First trip to New Jersey

 

The kids and I drove up from DC to New Jersey to kind of get a feel for the area and maybe walk a few houses.  With our free time we stopped at the Jenkinson Aquarium at Point Pleasant.

 

While it was small, the kids enjoyed walking around and seeing all the different creatures.

 

We even got to see the sea lions demonstration.  They were so cute!  I would've taken pictures but the exhibit happened to be upstairs and there was no elevator so I had to carry Porter.   

 

After the aquarium, we walked down the boardwalk a bit.  The kids really wanted to go play in the sand but I was tired and didn't want to have to put up with a sandy car all the way back to Virginia.  This is the kids being mad that I wouldn't let them play in the sand.

They weren't mad for long...

DC Temple

So, about a month before school got out, Paul got asked to head up the New Jersey office which left us with no where to live after June 10th.  Paul's parents took pity on us and generously let us stay with them while we hunted for hard to find rental properties in New Jersey.  While we were there the kids and I met up with my sister-in-law Karen and her boy Daniel at the DC Temple.  It was kind of a dreary day but we walked around a bit, took a few pictures and walked the visitors center.  I love it when I'm driving down the freeway and all the sudden, BAM!  There's the temple off the side of the road.  It's just beautiful.

Flipping the Edinburg House - After Pics

 

Funny story, when Lana first read the neighborhood sign, she called it "Lost Legos"

Our realtor had professional pictures taken of our house.  They literally made me cry.  I never got to see the "after" in person.  I really wish we had a chance to live in this beauty.

 We cleaned up the landscaping and laid sod

Family Room/Entry

Formal Dining

Kitchen

 We bought all the appliances (except fridge) used off of craigslist.  You never would've been able to tell they were all "like new".

Eat in kitchen area

Sitting room off of kitchen

Master Bedroom

No mold!

 Apparently the Mexican community is scared of mold.  No one would touch this house so we got an amazing deal on it.  We tore out all the moldy sheet rock.  Sprayed bleach on the concrete. And tore out some of the built ins that we couldn't clean behind plus we replaced all the carpet, and Voila!  No more mold!

Master closet

Master bath

Office

Lana's room

Tanner's Room

Toy/Guest room

 No more crazy paint colors!!

Our amazing realtor sold our home in 7 days and negotiated the selling price in our favor.  We've never had that kind of experience before.  I wish we could hire her to sell all of our future houses!

Flipping the Edinburg House - Before Pics

When Paul hired on with DSW Homes last May, the belief had always been that we would move to McAllen, TX and Paul would be over the program in that area.  By October Paul was commuting to McAllen on the weekends.  We found this house that had been on the market for 2 years and had just recently gone to auction.  We made the decision to purchase it and fix it up.  Here are the before pictures:

Laundry room

Kitchen



Add caption

Sitting room off of kitchen

Family room

Formal Dining

Front entry

Moldy closet

Moldy 1/2 bath

Office

Moldy Master

Master Bath

Moldy bath

Moldy closet

Family Room and Formal Dining

Up the gross stairs

Upstairs nook

Hallway

Lana's room

Tanners room

Full bath

Toy/Guest room

Another full bath

Upstairs balcony

Front