PART A
I have to start this post by saying that from about March, when we decided to seriously buy a house until about the end of September, when the moving part was over and the kids were back in school, our lives were CRAZY busy. Busier than I ever thought life could get. Tim was helping coach Xavier's baseball team and Gavin's baseball team. We were looking at houses right and left trying to find the right one for our family. When options were limited and we didn't seem to find anything we liked we even started meeting with a builder and looking into building a house. We were applying for a mortgage which felt like a part time job in and of itself. I had been called to serve in Young Women's (which is like another part time job) and Tim was serving in the Elders Quorum presidency. Not to mention Tim's day job too. Okay now that I've said all that I can take a big deep breath. Some days I wasn't sure I'd get through it all alive, but we did, and man I'm sure glad it's over.
When June came we still hadn't found a house that we felt was the right one and we were starting to feel like it was time to throw in the towel until the following Spring because we didn't want to move part way or mid way through the school year. Then a house on Fox Hollow Lane that was under contract had fallen through and the owners put it back on the market. We had seen it a couple months before but disregarded it. Our realtor suggested we at least go look at it. So we did. And much to our surprise we both really liked the house. The pictures that we had originally seen did not do the house justice. It was so much prettier in person and the moment we toured the house I had a feeling I didn't have with any other house we had looked at. My heart just kept telling me it was home.
On a side note before this happened, there was a house on Timothy Lane we had looked at that Tim thought we could make work, but for me, something in my gut was saying a strong "No." So I prayed about it. I went for a run one morning and just asked God that if the house on Timothy Lane was right for our family that I needed to stop feeling the way I felt about it. I just asked to feel peace if it was right for us. The next day is when our realtor called about the house on Fox Hollow. For me I got two answers that day: No, the Timothy house was not right for our family and here is the one that IS right for your family.
We decided to make an offer. Seriously, the process and working with the owners of the property was probably the smoothest process it could have been. Any thing we saw that needed to be fixed the owners took care of right away. They didn't contest anything. They accepted our offer without countering. All this just confirmed to Tim and I that it was finally going to happen and everything was falling into place because it was right for our family. The right timing, the right house, the right circumstances. And our closing date was August 15th, 10 days before school would start. We had met our goal of moving before the school year began. It was definitely cutting it close, but it happened.
Just a couple days before we were closing on the house I got an email from Kelly Suffness. She was a mom of a boy that had been on Xavier's basketball team the year before. She said she had just found out from her neighbors that we were moving into their house. Kelly said they would be our new neighbors and they were so excited to have us move into the neighborhood. Seriously......could anything have been better than this news? No. It was yet another confirmation that God answered our prayers. My boys would have friends right away in the neighborhood and at the new school. Another sigh of relief for me. Another worry resolved.
Just days before we were going to move we had a wonderful visit from our friends the Warner family. They have 5 boys. Our 3 boys and their 5 boys definitely made for a wonderfully loud and full house. They all played so nicely together and had so much fun. Tim, Tony, Ana, and I enjoyed being able to watch them and catch up on life. They had come from Michigan to see the Philadelphia Open House and just needed a place to crash for the night. We were happy to have their company and were sad to see them have to go so soon.
They couldn't leave without a daddy pile up! Seven of the eight boys piled on to Tony for a good morning wrestle session. Hilarious!
As we closed this chapter in our lives it definitely came with much sadness and many memories. When we moved to Pennsylvania more than 6 years ago and only one kid in tow this was the house we lived in. My belly was eight months pregnant with Gavin and we didn't know one person in this state. Middle Way became our home. Over time we made lots of friends in the neighborhood and community, had many different neighbors, and made our rental town home our HOME. This tree was one of my favorite parts of the house. These boys climbed this tree every day. They became little monkeys going up and down the tree as naturally as if it were a part of them. We'd hang outside with friends after walking from the bus stop. Sometimes we'd ride bikes, sometimes they'd play tag in the front, and many times they'd be up in the tree. I will miss this tree so much. It captures the essence of my boys and their childhood. Thank you dear tree for allowing my boys to climb, hang, jump, and smile each time they were on you. Your beautiful pink flowers in the Spring were a grand sight to see every time we came out our door. Your beautiful colorful leaves in the Fall was a favorite sign of the new season. The boys loved jumping in your leaves as we raked them up each Fall. And your strong limbs held each of their growing limbs as they maneuvered your branches. We say goodbye, but will cherish the times we shared. We say goodbye and hope that another child can take our place and enjoy you as much as we did.
Goodbye Middle Way....we have loved living here and making this place our home for the time we were allowed. We are grateful for the people we met, the friendships we gained, and the joys we shared.
PART B: CLOSING DAY
As anyone who has bought a home knows, there is lots to do. We've replaced shopping at the mall with shopping at Lowe's, Home Depot, and Sears.
We first looked at a fridge, a washer and dryer, and flooring.
The carpet was original to the home (16 years old) and the previous owners had a dog so we felt it best to replace the flooring in the upstairs and main levels. We chose a neautral color of carpet for the upstairs and decided to install wood floors on the main level except for the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom which was tile.
We can't forget the important garbage can too. Ha ha ha!
The family room was pergo flooring before (above) and the picture below was after the wood was installed.
The tile that led to our backyard door and kitchen we kept. But right where the hall and the family room met was also tile. And the entryway by our front door was tile too. We had all that tile ripped out so that the dining room, formal living room, and entry way were all one type of flooring instead of a mish mash of different flooring. It really opened the space up better and made it look a lot more uniform.
Entryway before with the tile.....
Entryway after with the wood.
This is the formal living room with the carpet before.
This is the living room after the wood. It was amazing to me how just changing the flooring and making the first level all uniform made such a huge improvement on the look of the house. It wasn't ugly before, but it was a nice upgrade for sure. I'm so glad we did it before we moved our stuff. The only catch to the flooring was that they were able to install the wood two days after we closed on the house, but they couldn't install the carpet upstairs for another week. We had to adjust our moving plans to work around the flooring. So the first week I made what seemed like a hundred trips back and forth from our old place to our new place moving all our storage bins and boxes from the basement to the new house. Then we moved our furniture on the main level after the wood floors were installed. Then we had to wait a week to move all our bedroom boxes and furniture. Tim and I did most of the moving ourselves. Then we rented a small truck to move all the big furniture. Several men from church helped us with that part. And many of my girlfriends watched the kiddos so I could move a lot of our stuff the first week. It was A LOT of work and I hope if I have to move again I can pay someone to do it for us.
This was our first OFFICIAL day in our new house. I absolutely love our backyard. The patio is gorgeous and all done with paver stone and we even have a cool gondola thing where we can eventually get some furniture for to hang out outside on cool Spring or Fall evenings and warm summer nights.
As another fun treat the boys took a bubble bath in the Master bathroom tub. They thought that was the coolest thing ever.
The first week we slept on mattresses on the floor, but these boys liked the idea of "camping out" in their rooms.
We are loving our new home and all the extra space we have. The boys have more room to play in a bigger backyard and mommy loves having a fence so I don't have to worry about them running in the street. The boys will have a playroom in our basement so their bedrooms aren't the all purpose room. And we have an extra bedroom so that one day we can grow our little family even more.
We feel so blessed that everything worked out to make this dream a reality for us. We are excited to create new memories and enjoy this new adventure in our families life.
We are happy to be in our very first owned house! We are excited to make it our HOME!
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