Moving on out/up/over...

Well, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have heard our most recent family news.  We bought a house, and put ours on the market all within about a 48 hour period. 

 

It's probably no secret that we've been discussing our future home possibilities for the better part of forever the last 18 months.  We've had future children on the brain, and we've been wishing that we could host family gatherings & small group for a LONG time.  Our current house is great, but it's just not as big as we would like.  And in all honesty, we thought our next home would be one that we built.  Last Spring we even chose a builder, met with an architect,  had some beautiful house plans drawn up, purchased a lot, got our financing in order, and basically had a start date in place.  And...then we got the estimate back from our builder...which just happened to be nearly 30% over budget before we ever put a shovel in the ground. 

 

Obviously, God had other plans for us besides building.  The rug was pulled out from under us in August, and we've been house hunting ever since.  We honestly aren't worried about our current house selling, so we really wanted to wait until there was at least a house with some potential on the market...so we weren't left in limbo.  Because I can tell that with EVERY. FIBER. OF. MY. BEING.  I did not want to rent.  I would rather have stayed in our same house than have to rent a duplex or apartment or even consider living with my parents or my in-laws (love you all, but we all know this can end badly!) 

 

So...practically every day, multiple times a day, for the past 4-5 months I have been checking the local listings for a house that would fit our needs.  There have been a few pop up, but we only went and actually even looked at 1-2...granted, I'm SUPER picky and really wanted something that was move-in ready with not a LOT of work cosmetically. 

 

So...after being discourage, and frustrated, and Hubby reassuring me, and being more discouraged, and resigning myself to the idea of renting, and mourning my dream home, and Hubby reassuring me...we finally just decided to list our house to see what would happen.  And hopefully a house would come on the market and timing would work out perfectly. 

Our actual for sale sign

Well........we were scheduled to fill out the listing paperwork & have listing photos taken on Tuesday, March 11.  The Sunday before that, Hubby was looking at the listings and took a second glance at a house that had actually been on the market for 57 days already.  He thought it might deserve to be seen, so we set up a showing for the same night as the listing paperwork was to be filled out.   It's located in the same town, but across town and has about 600 sq feet more than what we have now.  So...we went with our realtor (who's also a great friend)...and we loved it. 

 

Actually, we liked it.  After the showing, and the listing paperwork, and the photos...we had our thoughts to ourselves and we had practically talked ourselves out of it because of the size of the kids closets.  Seriously.  Not even joking. The kids' closets.  First World Problems right there!

 

However, we prayed about it, and decided to get a third party's opinion on the home...so we set up a second showing on Friday with my parents.  And we loved it.  Really loved it.  Like couldn't imagine my family NOT living there loved it. 

 

And so...on Saturday, less than a week after we had first seen it, we made an offer.  And bumped the listing of our house up by 3 days. 

A picture after we made our first offer!

We offered, they countered, we countered back...and they accepted.  And so...now the race is on to sell our house on or (preferably after by a few days) the closing date of our new home.  Fingers crossed! 

 

 

 

Rest assured there will be many, many, many more photos of our new home and lots more updates...but for now, here's a few from the initial listing.  Did I mention it's brand new?  Has 4 bedrooms & 2 1/2 baths, plus a formal dining/turned office?  A fabulous backyard?  And backs up to a field?  Oh...and our HOA dues include access to the neighborhood pool and playground?!?

Love the entryway!

 And brace yourself for this next picture...it's truly beautiful!

Yeah, that's going to be my new kitchen.  Those cabinets on the right side?  The same number of cabinets I currently have...with double that space on the other side, plus a full pantry! 

 And maybe my second favorite feature after the kitchen...our back porch.  Sod has been laid now and the yard leveled out.  My not normally sentimental husband mentioned that he can see us sitting out on this back patio and watching the sun set.  Ahhhh....I can't hardly wait!