want' and 'need'. The amazing thing is that once we became parents we realized that most things just didn't matter like they did before. We put our son first and we would never do anything but that. We know that things like a fancy car, huge house, brand name things, or beauty salon visits just don't top our list of priorities. That's perfectly okay with us though, because our son is worth every sacrifice of materialistic things that we don't really need.
I'm sure some if you are wondering why are we buying a house? Well sadly with the way the economy has been with the home market, it's actually cheaper for us to buy instead of rent! Also we knew that the prices aren't going to stay low forever and this was our chance to purchase a home that we could afford. Home buying is definitely a huge responsibility and scary at the same time! We are just taking it one day at a time and feel lucky to be able to own our own house that we can transform into a home.
We have come a long way in a short 18 months, but I feel like our journey is just beginning. I have so much to learn and probably will never be the best at finances, but our life is what it's supposed to be. Our son is perfect in every way, healthy and our whole world. I love our family and because of who we are I wouldn't change anything that has come to pass. I'm also lucky to have amazingly supportive parents that offer great advice and guidance along the way. Our life is definitely full of love, joy, and happiness. We have so much to look forward to!
I hope that all of you will follow our beautiful journey in becoming new home owners, new parents, and new frugalers! Our life is inspired by what each day brings :)

Barrett says 'enough pictures already mom'

The Armsteads Buy a House

Our story begins with us buying our first house!
Hip hip hooray for future homestead Armstead!

We signed our contract less than a month ago and we could not be more excited.  Sadly the home will take about 4-5 months to get built, but we still are over joyed. Even though the anticipation is absolutely killing me it luckily gives me some time to get stuff in order and search search search for salvage items that I can make over to use in our new house.

Here is our very first picture of us at our new home site.  Barrett was so overly excited that he fell asleep LoL I love that little stinker bug so much!