A Messy Biz Announcement!

So, we think we should probably tell you about another thing we've been working on during our year of crazy change! 

Our Engagement Story

The world works in mysterious ways, only making the meeting of two people happen when it was exactly meant to. We both attended Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado in 2009 and even knew the same people and had mutual friends, but we never had the chance to really meet. We are pretty certain we were even at some of the same parties in college without knowing it!

Fast forward to December of 2015 when we reconnected over the internet and began to find out just how much we had in common. We went on a couple of dates but what really sealed the deal was when B invited me to go to Ouray, Colorado at the end of January 2016 to spend the weekend getting a massage, soaking in the hot springs, and going to a romantic candlelight dinner in the mountains. Seriously, if you go to Ouray, go to the hot springs. It's amazing. 

It was perfect. From that moment on, we were together.

In May of 2016 we started to live together in Grand Junction before making the big decision to move to the Denver area in June 2017.

On August 20, 2017- we went to Wall, South Dakota for my cousin's wedding and Brennan met the whole family, and got all of them in on his plan! He spent time talking to my dad on the first night they were there and then on Sunday, as they were headed back with my parents and cousin Ashley, they stopped at Mt. Rushmore.

He is extra tricky because I absolutely loves teaching and learning about Abraham Lincoln which is why B coordinated my parents and family members to make sure she was all ready to be proposed to right there in front of the sculpture of my favorite president. The moment was fantastic and even other visitors to the monument clapped and cheered when they saw B get down on one knee to propose.

And of course, as we all knew I would, I said: Yes.

Here are all the pictures to prove it. Stay tuned for tons of eco-friendly and vegan inspired wedding posts!

Eastward Bound & Down: Relocating a Life

It has been nearly 365 days since my last post, meaning that mostly just my  mom will see this. But hey, that's fine! My mom is pretty awesome!

As of this month I have officially owned my home for 9 years and it has been a remarkable experience. I was able to go to college, learn to install my first dishwasher, remodeled my first kitchen, replaced counters, installed flooring, and repainted the living room and bathroom 3 or more times. It has been totally wild, but it is time to announce that I am officially selling my house in Grand Junction, Colorado and moving my entire life to Denver. Like all the other millennials in the entire United States. However, I would like to claim that I am already from Colorado- so it's less annoying.

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We are so excited to go! Brennan (BB) and I have found a rental and I have found a new teaching job over there. It's a scary big move but we're excited. We have been working really hard to get our house market ready and I will be sure to do a blog post about that soon.  Here's us looking all cute and stuff at the Denver Botanical Gardens:

If you have any tips or advice for making a move to a new city please share it with me! I could use all the help I could get. I've grown up in Grand Junction and have never been anywhere else. It's an exciting change. 

Here are the big things I'm excited about:

• More stuff to do (Red Rocks Amphitheater, Baby!)
• Closer proximity to family
• Better work to life balance.
• New house has a large backyard and a garage! (YAY!)
• Master's Degree opportunity.
• More time to bloggggg!

Any tips from people who have moved and downsized? What did you do to sell your house fast and get settled into a new city?

Roommates Strike Out

****If you are seeing this content on http://manufacturedhomefacts.com/ please be advised it is there without permission! thismessybusiness.com is the OFFICIAL and only site I publish on!***

Some of you may remember a couple years ago when I painted the third bedroom in my house with stripes for a much desired office. Financially I couldn't support not having another roommate because I was still in college. Well 6 months after graduation and with having a full-time job I can finally do it. Plus another roommate would probably make me lose my marbles.

Not good.

My current roommate has the room set up like this:

After the age of 15 I feel like teddy bears on the bed is kinda weird. But hey, that's just me. I also noticed that she has all of her wall hangings hung up in a bizarre mishmash which means there is likely going to be a number of nail holes and tack holes in the walls....

Since I no longer have any more of the two colors that originally went into the stripes I have decided that they need to be redone anyway. Thankfully they are already started so it won't be nearly as hard as it was the first time. I am going to start looking at colors to get an idea of what I want to go with.

So Office/Guest Room To-Do List:

• Find a full-sized guest bed
• Build desk for under window 
• Repair walls/repaint stripes
• Create awesome storage solutions 
• Fix door/paint door/do something with the door
• DIY some wall decor

If you have any other tips or ideas for creating a good combination space in here please let me know! It will be a bit before I can get all the furniture and such that I want in there so I am open to suggestions!

Sisterhood of the Trailer Park

Some exciting news to share with the class! My roommate situation has been resolved! My baby sister is going to be moving in with me in May! She had originally moved to South Dakota to go to college and have some time with our extended family out there but has since found that, though she loves being around family, the climate and school aren't really the experience she's looking for. She's a Colorado native and can't help it. So she's coming back! Yay!

Here's a picture of Ally and little Sebastian. 

She's going to be taking over this room:

Right now the painting job has potential but the grey not going all the way through the closet looks super bad so I have to at least paint the grey part. The colors my sister wants to decorate with are coral, teal, and grey. A really fun color scheme I think! Speaking of schemes...

That's the furniture my old roommate had (they used to be gorgeous vintage wood but she spray painted them with metallic paint. kinda cool but sad in a way too.) I want to get Ally a dresser that's a similar size as well as a desk. But! I want to get them and paint them coral for her! I think that it would be fabulous.

