Our New House-- Back Story

Devin and I started getting the house bug in the fall of 2011...  At that point, we were leaning more towards building rather than buying an existing.  We didn't really get serious about it until January of 2012... right before Jude turned one and when I was in my third trimester with Evi.  Our thoughts were that it would be easier to move with 2 kids versus 3 and that it would also be easier to keep our house clean prior to having a newborn!  We knew that if decided to build that we wouldn't be able to move prior to Evi, but we knew we would at least be able to make the majority of the decisions before adding her.  My friend, Christy, recommended a great realtor to us and we officially started the house hunting process.

After meeting with several builders and pouring over hundreds of floor plans, we just weren't finding what we were wanting.  We couldn't find an ideal neighborhood to build in and the floor plans all lacked something that we wanted or just seemed very generic.  Our realtor also showed us plenty of existing houses, but we weren't really crazy about anything on the market.  I was so excited about finding a new house, but almost from the beginning it became stressful and confusing.

We continued to look right up until a few weeks before Evi was born.  Though we never really stopped looking, we weren't as serious in the month or two after Evi was born.  We grew more serious about looking again in August, but continued to run into the same problems as we had that spring.... nothing we really liked on the market or if we did like it, we weren't crazy about the schools and we still hadn't found a neighborhood or floor plan that we were excited about building in.

Then in November, I found my dream house.  It was a foreclosure and needed a ton of work, but I was totally in love with it.  It wasn't in a neighborhood we had been looking at because of the location, but at least for me, it was absolutely ideal.  We went to look at it and Devin just wasn't convinced that we could make the layout work for us.  I was super disappointed, but because of this house, we broadened our search to include neighborhoods we hadn't really considered before.

By the time January rolled around, I was growing discouraged and beginning to doubt we'd ever find something.  We went out with our realtor again in February... having her pull houses for us and being willing to look at ones we wouldn't have considered otherwise.  At that point, Devin and I made two major decisions... 1. We weren't going to find our forever house this go round.  There were 20% less houses on the market than the year before and after looking for a year, we finally gave in to the fact that our expectations were perhaps too high for the market and our budget.  2. We upped our budget for the millioneth time.  We really wanted to stay conservative with our budget, but we also wanted to find SOMETHING.

We continued to look all of February and March without any luck.  With it being the beginning of busy season, we were encouraged to find a few more houses that we actually wanted to look at, but we still just weren't super excited about the market.

Then the Wednesday before Easter, I happened upon this house...  it looked like a house I had loved in another neighborhood... a house that was WAY out of our price range.  I loved the outside, but HATED the inside.  Still I thought it was worth looking at.  I had our realtor put it on the list with another one we were looking at the week after Easter.

The next day was a Thursday.  Thursdays in our house are pajama days.  It's the day that we all look forward to because we never go anywhere and just love being in our jammies all day without anything to do.  Normally it is hands down the best day of our week, but this Thursday my kids were all out of sorts.  They were just crazy and even though it was close to naptime, I decided we needed to get out of the house for awhile so I loaded us all up and headed to Sonic for a slush.  I decided while we were out to drive by the two houses we were going to be looking at the next week.  Well, when I drove by the house above, there were people looking at it.  I don't know why this surprised me, but I guess I just didn't expect for people to be looking at it in the middle of the afternoon.  I immediately text my realtor to see if we could look at it sooner.  She set us up to see it the next night.

So Friday night we went to look at the house, but there was already a couple looking at it.  Apparently we had gotten double booked and the couple didn't want us in the house at the same time as them.  Their realtor was super sweet and told us that they had already been there for close to two hours the day before and that this was their second look.  They were there for over an hour and it was raining.  We just barely were able to look at it before our Good Friday service started at church.

Overall, I still hated the inside.  We loved the outside, the backyard, and the neighborhood.  We also for the most part liked the layout of the house.  So we decided to talk about it that night.

We decided to go look at it again on Saturday even though it was Easter weekend and we had a ton of plans.  We ended up spending over an hour looking at it and I could tell Devin was really interested so I told him EVERYTHING I'd want to change.  That probably sounds bratty, but the house was under our budget so we had some wiggle room as far as that went and I knew I could like the house with a little (okay a ton) of paint.

