Success

Ladies and gentleman, we found a house!  And it's practically perfect in every way.  At least for us.  This house-hunting trip was an interesting experience --- and a bit different than the others.  When we were buying our first house back in 2008, it was all just fun and exciting.  As I've documented before, our experience when we were looking for houses HERE, was anything but.  It was stressful and frustrating and after a few days of looking at houses that wouldn't work for our family at all, I was starting to wonder if we were even doing the right thing in moving our family so soon.  The biggest life lesson I learned that year, though, was that when we trust in the Lord with all our heart, everything works out for the best.  Once we put our trust in Him completely and turned to Him in prayer, it was humbling to see how quickly He answered our prayers.  {And with 3 years hindsight now, how perfect this area has been for our family.}

This time around -- being the seasoned veterans that we are -- our house-hunting experience was a bit of a happy medium between the other two.  Throughout the entire trip {even when we weren't seeing ANYTHING that would work for our family}, I still felt like everything was going to work out.   Going into our search, we were really hoping to find a house in the area where we lived before.  In the end, though, all that really mattered was that we went where we were supposed to go.  And I think we found that place.  Even though we're a lot farther out for a commute than we wanted to be and we'll be starting over from scratch with making friends and meeting new people, everything clicked into place SO perfectly with buying this house that I know we had heavenly help.    

The Front View

The Front Hall

The Study/Perhaps Living Room or Piano Room?

 We're still trying to figure out what to do with this room.  Scott does actually need an office of sorts since he'll be working from home a couple days a week, but we also need a room to put the piano in and I don't know where it will fit.  I think that this was technically built to be BE a living room/sitting room but the current owners have switched it with the room that is supposed to be a study.

The ? Room 

This is the other room.  It's off  the back of the kitchen and kind of tucked away and we're trying to decide if we should turn THIS into the study, or if we should make it a sitting room/piano room of sorts, or perhaps just throw caution to the wind and make it my sewing/quilting room!  Hahaha.

The Dining Room

 Ethan is VERY anxious to change the paint color from red.

The Family Room

(Another view.)

The Kitchen

The Upstairs Hall

I think my favorite part of the house is the upstairs.  The hall is SO big.  I love it.  There is a front and back set of stairs and then 4 bedrooms plus a "bonus" room that I think we will be converting to a bedroom.

Bedroom 1

I think we might make this Grace's room.  

Bedroom 2

I think we will be making this Ethan's room.  Although, he's been very insistent that he doesn't want his own room and wants to share with Alex.  Bedroom 1 and 2 are connected with a Jack and Jill bathroom.

"Bonus" Room

This room is HUGE.  We're thinking of making it Sophie and Jane's room.  

Bedroom 3

I'd like to make this a Guest Room eventually, but for now we're trying to figure out if we should keep Alex in his own room in a crib or graduate him to a real bed in Ethan's room or still in his own room.

Master Bedroom

(Apparently I forgot to take a picture of this one, but it's awesome.  The thing I'm most excited about is having more natural light in this one than our current one.  We also have His and Hers walk-in closets which will be pretty cool, and the master bath has a whirlpool jetted tub which I'm particularly excited about.)

The Backyard

View from the back deck.

Fire Pit.

We got the trampoline, playset, and a basketball hoop negotiated into the contract and the kids are ecstatic.

Not pictured -- The neighborhood pool that is just up the street.

(The kids are really excited about that as well.)

Lagniappe Picture

The dog that Grace wishes came with the house.  Unfortunately, this is one item that couldn't be put in with the contract.  This dog was the best behaved and prettiest dog I've ever seen.  It made me thisclose to thinking maybe we could give Grace the surprise of her life this year at Christmas and finally get her a dog.  

And that's all folks.  We found the house on our second day of looking, put an offer in around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and had everything accepted and finalized by the time we were done eating dinner at 8 o'clock.  It was about as painless as it could possibly be.  We actually met the current owners when we showed up to look at the house the first time because they had been given the wrong time to expect us coming.  I really liked them a lot and could tell they were just a good family.  I like knowing that about the people who lived in the house before us.  It was super helpful to talk to the mom and hear about the neighborhood and schools, etc. and it was so reassuring to know that she feels the same way about the school there as I do about our school HERE.  It was surely no accident that we were able to meet them that day.

Benihana's for Dinner.  A delayed anniversary meal.

We stuck around for another day and half to check out the area some more and be there for the inspection, then headed back to Indiana on Thursday.  Scott's sister Kristin (along with help from his mom and dad who came to town for Sam's graduation) put up with our crew for the 6 days we were gone and I can't ever thank them enough!  The happy benefit of being away from the kids for so long was that I think they actually missed us!  Hahaha.  When we drove up and saw them all running out the door to meet us, it was the best and happiest feeling in the world.  :)  They like us!  They really like us!!!  Hahahaha.  All in all, it's been a week to remember.