We made it!

As of Sunday, July 10th, we officially moved into our new home, thanks to the help of Kerry Sorensen & his crew of amazing movers!  We packed everything from our old house into the truck the day before and had the house clean and ready by 3pm that day.

We left our hometown (well, it's really Jason's hometown, but it will always be home to me also) on Sunday morning and met the truck at our new home & were all unloaded in 2 hours.  Granted, a majority of our belongings (yes, we pretty much filled the truck) were unloaded into the garage, but even so, keeping it somewhat organized proved to be a task when one is not sure how much room it will actually take.  I started thinking that we were going to fill the entire 3-stall garage, but we managed to save a spot for one vehicle, thanks to the 2 sheds in the back yard & the work of my hubby the week before.

Today, I unpacked the last of the boxes that I can unpack for now.  We will be starting the basement project on Monday and it is scheduled to take about a month to add 2 bedrooms, a full bath and a large family room/office/library space, along with a storage space.  I have to admit, it was nice to only have to unpack part of our stuff and now have a much needed break to hang out with the kids and get to know the town. 

 Kerry with his helpers, 2 of his kids, Jordan & Maranda, with the truck that got us here in one trip.

 

 Noah & Ian enjoying the empty truck while rolling on the dollys.

I wanted to take a picture of us all in front of the house to put on here, but we are short one kiddo until the end of the month.  AJ is staying back in Minneota with family to finish out his baseball season & attend a football camp.  We miss him, but know he's having fun back there & that he would be bored beyond all measures here right now.  Plus, since we're living in a space that's similar to a 2 bedroom apartment, I think that having a few weeks with one less body in the house makes it a little less stressful.  So, the picture will be coming at the beginning of next month.

1 down, 2 to go!

I am very happy to say that we had our first closing (finally) today & we are ready to close on our new home tomorrow!  For the most part, the process has gone fairly smoothly.  This first one is the one that gave us the most trouble and is the one that we were most concerned about, but now that it's done, we can breathe a sigh of relief and have a drink...well, at least Jason can.  I will just pretend that I'm having a couple glasses of wine to celebrate.

How Noah experienced baby moving

Me:  "Noah, do you want to feel the baby moving?"
Noah:  (excitedly running over to me) "Yeah!"
I put his hand in mine and direct it over the area where the baby is moving the most & we wait...of course, it stops as soon as anyone other than myself places a hand on my belly.  It doesn't matter how long it's been jumping, it just stops.
Me:  "It should move again..."
Noah:  (looks right at Jason)  "I gotta pee."

Work, work, work

Selling homes is quite a process I tell you!  Not only do you have to fill out a ton of paperwork, but cleaning it, showing it, and then making the appraiser/inspector happy is a whole 'nother deal!  We had a few things to touch up at the rental home, and so the appraiser needed to come back a second time.  When we got the notice that the inspection for our current home would be coming up soon, we decided to try to get our house in tip-top shape in hopes that he would only have to come the one time and we could save ourselves the headache of having to set it all up again.

So, last week, we spent our time scraping and cleaning the railings on the deck.  A project that was long overdue, and was recommended by the realtor on Day 1 that we should consider doing right away.  So, it was a process that began before our first showing, but turned out not really necessary to get an offer.  With the process already begun, I knew that I didn't want to leave it like that, and considering that we had to paint areas with peeling paint at the other house, I knew we wouldn't get a clean inspection with it looking the way it did.  After several days, it was finally done & I am happy that we'll get to enjoy it for a month before we move.

Well, when you have freshly painted railings, the peeling paint on the house doesn't look so great either, so we spent all day yesterday scraping and fixing old wood and then getting it painted.  Luckily, our local hardware store has a wonderful machine that can take a piece of old paint and match it.  That saved us the hassle and cost of having to paint the entire house!

(This back doorway to the garage was completely rotted and almost all of the paint was peeling because it gets so hot.)

When you have a freshly painted house and railings, then the deck that I stained last year, looked faded in many spots, so guess what I spent the day doing today?!  Overall, I am thrilled with how everything looks and am prepared for the inspection tomorrow (well, after we clean again).  Needless to say, my pregnant body is not so happy with all of the work and I have spent the rest of my evenings with an ice pack on my lower back and my shoulder.  But now that the work is done, we can enjoy the outdoors in between the moments of sorting through our belongings and beginning the next process...packing!

(This is the front deck that I finally stained as well, so now it matches the back.)

Halfway!

On Friday, I had my 20 week ultrasound.  I decided to have all of the kids come this time so they could see the baby "live" rather than on a fuzzy black and white photo I brought home.  I also thought that since they learned about babies in the womb this year through a Spiritual Adoption Program I introduced at their school, this would be a great opportunity for them to see their own sibling inside Mommy's belly.

