Does this house make my wallet look small?

Because my wallet sure feels a lot smaller!!

We bought our first house. It is fantastic – perfect in every way.

OK, it is kinda a dump.

It was a drug house and (according to the cute 4th grade girl next door) the SWAT team even raided the place.

I’ve be donning knee pads and old jeans every evening to demo every remnant of gross house into the dumpster. Who knew knee pads could be so hot! The carpet had to be taken out because 4 families were living in the house and all that foot traffic made black foot paths where there wasn’t furniture.

It was gross. gross. Gross. Gross.

We go to the hardware store. A lot. The kids and I get bored. A lot.
I found the reflection knob pic on my phone after one trip. I know I’m his mom, but I was pretty impressed. I’m thinking Eli is a budding photographer!

Picking paint colors is so stressful. I may have even switched the main color after a few walls had been painted. Eeeep.

Many many, before and after pictures coming soon. As soon as we get some cute afters going on!

We won’t be moving till mid-June so we have plenty of time to work on things. Thankfully that’s a long way off because of all the work that has to be done. And it’s not soon enough as space is tight around here.

Since we are house poor saving money, I have learn how to cook. I actually like it, as long as I plan ahead. I’ll share some of my favorite dishes. I’m nothing close to a chef and my recipes aren’t crazy amazing. But I promise they are yummy, very very VERY EASY and cheap. This one is from my mom!

Pizza Dough from Scratch (this one is made for the food processor)

In a measuring cup:
Add 1 tablespoon of sugar & 1 tablespoon of yeast to 1 cup of hot water. Place in a non ventilated place for 15 minutes. (We use the microwave)
If it foams up then you know the yeast is good to go.

While you are waiting for the yeast to foam…
Add, 2 2/3 cup of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 heaping tablespoon of basil, 1 heaping tablespoon of oregano in to the food processor and mix a bit.

Pull your yeast mixture out of the micro and add 1 tablespoon of oil.

Slowly pour the wet mixture into the mixing food processor.

It will roll into a ball.

Take the dough ball out and cover lightly with oil.

Place it in a container with a lid (or use saran wrap to cover the top)

Put the container into a non ventilated place (We use the micro… again)

After about an hour the dough is ready.

Rub the remaining oil from the container onto the bigger dough ball.

Mash the ball out flat on a pan to your desired thickness.

Put in the oven for about 7 minutes at 400 degrees. Keep an eye out the first time if you like soft dough (like we do), it can overcook quickly.

For the pizza…

Add pizza sauce (we always use Prego Spaghetti sauce because I can get it in bulk at Sam’s Club for a multitude of dishes), cheese and all the fixings then put in the oven till the cheese is yummy melty goodness and you are DONE!

Even though there are a lot of steps above it’s actually REALLY easy. I just broke it down so much because that’s the way I like it!

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