HOME SWEET HOME!!!

Well, after a very emotionally exhausting day and a half, we bought a house! We did get into a "bidding war", which you wouldn't expect in this buyer's housing market, but I really do think it's because this house was a good deal... one with almost the same floor plan down the street just sold for $10,000 more, so I think we did pretty well. It was so fun to have Nori house hunting with me, and if she and Fred hadn't done so much of the "research" for us this would have been a much longer process. I LOVED working with Keith as an agent. He is so easy going and nice to be around (he reminds me of Leslie, in that sense) and yet really seemed to know his stuff, so that helped make the process very pleasant. And my parents kept Luke while we did all this, so it was nice to not have to worry about taking care of kids during all of this business.
What a blessing it is to have family close by! I know we're going to love it!!!

It is in "move-in condition", which is a really big plus so that we can actually enjoy the month and a half before Derek starts work. We saw tons of houses, but none of them were in this nice of condition AND in this nice of a neighborbood. There is a neighborhood pool and playground a block and a half away, and then about 5 blocks away there is a nice big park and the property where the new elementary school will be built, opening Fall '08. Ethan will ride a bus to school this year.



We also sold our house yesterday, or at least the counter offer is signed. It's never a done deal until it's closed, but we're happy that we've come this far.



As for the Bronco, well, that's a funny story. And a good lesson as to why we don't do business on the Sabbath; are you listening, kids? :) The guy we [thought we] sold it to called last Sunday, during general conference, and said he was outside, looking at the Bronco, so Derek went out and talked to him (yeah, we know, we shouldn't have even answered the phone). He said he would give Derek $400 right then, but since the banks weren't open, he'd have to write us a personal check. We normally would only take a cashier's check or cash, but he lived 45 minutes away, and seemed pretty clean-cut, so we conceded. We had enough presence of mind to keep the title until the check cleared. Well, during the emotional drama of house buying yesterday, Derek got a call from Mr. Wack (yes, that's really his name) who told Derek the bank just notified him all of his funds were going to be garnished (assets too? I'm not sure.) He wondered if his we had deposited his check yet, which we had, but of course it takes several days to weeks to officially go through both banks and clear. So Derek asked him to bring the Bronco back, which he is supposed to do this afternoon (it was a blizzard yesterday when they spoke.) So we're keeping our fingers crossed that he will bring it back, and that the cigarette smoke hasn't destroyed it already. :( So lesson learned, don't break the Sabbath. Hopefully our house selling and buying endeavors won't be this scandalous.



I'll post better pictures this afternoon-- I took so many yesterday (of other houses) that I didn't realize how few I had of this house. On second thought, maybe I won't post them so you will all have to come visit! :)



Our closing date is May 7.



Now I'm off to check out Ethan's new school!

Our back yard-- you don't get the full view here, but the part I'm most excited about is that it backs up to open space.