Moving Day

On Saturday, June 28 we moved out of the avenues into our very own house - WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!  It has been the most exciting/draining/roller coaster experience ever.  One day we would think, should we really buy a house and the next we would think, I'm so excited for a house.  I have been looking online for a while at homes to see if our price range we wanted was unrealistic for the areas we wanted to live in.  It seemed OK, so we found a realtor and went for it.  We would look at a house here and there, nothing really felt right when we looked.  The market was starting to get a little hot and the prices were escalating higher than we anticipated.  It was beginning to look like we would just have to hold off on a house, which was fine.  We found a house that was beautiful and just south of Trolley Square - we texted Joe Friday night at 10:00 pm to set up an appointment for us to see it the next day if possible.  When we went there on Saturday at 11:00 am, there were already a few offers that had been made.  We loved the house and so we made an offer above listing price, which was above what we felt comfortable paying but loved the house.  We didn't end up getting it, which turned out to be OK but it took us a little while to get excited about looking at houses again.  We went to see another house that had major foundation issues - and after that we had all but given up on finding a house in our range, in the areas we wanted.  Well as things tend to happen, not too long after we had all but given up, I was looking online and saw a house and thought it was cute.  We went to see it that night and it just felt like the right house.  There was a study, a breakfast nook, a basement, dishwasher, garage, washer/dryer and it just seemed to work.  We made an offer the next day below asking price which is unheard of in this market.  He countered (of course) and said that we could pay the price we offered and he wouldn't pay closing costs, or we could pay the other price and he would pay all closing costs.  We chose the later and had him pay closing costs.  The price was still below asking so we were OK with that.  He also included a home warranty for the first year.  Everything seemed like it was falling into place.  We had the inspection done a few days later and there weren't any major red flags, just a few little things.  We sent back our list of things we wanted repaired and he offered to do the electrical things we were asking for.  We would drive past the house weekly and were just really excited about it.  The day before we were set to close, Ryan began to panic and so during lunch we had 2 people (Dan from the ward who does construction and a co-workers spouse) meet us there to look at the house and foundation to reassure us it was OK.  They both said it was OK and looked like a good house.  We went and signed the next day after doing a final walk through and the home was ours.  The whole process took 3 weeks total, but that was because we wanted to stretch it out.  

We had a lot of help moving and really appreciated everyone.  My whole family came to help, Kirsten, Bryce, Colter, Joel and Noah.  Collie offered to take Nolan and have him sleep over on Friday night which was a HUGE help and brought all the boys and Raylie down later Saturday morning.  Mom, Macy and I cleaned the avenues apartment and it looked fantastic.  I unpacked most of the house (all the upstairs) within 48 hours of moving in.  I don't like living in boxes and just want things to be settled.  We have enjoyed the house so far and have done laundry in our own house for the first time ever, and ran the dishwasher - 2 very exciting things!