Yes, this is our house and yes, it is sold. It is a little bittersweet to make this post. I'm excited about moving to a newer and bigger home that hopefully will be our last home, but I'm also sad to say goodbye to my home of almost 9 years. This was our first home that we bought about a year after we were married. It was the biggest decision we had made so far as a married couple. I admit I wanted another home, but Nick was drawn to this home that had a bigger garage and basement for storage. I'll admit he was right.
2002-I remember working really hard to finish our yard and I was a little over-zealous when I put in all the flower beds!
2004-I remember bringing baby Emma home and then two days later having our basement flood so Nick was busy mopping everything up and putting in a sump pump.
2005-I remember painting my family room which only took 3 different shades of paint to find the one I wanted. Of coarse, Nick originally picked the color that I finally went with!
2007-I remember bringing home baby Brielle and staying up for the first week watching her sleep on our coffee table in a bilirubin suitcase. We also added purple bead board to Emma's bedroom so she could have a "new" room.
2008-I remember ripping up all of the linoleum to put tile in our bathrooms and entry way. We added laminate wood floors to our kitchen and pulled out our old "turf" carpet to get a thicker pad and better carpet. This was the best improvement we ever made.
2009-I remember watching my husband get deathly sick so I barely maintained the house while friends and family helped me maintain our yard.
2010-We decide to finish our basement so we could have a nice family room downstairs.
We started working on our basement in January when I got a postcard in the mail advertising for new homes. The prices were reasonable so I started checking into it. Nick thought I was joking when I asked him how much we owed on our house, etc. With interest rates lower now than when we bought we could get something bigger for about the same house payment. But I was unsure if I wanted to leave this house and essentially start over. We like our neighborhood, Emma's school, our ward. It would mean a lot of change and I'm not very good with change. After much contemplation and prayer we decided to put our home up for sale and leave it in the Lord's hand if this was the time for us to move. Well, 3 days later we had an offer on our house! We were in shock! So over the last month, we spent all of our extra time looking at houses. There were some Nick liked but I was leery about the location or price and other homes I liked but Nick had concerns about the renovations needed. I bet we looked at 30+ homes. The stress was building as we got closer to our closing date. Nick (who is usually pretty laid-back) flared up with painful shingles also! I knew we needed to make a decision.
I think what finally helped us in our decision was location. We knew how difficult last year was on our kids so we figured the least amount of change for them would be the best. So, we found a lot to build a home that is within 5 miles of our house now. The house plan is a rambler so in the long run it will be better for Nick not to have to climb a lot of stairs. We're also building with Nick's uncle so we know they do quality work. The downfall? I have NEVER wanted to build a house. It sounded too stressful to make all of the decisions and I'm not a good decision-maker. Thanks to their "design center" we made all of the decisions in one day (one long day)! We will be living with my mom over the next few months to save money so that might be weird, but at least it is summer and we can spend time playing around. We have one week left here, but we are excited to watch the progress of our home. They will probably be started on it in the next two weeks. It is just crazy where this year so far has taken us. We know there is a reason our house sold so quickly and we're hoping that this new area is where we need to be!