At eleven that night, I emailed our agent to let her know we wanted to make an offer.  I couldn't believe it!  After what felt like forever, we were actually going to make an offer on a house!!!!!  The next day was Easter though so we weren't sure when we would hear back from our realtor.  We waited all day on Easter to hear from her thinking that even though it was a holiday that she would at least say "Let's meet on Monday at such and such time."  Well, around 6 that night, she sent me a text saying that the other realtor was looking for feedback on the house and wanted to know if there was anything we wanted to send back.  I immediately text her back and said "Did you get my email?  We want to make an offer on that house!"  Our realtor had just gotten a new phone and for some reason my email didn't show up as new so she hadn't gotten it.

Anyway, we met the next day and formally put in our offer.  Because we did want to do a lot of work on the house, we low balled it a bit.  We knew there was another offer on the table so we really weren't sure what to expect.

On Tuesday, they countered our offer, but the counter wasn't much of a counter.  They wanted to close super fast which wasn't possible for us since we hadn't even put our house on the market.  We countered their counter, but didn't even go up to what we were willing to pay.  They immediately turned us down.  I was super disappointed, but also somewhat expected it.  I went back to MLS and was frustrated that there wasn't anything else I was even mildly interested in.

At 5 that day, Devin called.  I was surprised thinking he was calling to tell me he was coming home early.  Instead he said "Do you still want the house?"  I said "Yes, but I don't think we should change our offer."  He said "Well, they are willing to take our offer."  I said "What?"  And he said "There is a catch though."  I got nervous then...  until he said "They want to keep their antler chandeliers."  Then I just died laughing.  I thought he was joking, but he was totally serious.  We couldn't believe it!  We knew their antler chandeliers were expensive, but they weren't our taste so we were actually not sure what we were going to do with them so it was a relief that they wanted to take them with them!

The next Tuesday, we listed our house and were fortunate enough to get 2 offers that same day.  The second offer was an ideal offer so we took it!  I couldn't believe how quickly we sold it.  We were so relieved as trying to keep it clean with 3 kids wasn't going to be easy!  God was so faithful through the whole journey and I admit I learned a lot about myself through this process.  There were so many times when I felt like we were never going to find something and so many times when I would watch friends immediately find their dream house... I was so easily discouraged.  So impatient.  But I clearly saw that when it was God's timing, He came through in a very BIG way and took care of the details that I had been praying over.  I feel like I am constantly learning that His timing is not my own and yet it is always always always so much better!

Next up, pictures of the inside!

We MOVED!

So after looking for a new house for over a year, we are ecstatic to have finally found one!  We moved in two weeks ago and I am embarrassed to admit that I am more exhausted than I think I've ever been.  My friend Heather tried to warn me, but I really had no idea how much this move would take out of me.  There's just something about having your whole life in boxes for almost two months that totally mentally and emotionally drains you!

I hope to post pics of the new house soon, but first I wanted to post pictures of our old house.  We really loved our house and even though we were ready to move, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't incredibly sad to say good-bye.  This house was the first house I was ever part of buying.  It was the house I dreamed about when Devin and I got engaged.  It was the place we moved shortly before our one year wedding aniversary and the place we brought all three kids home from the hospital.  I close my eyes and see Devin and I cuddled on the couch watching Gray's Anatomy, the dishwasher where Evi pulled up for the first time, the hallway where Jude rolled over before I was ready for him to, and the living room rug where Finley sat up unassisted after weeks of trying and falling forward.

As excited as I am for a little more space, I will miss all the memories we created there and am thankful for these pictures that we took there this past fall:

Here are also the pictures that our realtor took for the listing:

 

 

 We're excited to create just as many wonderful memories in our new house as we did in this one!!!!

A Day Week in the Life

I usually try to post about the exciting things that happen in our lives, but last week, a few "mundane" things happened that I know I will think are really funny one day.... especially what happened on Wednesday.  I hope to be better about writing down more of our normal everyday experiences because I know even those are precious!

