I have posted before that we found "our dream house." I didn't want to reveal much else til I had keys in my hand because, well, it was a nightmare to get it.
When we decided to start looking for homes Josh's mom Kris, our real estate agent, sent me a list of 20 plus homes. She told me to choose our favorites and we would make a list of the ones most important to us to walk through. Josh told me a few of his favorites but ultimately I researched areas and homes that I knew were good options for us. One night we had 5 appointments to see homes. First one we pulled up to Josh said "I'm not even getting out of the car, this one is awful." I told him that I really liked it and he needed to just be patient and let me look at it. Walking up to the house Josh's dad also said no to the house immediately. After walking through I had their minds changed pretty quick and when we left to look at the next one Josh told me he couldn't believe how much he liked the house. We looked at one just right across the street that had excellent curb appeal but the inside was awful! We looked at tons of other houses that week but I could not get the first house out of my head, and neither could Josh. I finally explained to Josh's mom that we weren't interested in anything else. We wanted the first one. Josh and I prayed fervently and fasted to find out if this was the right house for us. We were waiting for our funding to go through til we made an offer but the other real estate agent called and said they had received a couple other offers and we would need to submit one that day or we would miss out. We submitted our offer a little less than asking price and they countered back asking for more than the original asking price since there was so much interest in it. I was at work in the middle of a really busy day when Josh called and told me he needed an answer on what I wanted to do like now. I sat out front of the salon, and prayed asking Heavenly father to just tell me what to do. I didn't receive an immediate answer and honestly at that point we hadn't received an answer about the house at all. Since we both loved the house we decided to accept their offer. While we tried to rush our funding through we visited the ward and loved it. We rushed the appraisal. We ordered the inspection that was 2 weeks out. Then we waited. We would drive past the house and see other people looking at it and it would make me mad that someone was in "our house." Through the waiting there was still a lot of praying. The inspector called one night and said he had a cancellation for the next morning, a week earlier than expected. Josh met him there and I came at the tail end to go over things. It was bad. There was a list a mile long of things that were wrong. My heart sank. We spent lots of late nights going over things we were willing to fix ourselves and things that had to be fixed before we could proceed. The sellers were less than decent about working with us. The other agent was playing games with us. And several times we threw in the towel and were prepared to withdraw our offer. One night I was so depressed, Josh and I went on a drive looking for other homes. We drove around for several hours and I started to cry. I asked Josh why isn't this working out!? I feel like heavenly father wants us in that house, in that ward. I don't get it! Josh being the man of little emotion told me he felt the same way. He said he had felt like that is where Heavenly Father wants us to be. I jokingly told Josh to pull over and say a prayer and tell Heavenly Father to drive our car where we should live. Within 5 minutes Josh's Mom called with "great news." They accepted our major concerns and we were getting the house. It was right then that I knew 100 percent that Heavenly Father had direct involvement in helping us. Things didn't go as smooth as axpected after that, there were a lot of hurdles we had to jump. But when Josh called me out of the blue and told me "guess what? Our funding went through, we are closing on the house this week!" I cried, I prayed, I thanked Heavenly Father, then I packed. We got the keys to our new home June 30th and moved on July 1st. It was the craziest and happiest day. We love our new home and can't express how grateful we are for our family and friends who gave us ongoing love and support in our stressful time and who helped us move, but especially our loving Heavenly Father who was there with us every step and hurdle and downfall. It was quite the ride and I owe all of what I have to him.
Here are some random pictures I have of the new house! We still have tons of decorating to do and we are waiting for a few new furnishings. There is several things we are doing to the exterior in the next couple weeks that I will post pictures of!
Kitchen:
Kitchen:
Boys Bathroom:
Down stairs family room:
Down stairs bathroom:
One of 2 bedrooms down stairs:
Living room:
My tile floors that I am deeply in love with
Master Bedroom:
Colt's room:
Liam's room:
Toy room:
Exterior before:
Exterior after:
Before/rod iron:
After/wood columns (that will be white):
Here are a few highlights from moving week
Colt laid (awake) like this for a half hour. He loves cuddling with his daddy but also he had an extra hard week.
Josh wresting in between hauls
A much needed date night a few days after moving day
There is just no classy way to eat one of these
10 minutes after being in the car
My awesome client and her husband live a few streets over an popped over one night to share their garden with us. Everything they gave us was soo yummy!
