Big Changes!

More than nine years ago we moved our little family across the country to what felt like a whole new world for us. We were very blessed to find a nice complex that was kid friendly with a roomy 3-bedroom townhouse just for us. Over the years our family has doubled and our roomy townhouse didn’t seem very roomy anymore.

March 2010 we decided to look at the possibility of buying a house and so the journey began. We did research, asked questions, looked at houses online, signed up for “first time home buyers classes”, and did lots of praying. We knew we wanted to stay in the ward and we didn’t want to switch schools. It sounded easy enough but we were having a hard time finding a house big enough but still in our price range.

In October we finally found something and felt really good about putting in an offer. One big drawback, the kids would have to change schools but we felt like we gave it our best shot. Our offer was accepted and we moved forward with the home inspection. Mentally I had already moved in. I would go to sleep at night thinking of all the extra space and we were all really excited. In early December the house went into foreclosure and our agreement was off. I was devastated. I cried. We now went back to our house list and set up appointments with our realtor to start the looking process again. As we did some searching online we thought that maybe we should expand our search area and now had homes to look at in the “other” ward. We kept praying to know we were doing the right thing.

December 17^th we met with our realtor to look at six houses. We crossed some off our list after looking at them and had one good possibility except for the fact that it was in the other ward. (Not that there is anything wrong with the other ward but our ward really feels like family and is a small struggling ward while the second ward seems to be bursting at the seams.) We continued onto the next house on our list and as soon as we walked in the front door I knew. It was what we needed size wise, had a big fenced yard, had been nicely kept up, was still in our ward, AND the kids wouldn’t have to switch schools. We sat down right there and made an offer. We call it divine intervention and it has been amazing to see how all the little things and the not so little things have fallen into place throughout the whole process.

One year after we started looking into buying a house we bought a house. We have now been in our house for one month and I’m starting to wonder how we ever made it work in our little place. I guess when it is all you have ever known it works out. We have enough rooms to have two people to a room (all four girls were sharing a room previously) and all but one of the bedrooms is large. I finally have my very own washer and dryer, a kitchen with real workable counter space, lots of space to run around outside and play, and the list goes on. We’ve gotten a lot accomplished in the last month and it now feels like home instead of somebody else’s house.

The kids have all been awesome helpers and it has been fun to see their excitement. Emersynne still walks into a room and says, “I lub my new house.”

Here are a few photos and I will work on taking some more when we get some sunshine.

Not colors I would have picked but we decided to save the painting for a later project since nothing needed to be painted. This is the formal dining room which we are using as our computer room since the kitchen is big enough for the table and chairs.

Nice wide entry way

Piano/TV room painted a very bright yellow. I do have to say that the walls don't look quite so bright with the furniture in there.

Stay tuned for more pictures. We are loving all our space and are excited to be in a house!