One of the TOP FIVE moments of our lives

I would say that the top five moments in my life have been getting married, giving birth to two kids, and now becoming a home owner.

So now you all know the reason for any lack in myself as a human being over the past year. Basically because almost every waking moment has been spent thinking about, being excited for, and planning for this house!!!


For those of you who get lost in the timeline of life like the rest of us, or for those who just don't know. We have been living with my parents for the past 6 YEARS!!!! and the entirety of out marriage. We have now joined one of the coolest clubs ever in becoming home owners. We are excited beyond measure and feel so incredibly blessed that for whatever reason, the Lord watched out for us and made this happen all at the PERFECT timing for us.

We have been working on this process for over a year. We started looking at houses in March of LAST YEAR. Then the lender we went to told us about a first time home buyers program where they will help you with down payment.... SWEET. So for the next 4 months we dealt with getting everything on the face of the planet to those people. It was a way bigger pain but totally worth it. If you think you can't buy a house, please look into the non profit agencies in your area. I never knew these exhisted and they saved us from having to put basically all of our own money into it! So finally then everything was in order to start looking which we did at the end of October of 2009; three lenders, two downpayment companies and two realtors later. We bid on one house and lost, and then fell in love with the one we bought. We put in a competetive bid two days after it had been on the market. They excepted and then we started the VERY LONG HAUL of waiting for everything to go through on our short sale. Man is this an emotional roller coaster as anyone who has every bought knows. We had our offer accepted on November 9th and we literally signed closing papers on June 9th! 7 months later!!!!!!! It was draining and long, but I feel unbelievably blessed and knew it was right because Heavenly Father blessed me to not be impatient for most of the time. (I was as surprised as the rest of you) Now it is all a memory and it almost feels like we have always been here (minus the HUGE mess that it all still is) It is weird because I almost can't remember living at my parents house. So, I take this as a sign that we did the right thing.

The kids love it and have been spectacular. We moved within 2 miles of two of Charles sisters, 2 of his brothers, and his mom. We are blessed to be so close and they have all been amazing. Taking my kids for hours on end so I can feel like I am accomplishing something more than thirty minutes at a time.

We got our keys on Wednesday and we moved on Saturday. I was adamant about getting as much painted as possible before we moved in and getting everything cleaned including carpets. Not as much happened as I would have liked. But at least we got all the rooms painted that needed furniture in them, and we are working on the rest still. This meant however that I basically painted for almost 30 HOURS STRAIGHT. I slept only three hours the first night and worked myself into complete exhaustion by 6 the next night and wanted to sit on a COUCH and just cry. My dad was awesome and helped almost the entire time, and so did two of my sister in laws. They were awesome to stay up until two in the morning the first night with me.




I chose to be a little bold and different and most of the house is grey. I love it. The kitchen is two shades darker than the other rooms, but with 4 big windows and lime green accents I think it looks AWESOME. It is about the color of duct tape, as my dad so eloquently put it.





In this picture you can see how big our kitchen/dining area is. We decided to turn the end wall/right corner into an office space (down where the computer is now). We bought cabinets at habitat for humanity for $20 a piece and counter tops at Home Depot and hopefully the brothers will be putting them in this weekend. There is much that is waiting to be organized because this is not done yet. Then hopefully in the fall or begining of the year I will undertake the project of refinishing all cabinets into white. With the dark walls and bright accent I think it will look AMAZING.



We bought this house mostly because of the backyard size. We had actually gone through these models two years ago when they were new and this is the model that I loved. So we are thrilled to be saving about $100,000 from what they were back then. The yard isn't huge but it is way better than LOTS of starter homes out there and we are excited. I have big plans, which I will have to improvise a little with the addition of this monstrosity of a trampoline we were given for free. I couldn't complain and we all have fond memories of trampolines right?


The house is in a super nice community with an enormous HOA -which is why we thought we couldn't afford these homes- but they take care of all the front yards! So that guarantees nice upkeep and quality of neighborhood. We got this house for a total steel so we decided that it was worth it. It sits in a little half culdisak as do our neighbors behind us so it doesn't feel all closed in like many homes. It is 1830 square feet with three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a den downstairs. It actually has really good storage as far as closets and extra little nooks. And now having been in it three weeks. I can't really think of anything about it I am unhappy with. There is even a little nook under the stairs in the den for my giant craft desk. I am excited about that.
We are super excited and hope we will have many visitors. I will be sure to post pictures as projects get completed and everything settles into place! Thank you all for all your love and blessings. Come visit us!