When the sun starts to dip towards the western horizon its rays filter through the trees in the park across the street. It is the most beautiful and magical moment of the day for me. Long trunk shadows reach across the grass, little dandelion puffs become nature’s own disco balls. All of creation worships the One who made it.

I’ve been blessed by this view for ten and a half years now. A new view awaits me next month, one that involves cottonwoods that rustle gently in the evening breezes.

For those who are interested in such things, my own little creative space on the world wide web will remain the View from the Prairie Box. The title has become as much a part of me as my own name, and really, fields of corn and prairie grasses are never too far away when you live in this city. The Box itself will change in order to accommodate a growing family with growing needs. Oh goodness, changes are afoot. I’m a girl who enjoys routine and the safety of a known life, but God is calling us to something new and different. Here we go.

It was warm yesterday! But we know what to do when it gets warm. Put on a cute swimsuit and a set of shades, grab the hose and fill up a bucket. Aaaaah. The good life.

We began the day with a few small chores, then cookie-making. Livia and I were ready to do some baking together, so we pulled out one of Jeremy’s favorite recipes and made a large batch of Oatmeal Scotchies. Sometime between measuring flour and doling out tablespoons of batter onto cookie sheets a realtor called and wanted to show our house to clients. I figured we’d set an appointment for Sunday or Monday. Uh no, how about in 30 minutes? Liv settled on the couch with earplugs and a video on my laptop (cleaning-wise, kids tend to undo whatever their parents are doing!) while Jeremy pulled out the vacuum and I ran around in crazy-fast-tidying mode. Five minutes later—seriously, five minutes later—the doorbell rings and the agent and her clients are on our front porch. I opened the door looking like, well, like I look on a relaxed Saturday morning after doing nine laps around the house. The vacuum was roaring loudly in the background, and I asked them to have a seat on the porch for a minute or two. Awe.some.

Long story short, the couple looked at our home and said nice things about it. We invited them to a small plate of cookies before leaving, and that was it. In retrospect I couldn’t believe how many small tidying tasks I had done that morning before getting the call—grace from a providential God!

At noon I joined a group of girlfriends for our 2nd Annual Reuben Lunch. Everyone walks into the chosen restaurant and order Reubens. Maybe Maralee can explain why Reubens are the sandwich of choice; all I know is that these particular sandwiches are delicious at Toast in Fallbrook. And the sides are great, too. But the truth is that I’d eat peanut butter and jellies with sides of sliced bananas if it meant I got to spend time with these awesome women. I left my camera at home but I’m hoping someone else captured a few moments from our lunch.

The evening was spent in my first 2013 senior shoot. The client happened to be someone I babysat a long time ago. (I have a memory of breaking his parents’ pan while popping popcorn–whoops. Dumb kid! Me, not him.) The session went wonderfully and I’ll post images from the shoot in a few weeks. After the photo shoot I drove home quickly and picked up my date for an evening of Hunger Games. We had both read the series and have been eager to see the movie version. Besides dealing with the caveats of watching in the theater (note to the general public: don’t chew ice all through a movie), we enjoyed the flick and thought it was really faithful to the book.

March 31 = good day.

People, selling a house is crazy. Yes, somehow folks do it all the time. They manage to go to school, go to work, fix meals, play with their kids and somehow, at some time, someone makes an offer on their home. All the time this happens. But seriously, it involves a bit of insanity to make it work.

First you go through all the updates and repairs and de-cluttering necessary to allow strangers to look at your house without being utterly grossed out. The goal is to make it appealing to them, so you do a large amount of work to seek out the imperfections you’ve lived with for far too long and find a way to make them livable. The gash in the wood door that you’ve been ignoring, the streak of crayons your child left on the wall five years ago, the broken screen, the water leak, and so on and so forth.

And then, if you care at all about the actual look and feel of your home, you walk through with fresh eyes and try to make your spaces appealing to the masses. Take down that ugly bulletin board, put up a fresh photo, place a matching towel by the sink, clear the jars and canisters from your countertops and add a bowl of fresh fruit here, a vase of fresh flowers there.

Awesome. We’re almost ready to show the house. But remember that canister of Pringles your family ate on family movie night? Once you pop you can’t stop? Well, it left a plethora of teensy chips on the carpet. Get out the vacuum. Notice those circles of grime on the living room coffee table, yes, your daughter’s milk spilled and sat there for a few days. Find a rag and some Lysol. Then there’s the toilet in the basement that no one’s examined closely in a week and the Legos on the pink carpet upstairs and the piles of clothing in your own room because the seasons changed overnight and you’re still at a loss for where all your summer clothing has gone to. Yes, go pick up all that stuff and then see what else needs to be done.

At some point, you stop wiping and tidying and rearranging and you call it good. You take a few deep breaths.

You look around your house, the clock turns to Open House hour and you think, “Now why am I moving? My house ROCKS.”

Before

We moved into the Prairie Box in December of 2001. I’ve always loved the light and space of my kitchen. The large south-facing windows make the kitchen a cheery place to be, which is good since I don’t love to cook. Love to bake, yes. Love to cook, not so much. Renovating the kitchen was on our 15-year plan, so, since we’re selling at year ten, we did a partial renovation to encourage the sale of the house.

After

Gone is the mint green wall color and gone is the horrendous wallpaper border. All surfaces were lightened with a coat of white paint, including the two types of faux brick the previous owner must have found immensely attractive. A brand new countertop and sink made a huge difference in the overall aesthetics of the room. I enlarged one of my apple photos and we hung that over the stove.

