We're Moving!!!

AGAIN!!!!  Do I sound excited?!? Well I'm NOT!  Okay, I am and I'm not.  I'm excited to have my own house!  I'm excited to have a yard (aka outside babysitter), and I'm excited to leave this wretched rental.  Okay, that isn't fair.  The rental has had its perks like being cheap, being large, having nice neighbors, introducing us to new friend in our ward, and having a front loading washing machine.  But let's face it, a different color on every wall, outdated floors, freezing basement, detached garage, and NO YARD has really worn on me.

Tomorrow Nate will officially give our 30 days notice and buy out our lease (2 months rent).  We are set to close on our new house on March 24th.  I am highly skeptical that this will happen on time, but who knows, banks can change... right?

The house we are buying is an older house that has been completely remodeled.  It has hardwood floors in the main living area, granite counters in the kitchen and bathroom, new cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom, tiled floors and walls in the bathroom, new carpet in the basement and bedrooms and new fixtures throughout.  Also, as part of our offer, they are putting in a gas line so I can finally cook with gas again!  We are also getting all new appliances. PHEW!  This house is the nicest house in our price range in the areas we have been looking.  It is in Cottonwood Heights which is about 5 miles from where we live now.

There are a few things that will take getting used to: 1. it is a split level (not my favorite floor plan) 2. The garage is in the basement 3.The front and back yard will need some work.

I found out today that the school Abby is supposed to go to doesn't have a preschool, but another school, very close by, does and I can transfer Abby if I want to and have Iris go to preschool there in the fall.  For now though, they will both just stay with their schools until summer.

Here is a link to some pictures.  The first ones are the pictures they posted online.  They have finished a lot of work since those pictures, and should have everything else completed this week.

When we looked at this house, we both felt is was a great house!  After looking at others we started feeling really good about this one.  We made an offer two weeks ago, they countered, we countered, they countered, we countered and then they countered exactly the same as their previous one.  So we walked.  I was feeling extremely disappointed, but I just thought they weren't being reasonable with their expectations.  I also had a feeling things were going to work out.  We looked at a few others over the weekend.  One Nate thought was a really good house to look into, but even that one just didn't feel right to me.  Lo and behold, the Monday following the weekend we walked, their agent called our agent and asked that we resubmit our offer.  I guess they realized that they blew a good sale with good buyers over $3K and it wasn't such a great idea.

Now we are on our way.  I'm not excited about packing, cleaning, moving, cleaning, unpacking, cleaning etc, but I'm sure excited about living in a practically new house, in a great neighborhood where we can take walks, ride bikes etc and did I mention it has a YARD?!?

One funny story about the yard.  On the day before our first offer we took the girls to look at the house for the first time.  They LOVED it!  Even Iris loved it, the girl who won't stop talking about her yellow house!  I sent them outside to play and they played for like an hour!  They got filthy, but they had a blast!  About 20 minutes after being outside, Abby came up to me and said, "Mom, come meet my new friend Tess."  Sure enough, the girls had made friends with a cute little 6 year old girl from across the back fence.  20 minutes after that Abby came up to me and said, "Look what Tess gave me!"   It was valentine's candy!  Then there was the begging to let Tess come over and play or can we go to Tess's house and play!  So I can put the worry of this move affecting Abby's social life right out of my mind.

So there you have it, what we've been working on the past several weeks!

PS Just a quick update on Abby.  Tomorrow she will have finished serving time (2 weeks) in a neck brace because we found out her neck suffered a whiplash affect when she hit the wall at school.  We are hoping we have no more injuries for a while!