Before and After

We have been doing a lot of repainting, trying to "upgrade" the house as much as we can. Here are some preliminary photos.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Most of the kitchen is a pale beigey-green, with an accent wall a darker green. We also replaced the chandelier.

Amazing what little changes can do. The place looks amazing.

Renters!!

Good news!!! We have renters!

Unfortunately, our renters are one of the displaced families from the Hugo tornado, and our hearts go out to them. I hope our house is a place they can find comfort as their home is being rebuilt.

On the brighter side, everything seems to be working out well for all parties involved. Their insurance company is paying the rent, they will have a home to stay in after a week of being displaced, and we will finally have our home rented. Also, they only agreed to a 9 month lease, but our minimum lease term is for 12 months. So the insurance company agreed to pay for a full 12 months over the course of 9 months, which means we are getting $350 more per month than we were asking!

The background check is in progress as I write, and assuming approval, they sign the lease on Saturday! Please pray with us that everything shows up okay on the background check!

We are rejoicing in the Lord's provision for us through this whole circumstance. He protected our house from extensive damage during the tornado, and is providing for us financially in unforeseen ways, just when we needed it.

Twister

Jared and I drove up to Hugo this evening to survey the damage. The two developments that were hit the hardest by the tornado on Sunday (May 25th) were Creekview Perserve, and Water's Edge. Our house is in the Water's Edge development. Here is what we found...

Our next door neighbor told us she saw hail the size of grapefruits

Most of the siding in our entire development looked like this, or worse
Holey siding, dented gutter

Hail damage on the siding and gutter

Hail damage on the gutter

Little pieces of siding littered the ground everywhere you'd look

Hail damage

Hail damage

These houses had their roofs torn off, and one had the whole front of the house ripped off

Another view of the torn up homes near us

You can see this same water tower looking out our kitchen window

To give you an idea of how close these houses are to ours, you'll see the torn up houses on the far left, the water tower in the middle and the school on the right. Anyone who has been to our house will realize that we live just across the street from the school. I'd say this damage was less than 1/2 mile away from our house.

Tornado path from aerial view. Our house is circled in red.

We were very lucky. God was watching over our house. We have very minimal damage compared to many people. We were not able to get close to any of the totally destroyed homes, but we do know they were less than a mile from our house. We have taken walks in that neighborhood on several occasions.

Movin' Day

We rented a U-Haul and emptied the house yesterday. We had lots of help! Thank you so much Kruegers, Jason, Nathan, and Gary!! The extra hands were such a blessing, especially since I was not allowed to move anything heavy. Everyone worked so hard. Sophia got to spend the day with Grandma and Anna.

Aside from a few things left in the garage, everything is moved out. Now we will spend the next few weeks puttying holes, painting walls, and deep cleaning. Then we will be ready for renters!

After a long day of hauling all our junkandstuff, we were all exhausted. Even Sophia.