I love my new kitchen. I hope the new owner does as well.

Pause for a moment and review these Before Renovation photos. All kinds of ugly, right?

Now you may proceed. Welcome to our lovely bathroom!

The walls are Cafe Latte and the trim is White on White by Glidden. The shower curtain and grey towels are from Target. The towel hooks are from the Tredways’ Stash of Future Things and the packages were covered with half an inch of dust.

One of our favorite things about the bathroom—oh, who am I kidding, the whole place is a favorite thing!—is the ample storage that we created. The closet, now painted bright white, has been transformed from a dungeon to shelf heaven. We can stack towels to our hearts’ content, store bathroom supplies in baskets, and hang towels on hooks. There’s even a decent spot to store paint cans while we continue to repaint the upstairs bedrooms. Also, there’s an alcove behind the shower where we can now hang robes and towels (see the image with three hooks) which is uber-convenient.

We are incredibly grateful for all the folks who helped redeem this space! From the professionals (Jonny Friesen, Jerry Lewis and his crew) to friends-with-organizational-skills (Renae Morehead, Jen Hinrichs), from patient parents who paint (Mom and Dad Tredway) to parents who wash and fold copious amounts of laundry (Mom and Dad Lawton), we thank you.

First I’d like to say that I have rock stars for in-laws. Jeremy’s parents have been coming over nearly every day to scrape, patch, plaster, sand and paint our house—and I can’t express adequately how grateful we are for their help. I have very un-rock star elbows this summer. Thank you a million times over, Karen and Bill!

I know, I know. You want bathroom photos. They are coming. Besides installing some quarter round (is that the right term?) and adding a candle or two, the bathroom is complete. Showering is quite the luxury, I’ve discovered, and after living without a bathroom mirror or lighting for way too long, seeing oneself in the mirror is quite delightful, too. Adequate shelving and storage are nothing to sneeze at either. I love this new bathroom.

I am struggling to get this house ready to put on the market. There’s a lot to get done. But I am really blessed with loving parents (mine included), a hard-working husband, generous friends, and a mostly patient kid. While this journey feels never-ending in some senses, I have a lot to be thankful for.

When the economy feels really shaky, and when I worry about all the what-ifs of the future, I am reminded of these verses and take comfort in the sovereign nature of the One who strengthens and equips me.

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
– Habakkuk 3:17-20

A sneak peek.

Tub removal and demolition during which I felt not an ounce of sentimentality. Out with the old, in with the new!

The tub was kinda heavy. Can you tell by the faces below?

The shot below reveals demo of the wall where the new tub/shower will be located. You can now see through the bathroom and into the stairs that lead to the attic. Apparently we keep a spare door in the attic stairwell. (Check out the red faucet knobs—still there!)

This corner is now empty, but the mega-ugly vanity and medicine cabinet were here earlier. You can also see the very large, very dark and creepy wallpaper-covered closet in the back.

I can forgive all the ugliness and even overlook the demolition mess in this last photo because of the light. Bless me, the light. Our home has windows on every single side and this bathroom is treated to light from the south and the west. My soul is absolutely nourished by streams of sunlight through these old windows. Happy sigh.

A few of you have asked for photos of our bathroom remodel, so here we go, peeps. You might need to put on some shades ‘cuz things are gonna get bright. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Welcome to our upstairs bathroom. The brightness that is currently burning your corneas? Yes, it’s the chosen paint color of the previous homeowner. And not only is it a dirty highlighter yellow, the walls are coated in some sort of heavy, messy-looking plaster that looks like it would require a jackhammer to remove.

The awesome handyman doing the demolition is our friend Jonny. We are so grateful for his help with the bathroom overhaul (and throughout the rest of the house as well).

May I point out the faucet handles on the tub? Ever see those before, say, on your outdoor faucet? Ah yes, very charming. While the red handles are darn cute, our tub was so old and outdated that when the faucet broke, we couldn’t find the exact size to replace it with. Thus the outdoor faucet handles.

I’d also like to point out that you do not see a shower. The Tredway family are expert bathers—we have been taking baths for 9.5 years. Seriously. And before you write a comment like I could never bathe for 9.5 years! I’d like to tell you that yes, you really could. It’s amazing what you can get used to when you don’t have money for a bathroom remodel.

The other day Jeremy mentioned that he called Tobey, our pastor and friend, to help grab wires or something after our contractor had finished work for the day. I then realized that many of our pastors have aided in bathroom woes over the years (since we live so close to our church/church offices). Once when Jeremy was out of town I asked Stu if he could help me fix a leaky faucet. I had a moment of panic as we walked to the house, wondering if I was embarrassing myself by having my pastor walk into my uber ghetto bathroom. I’ll never forget the image of Stu sitting on a towel in the middle of the tub, munching on the remainder of his granola bar as he tightened the fixtures. Priceless.

Our church meets Sunday evenings, so yesterday morning found several Tredways working away in the kitchen. Sanding sanding sanding. Unscrewing. Scraping off flicks and plops of who-knows-what. More sanding. And finally something appropriately named Clear Coat.

Yes, we’re working hard to put our house on the market. The Prairie Box has served us well for almost ten years, but a new chapter is dawning for our family. So where are we moving? Somewhere in town. When are we moving? God only knows. Why are we moving? That’s a post for another day!