Like this one I found on Pinterest:

I think it would be super awesome! The one wall is already teal so I will leave it up to my sister if she wants to keep it or change it to all the same color. I do need to paint some trim white and that sort of thing but I think it will be a good fit for her.

I already have a full-sized bed as well as a white bed set and white curtains that she's going to use, plus my grey IKEA rug. So it will really be just accessorizing and personalizing the whole room to make it feel like home for her.

It also gives me another excuse to decorate, and a good home for my vintage mirror (small bathroom so we'll set up a vanity area in her room. Plus I have some shelves for the little doinky wall on the right side there.)

I am super excited that my sister and I will have this opportunity to spend some real time together and grow as individuals. She's fun and spunky and always reminds me to take things a little less seriously. Love my sister!

Home Selling: Update

It has been a few weeks since I made my big announcement about moving out of my house after I graduate from college. As everyone, everywhere, knows the market has sort of taken a dip since 2008 when I bought my house.

Unfortunately, Colorado has also fallen victim to that same dip in the market. At this point we are not able to sell the house for what we put in to it, we have another plan to redo a few things and have my parents take over the house as a rental property until the market swings up enough for us to sell

It's a little disappointing, but I won't have to go crazy nuts cleaning all the time. In the meantime I've found a really fun website where I can look at houses in different areas and even get neighborhood specific, which is nice when I live far away. It's called Redfin. It's pretty neat!

I've decided I want to find something that is at least:

• three bedroom
• two bathroom
• 1200+ sq ft
• has an enclosed attached garage
• a fixer upper

I'm looking at foreclosures because they are a much better deal for teachers, and also I love being able to blog about renovations. I'm excited! Only 5 more months!

Hope everyone is having a good Monday!

Mission Home Sale: Phase 1

Happy Fourth of July!

I am so grateful for the independence of our nation, without it I wouldn't be able to do all the things I want to do in life. Thank you America!

So now that the big decision has been made to sell the house I have to move forward with the next step. Which seeing as I have never done this before is actually kinda confusing. The next step? What does that mean? Google houses in Arizona and put in an offer!!

No. No Meaghan, that is not the next step.

Well luckily my aunt is a real estate agent in Texas and is a lot of help. The first thing that I have to do is find a local agent to help with listing and selling my house. I've done some research on agents vs. for sale by owner and well honestly, I just don't have the time or the means to sell on my own, neither do my parents. We need a relatively quick and as painless as possible transaction.

I've reached out to a few local agents that I know of as well as asked my aunt for a referral. It helps her out and helps me out, good deal right? I do have a meeting with an agent tomorrow morning so I'll keep you posted on how all that goes.

In the mean time I'm going to go to a few open houses and see what's on the market and get an idea of the competition and I found a few good places for tips to getting the house market ready. Some are no brainers but it's still a good list.

You can see it here: 20 Tricks to Selling Your Home

I also made a list, because I love lists.

Steps in the Process of Moving:

1. Find an agent
2. Get the house listed
3. Rock student teaching
4. Graduate from college
5. Sell house (may come during 3 and 4)
6. Get Arizona teaching license
7. Get Arizona teaching job
8. Move to Arizona
9. Buy house in Arizona
10. Live in Arizona

Geesh. That's kinda a lot for 6 months. But I'm excited!

Something Bigger is Happening.

Sounds like a totally cheesy line from a commercial for cereal. But! It's definitely true. I have a big announcement for everyone and I hope you are all prepared for the adventure that this will lead to.

 I have decided, after 4 years of home ownership, 5 years of college, a lot of roommates, a Bachelor's Degree, and all sorts of other craziness, that it has come time to sell my home.

 I told you it was big. Huge! GIGANTIC! But it's also very, very exciting.

 It's not going to be right away, the housing market here is still a little slow, but it will hopefully be within the next few months that we'll put it on the market and then get it sold so I can start the next leg of my journey in life.

 My home has been fantastic and has taught me a lot about myself and the true meaning of responsibility. I graduate from Colorado Mesa University in the middle of December with a Bachelor's Degree in English with a concentration in Secondary Education. Essentially that means 7th to 12th grade.

 Let me just say, I am ready. I have one semester left of student teaching and then it is time for This Messy Business to really get the show on the road.

 Where does the road lead? Well for me it seems to be leading straight to Phoenix, Arizona. I've heard the girls are warmer there.

I always talk about Sam at the Junk House in my posts, I "met" Sam via a bloggy link party last summer and something about her (probably the way that she strung words together!) seemed to "speak" to me. Over the last year we've shared a lot of emails and a crapton of commenting. After reading her blog I decided to take a look into the Phoenix area, she's fantastic so the chances she lives in a good place are pretty good right?

Well the teaching market is dramatically better there. As in, I could actually get a job with my degree rather then continuing to work in a call center wasting my days away. I would have to do some relicensure things but it's not anything huge or unrealistic.

I love my home and still have a bunch of projects that need to be done before it is market ready. (I should probably mow the lawn, fix the porch, replace the roof, expensive stuff like that.)

I do plan on purchasing a home in the area where I'm moving, depending on where my job is at. Luckily Sam has been AMAZING and has endured my one hundred questions and babbling.



If you made it to the end of this I believe you deserve a foot massage and a cookie, and I hope you stick around as I figure out how to sell my first home and start a new life in a strange (extremely hot) place. I'm excited for this adventure and a whole new home to renovate and remodel!

I'm scared, intimidated, anxious, excited... all those things. But I've got an amazing family, wonderful friends, and the will to do it.


meaghan