Homeowners!

As of last night, we are officially homeowners!

SURPRISE!

I didn't want to share until things were official, but I'll tell you all the back story now.

I started looking at houses after the new year.  Logistically and financially speaking, we thought we'd be able to put an offer in on a house sometime in March/April, close the end of May/June, so I was just looking to keep an eye on the market so as to better know what we were looking at.

Let me tell you what, so many houses came and went -- in 48 hours sometimes -- that we liked the look of.  I got an idea, though, of good prices and styles of homes available in neighborhoods we were interested in. One day in February I saw a house that I liked the "bones" of.  It needed some work, but not major structural work.  It needed updating, but not in an immediate sense.  It was, in fact, just what we were looking for, but the price was too high.

Fast forward 3 weeks.  We got approved for a loan and realized we could actually start seriously looking at house.  And that house was still on the market.

Something must be wrong with it, we thought. No good house stays on the market for more than a week.

We talked with our realtor and he was able to get us in to see the house (praise the Lord!).  We loved it.  Yes, the yard needs work, and the exterior color will eventually change, and the popcorn ceilings were a definite "fix" -- but we could see the potential the house had.  Potential for memories, and laughter, and raising our family and creating a legacy.  I likened the gut feeling of the house to trying on my wedding dress for the first time -- I just felt like I was coming home when I walked in the door.  Scot felt the same way. And I especially felt that way 2 days later when I walked into it again after seeing a dozen other houses.

So we put an offer in and the ball started rolling.  And it stopped rolling last night when we signed the mountains of paperwork and were handed the keys.

I would just like to take a moment to record all the ways we saw the Lord's hand definitely at work in the purchase of the house:

• It was on the market for 2 days shy of one month when we put an offer in on it.  The sellers were getting ready to lower the price, and had we seen the house when they lowered the price there would have been a bidding war and it would have been gone in 2 days flat.  We attribute the lack of movement on the house to the Lord, a high price, and poor pictures.  The house showed much better than the pictures on the site
• It's on a cul-de-sac, something that's been a dream of Scot's since he was a kid
• The timing was perfect.  We closed the end of April and we are in our current rental until the end of May -- which gives us the whole month of May to do work on the house.  Read: scrape and retexture ceilings, paint everything, extend and refinish wood floors, get moved in...we're thankful to be able to hire out some of the work so we don't have to do it all.
• There wasn't a hiccup in the entire process.  I had heard horror stories of the process being stressful and riddled with "snags", but the entire process was one of smooth transition after another, and a peace about it all.  We give God the glory for all of it.

There are so many other random things, too, that we love.  There's a huge park nearby where we've run into friends we made during swim lessons and people from church.  The nice washer and dryer (and all other appliances) stayed with the house, so except for a lawnmower, there are no major expenses for appliances.  The huge metal shelves in the basement storage areas also stayed with the house.  The set up of the house is even my ideal: main floor study for a school room, main floor laundry, open floorplan with smaller bedrooms (4 upstairs), new windows, the list goes on.  There are not only Aspen trees in our back yard (Scot's favorite tree), but raised garden beds, an apple tree, and a sour cherry tree! We've also met some neighbors, all who are very sweet and helpful.  

It truly is like coming home and we're excited to put our mark on the house.

What I find interesting is that March and April are very busy months for our family in general. Two birthdays, Easter, Pi Night -- a few years ago I swore off hosting any "extra" parties or events.  This year, I kept to that, but we bought a house instead and kept up with twice-weekly swim lessons! It's been an extra-crazy 2 months to say the least, but the Lord got us through and we're now the happy owners of a HOME!

Drew's prayer the last few weeks just sums it all up: And Lord, thank you so much for being willing to buy this house for us...

And now, the fun begins!  With some help last night, we tackled our first project: the removal of a half-wall and taking down some cabinets.  Capping of some water pipes and switching out some electrical stuff was unplanned add-ons, but it all got done.  Here is the before/after view from standing in the middle of the kitchen (which now looks so much bigger and more open without that cabinet!)

we're hanging in there!

Drew Turns FOUR!!

Hello!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've been on the blog.

You know, I thought back in January, oh wow, I'm getting the hang of this new schedule and finally feeling some semblance of routine.

ERRRR!!!

That slight feeling of "having some balance" in life was quickly chased away by two afternoon sessions of swim lessons a week.  Totally worth it, but...enter crockpot dinners or make-ahead soups twice a week.  Enter being out of the house for 2 hours.  Two days a week.  For FOUR months.

Oh.  I am so not used to that.  But now that we have 2 and half weeks left, I'm getting the hang of it.  Swim lessons will finish up, and I'm sure we'll be thrown into another crazy chapter of life rather than settle into some nice routine that I'm beginning to think is just a figment of my imagination.

Also, March/April are just busy months for our family.  Every year.  I need to just remember that in February when I start planning social family events.  Ha.  One of the wonderful events, though, that makes this time of the year busy for us is the celebration of Drew's birth!

My baby is 4.  He is not a baby at all.  He is all boy.  He is full of energy and life.  He is sweet and sensitive.  He loves trucks and swords and dirt.  He jumps off anything.  He pushes himself to points to where I'm astonished (as in, he's swimming, and asks the teacher to "move back farther.  I can do it.").  He sits still to color or listen to a book, but he'd rather be running outside.  He's still a little boy, but he's losing a lot of that "little boy-ness".

We had a great birthday with him.  My folks were able to be with the whole day (we all attended a wedding the day before). We went to breakfast, per tradition, and then came home and opened presents where he was shocked almost to the point of tears when he "opened" his big gift from my folks: a bike! I made a rocket cake for him and he loved it.  He had his best little bud, Parker, over for lunch, cake & ice cream, which was special for him.  We went to a great indoor bounce/play area and let the boys jump on trampolines, roll around in germ-infested foam blocks, and climb on a "bounce house" type pirate ship.  It was a mother's nightmare and a kid's dream.  I was thankful we were headed to swim lessons where an hour in chlorine did a great job at washing away who-knows-what! (At least, that's what I'm telling myself!)

The sweetest moment occurred when opening gifts and cards.  First of all, the kid loves getting and opening cards.  Evan worked really hard on making a card for Drew and when Drew opened it, his whole face changed to one of softness and he looked at Evan and said "Oh Evan...did you make this for me?!  Aww...how sweet!  Thank you!"  Melt. My. Heart.

The funniest moment was right before bed.  Drew got new Superhero underwear and he so badly wanted to wear them, but I wanted to wash them first.  I know they're clean, but there is just something about washing new underwear before wearing it that's a must for me.  Anyway -- right before bed, I noticed Drew was walking a little funny and was a looking "padded" on his rump.  So I asked him to show me which underwear he was wearing.  He pulled his sweats down and showed off his regular old white underwear, but I saw a little red edge peeking out.  I giggled a little, I think, and told him nice try, but he couldn't wear 2 pairs of underwear to bed and instructed him to take them off.  As I stood there watching him shimmy his white underwear down, I realized the red edge I'd seen was not part of the underwear under the white pair.  He was wearing every single pair of his new underwear!  That little stinker!  I couldn't stop laughing and told him I'd do a load of laundry after he went to bed so he could wear ONE pair the next morning.

And that's that.

Here are some more pictures of the weekend.