Monday:
Finley slept until 9:30 a.m. Who-hoo!  She has not been in a good routine for quite sometime due to the holidays and our ski trip so I was able to have my quiet time, get dressed, check my email, watch a little t.v., etc. all before my little girl woke up.  It's was great!  Once she was up, I got her dressed and we ran a couple of errands before meeting Aubrey for lunch.  Our lunch was great!  Aubrey and I hadn't had lunch in several months so we had lots to catch up on!  Thankfully, Finley behaved about as perfectly as can be expected from an almost 15-month-old who is stuck in a high chair for two hours!  We got home and she took another nap and I was thinking "Wow!  She is back into her old routine!"  Unfortunately, I was wrong! =)

Tuesday:
Tuesday's are BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) mornings and I got up a little later than usual and immediately heard Finley crying.  I went to give her some milk, but she made it clear that she wanted O-U-T.  Already running late, I tried to get both of us dressed and fed at the same time which didn't work too well.  Normally, it wouldn't have been too big of a deal, but I hadn't done a good job of laying out what we were going to wear like I usually do and Finley was teething so she was being a bit needier than usual.  When we pulled out of the driveway just two minutes behind schedule, I was feeling so proud of myself.... until we were a mile away from the church and I realized that I forgot my phone.  Of all days to forget it!  I had lunch scheduled with girls from BSF and my friend, Mary, had agreed to watch Finley.

Even though Mary is a nurse, a mom to the sweetest little boy, and completely competent, I just hated not having my phone in case of emergencies.  I was really stressed out by it and felt anxious throughout the lunch. =(  Fortunately, Finley had a blast playing with Mary and Hunter.  Of course, when I got home and found my phone,  I had five voicemails.  One of them was from Devin and when I called him back, I immediately started telling him about my morning and he cut in to say "I figured it had been a rough morning for you when I came home for lunch and found Jenny inside!"  What?  I had left the dog inside?  I NEVER do that!  I just had to laugh.  I am definitely not one of those moms who always has her act together!!!!

Wednesday:
I wake up and think how happy I am to have a day at home to catch up on laundry and play with Finley.  Everything starts out great.  Finley only sleeps until 8 (which is still great, I know!), but I still had time for my quiet time before she woke up.  We ate breakfast together and did our devotional...  She had a dirty diaper so I changed her.  Gathered up her laundry so she'd have clean jammies and went back downstairs.  I started some laundry and went back to play with Fin until naptime.  Once Finley was asleep, I went into the laundry room to switch laundry out and it REAKED!

I panic and then realize that I had put her dirty diaper on the washer so that I could take it outside later.  I look on the washer... no diaper.  Check the top of the dryer... no diaper.  Look on the floor... Look behind the washer and dryer... no diaper, no diaper, no diaper.  Surely not, I think.  No, I wouldn't have been that stupid.  But yes, I had scooped the diaper up with the dirty clothes and thrown them all into the washer.  I won't go into great detail, but it's safe to say that I was very close to buying a new washer along with a new wardrobe for Finley.  7 soaks, 5 wash cycles, 2 types of detergent, and a brief vacuum cleaning later, I felt that it was going to be okay.  GROSS, GROSS, GROSS!  Again, I am definitely not one of those moms who always has her act together!!!!

The rest of the day wasn't quite as eventful, but Finley only took a really short nap and was a bit restless all day.  We went to church that night and she seemed to be in better spirits.  She really loves being around other kids.

Thursday:
Thursday's are Mother's Day Out days and as should be expected, Finley was dead asleep when I went in to get her ready.  It was clear that she would've slept until at least 9 which made me laugh since Thursday is the only other day besides Tuesday that we have to be up by a certain time.  Poor girl, she was looking a bit pathetic when I dropped her off.  I told them to call if she was fussy because I could tell her teeth were really bothering her.  When I picked her up, Mrs. Sheila said "She had a rough day... well, a rough day for her.  It just wasn't one of her better days, but she was still really good."  I thought for sure she'd take a great afternoon nap like she usually does after MDO, but nope, once again, she barely napped.  Obviously, she's getting older and doesn't need as much nap time, but I'm so confused as to what her ideal routine needs to be right now!!!!

Friday:
Again, Finley was up early, early since we had nowhere to be!  =)  We played all morning and she went down for a nap that didn't last long.  I got her up and tried to put her back to sleep after giving her lunch, but no such luck so we went shopping!  =)  In desperate need of some new shoes for her, we went to the mall and she, thankfully, enjoyed the time out of the house.  She fell asleep on the way home which was good!  Devin and I had Date Night that night so we put her to bed as soon as we could, ordered take-out, and watched a movie!  Of course, we won't always stay in for Date Night, but it was actually nice to stay home and just enjoy time together!

And that was our week... Next week, I'm going to work on figuring out Finley's new routine and work on obtaining a new "normal"!  Moms who don't have routines for their children AMAZE me because I am so not productive when I don't know the general schedule of our day.  I could do a whole post on the difference between routines and schedules, but I'll save that for another time! =)