Everything is looking good with baby, although it wasn't cooperating well with position, so my doctor asked me to come back in a month so they can get a better look at the heart. 

The kids all lasted about 10 minutes and then decided that the live version wasn't as exciting as Mommy said it would be.  The thing about ultrasounds is that they want still pictures of things, so when you get a good view of the baby moving, they pause it to take a picture and then quickly move on to the next area to examine.  Not a very interesting thing for kids to watch, especially at 4:30 in the afternoon.

But we made a family evening out of it as well, by going to the park, out to eat, and then to a musical that casted a few members of our community.  It was a much-needed family night out, especially with all that is going on with our moving transitions.  I will update on that in the next post...

We sold it!

We did it!  We signed the purchase agreement to begin the process of selling our current house & we couldn't be more excited!  What a relief it is to know that keeping the house show-worthy is not necessary anymore, especially now that the kids are done with the school year!  We didn't fully get our asking price, and we are paying closing costs on another home, but it's worth it to get it over and done with.  We are set to close July 15th, which is a week after we move out, so things are planned for our move.  God has set His plan in motion & has made things happen in such a wonderful way!  Now we continue to move forward to go through things that we don't need and get rid of the junk that has been neglected for the past few years.  It's probably a good thing that we move every few years, just so I can keep from being such a hoarder!

Updates

We are moving forward in the moving process!  Less than 2 weeks ago, we signed the purchase agreement to start the process of selling our rental home.  Meanwhile, we have been tirelessly looking for a home in Montgomery, to which the homes are either very out of our budget or near the top of our budget and in need of work.  After watching home after home disappear just as fast as it was listed we thought we found what we were looking for this past Sunday.  We made an offer, but things did not work out as we had planned.  Feeling quite deflated, I was wondering how we were going to find something so far away, with such busy schedules, and a housing market that required constant monitoring? 

Figuring we would have to wait for a while again, a home came back on the market that we were originally interested in.  Jason also picked through some of the listings and came across a 2 bed, 1 bath home with an unfinished basement & 3 car garage and asked me to look at it.  I thought, "Why are we looking at this?  We want at least 3-4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms for sure!"  This home was also at the top of our budget, but knowing we could finish out the basement made me curious to see it as well, so we called the realtor and made a second trip in less than a week to our future home 2 1/2 hours away.

The night before, I was looking at the listings again & noticed there was another home similar to the one Jason wanted to see, so I emailed the realtor and asked her to add that one to our list as well.  Might as well see as many as we could, right?

So let's just say after viewing the first 2 original homes, I was really thinking we were going to go back home without a single good showing and we would be doing this again, and again to find a decent home.  Plus, we were starting to push the timeline of hoping to be moving in July a little tight.

When we pulled up to the last home, we were quite surprised and pleased to see this...

 

Finally!  A home with curb appeal!  Hopefully the inside is as pleasing to the eye as the outside...(it might not look like this for a while after we move in, so these are pictures from the listing.)

I am not usually a fan of split levels, but this one has a larger foyer with a large closet, which will help immensely to keep the entry clear and easier to maneuver in.  Even though the upstairs isn't huge, the open concept and patio right off of the dining room helps to give us some room to spread out...kind of like our current home.  The bedrooms are good size with large walk-in closets, which is good, because we are all probably going to be living in the upstairs until we finish making 2 more bedrooms, a bathroom and larger family room in the basement. 

This is just a corner of it.  The rest has large windows and is ready for framing and walls to begin the process.  The fact that it was insulated, and had plumbing and electric ready was a reason why we even considered this house.  Did I mention that it is only 3 years old as well, and in a new development, so any money we put into it will easily add value to this home.

The back yard is large, open and ready for lots of games to be played!  This last picture is not to show you the 2 sheds in the back yard, but the giant slope that will be endless fun for the kids in the winter months.  I am not so thrilled about mowing it in the summer though.  The lot next to us is still open, so there is even more room that I'm sure we will lose baseballs, footballs, and golf balls in.

Jason was also quite excited when he entered the 3 stall garage and was even more thrilled when I pointed out to him that it was insulated AND heated!  He was even more sold at that point.  Not to mention that it looks "graduation party ready" because the walls are painted and the floor is finished nicely.

We couldn't help but take a chance on this beautifully, well-kept new home, and even though we have a little work ahead of us, we know it will be just what we were looking for when we're done.  If all goes well, we will own the house by July.  We will be listing our current home next week and depending on when we close on it, will depend on what we will do in July...live in construction (which wouldn't be too bad since we will still have our upstairs...it will be like living in a 2 bedroom apartment) or hang out with family back here while working on our new home there for a few weeks before we move in.  Either way, we are thrilled to be moving forward & are relieved to have the process started for owning a new home in a new town!