Our New Home

It all started on June 26th, 2014.

We were vacationing in Florida.

The kids were napping.

Kevin was down at the beach snorkeling.

And I was relaxing on our balcony - going back and forth between people watching, reading my book (gone girl), and resting my eyes.

At one point, during my quiet time, I logged onto realtor.com because that's what I do did all.of.the.time.

Scrolling through houses, I came upon this one -

4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and a lot of space.

I wanted it...and from that point on, on June 26th, we did everything we could to make sure this house would be ours.

...and on October 17th, 113 days later, we moved into our new home.

And I'm telling you - those 113 days were rough.  I think I actually got my first stress headache... :)

Yet, as stressful as it was, I know in my heart, it was meant to be.

Buyers for our old house came along at just the right time and everything, step by step, fell into place just as it should.

it was just tough because i wanted to know every single detail of every single step along the way.  it's important for me to know exactly what is going on at all times...especially when it involves my money. i'm sure our realtor and lender celebrated huge when they were done working with us (especially done working with ME)!

But it's funny, how something we wanted so badly and something we worked so hard for, that the day we moved into our new home, at the end of the day as the sun was setting, all I wanted to do, was go home.

I wanted to go back to our old house - the house that I called home for 10 years.  The house that I put my babies to bed in every night.  The house that I knew from ceiling to floor and wall to wall.  The house that I wanted so desperately to move out of for so long.  That's the house that I wanted to go back to. 

Funny how things are.

You don't think about how much things really change when you move.  Your whole life changes.  Everything you had known and all the ways in which you did things comes to a stop and you have to find a new way.  That may sound a little exaggerated, but it's the truth.  

Something that made me laugh - our old house had one bathroom.  One tiny bathroom.  Our new home has 3 bathrooms.  Well, for the first couple of weeks in our new home, we all convened in one bathroom together.  We all got ready in the morning in that one bathroom, we all showered in that one bathroom, we all brushed our teeth in that one bathroom...because that's what we were conditioned to do - share one bathroom.  Finally, though, as time has gone on, we've spread our wings and began occupying the other bathrooms.

Despite the homesick feeling I had for a couple of days, I love our new home and each day it's becoming more and more ours.  Our new home is a project we'll be able to work on in years to come - it's a beautiful home and has everything that we want in a home for our family...it just needs updating and we're looking forward to updating it throughout the years.

Some of the little things I love about our home are:

(pardon the mess in the pictures, as we're a work in progress right now)

our fireplace

this pretty cool lamp that was left.  i refuse to get rid of it.

these little windows.  

this is the view from the family room in the basement.  the dining room is on the other side of the windows, upstairs.

i love the character it adds.

our view.
an open field.

the climbing tree for our kids.

And there's other things that I like such as our sparkling ceilings, a sliding glass door that leads out to our patio, our own bathroom in our bedroom, a toy room for the kids, the dimming lights in the bathroom and dining room...

I love our new home and it still feels like a dream that it actually happened....that we actually did it.

We've been able to get a few things done over the last month while being here.

We've been able to replace a couple of the kitchen appliances and get a majority of the family room in the basement completed.

This was before: 

and this is after:

we've painted and laid hardwood flooring.

It's still a work in progress, but it's almost done. 

Right now, we're also working on the toy room.

We've pulled up the carpet and we're getting ready to paint the walls and lay new carpet.  

The kids picked out the paint they wanted so pretty soon, we'll be putting them to work to get the job done!

I'm thankful.

I'm thankful for where we are and what we have.

I'm thankful for the MANY lessons I have learned over the past 4.5 months.

I'm thankful for our family and friends who helped us though the move with packing, moving, and unpacking.

We could not have done it without you.
I'm especially thankful for my parents and Kevin's parents.  They have gone above and beyond in all ways to make this transition as easy as possible for us.
And I can't leave out my sister and Scott.  I will be forever grateful that the Cardinals lost a game, which placed Kristina and Scott in Lincoln on our move in day.  

I read somewhere once that moving demands a brave heart and a bold spirit.

The idea of turning away from the old (in our case, especially when it's so good) and embracing the unknown is something that brings out a lot of emotions, but, you know what they say...

if you do not go after what you want, you'll never have it.

or 

take into account that great love and great achievements

 involve great risk.  dalai lama

or

the what ifs and should haves will eat your brain. john o'callaghan

or 

sometimes following your heart means losing your mind.

So, there you have it.

Our new home.