House Hunting Part II - OFFER MADE

We made an offer...now we wait... 

Oh man. It’s so hard to focus! My head is spinning. I remind myself often to be MINDFUL. To focus on my breathing. I breathe in God and good and then breathe out anxiety and worries – things I have NO control over. Wasted SPACE in my brain.

I've been waking up at 4:12 EVERY MORNING for the past two weeks. 

Change is SO hard. SO HARD. And the longer I wait to make a CHANGE the harder it IS to make a change. Do you notice that about yourself? You WANT change and you do whatever you can to get there. But then it’s staring at you in the face and the EASY WAY is to RUN and take the easy way out. The comfortable option. But then NOTHING EVER HAPPENS.

How do we grow?

With all that said, I think we found our house. OK, I know we did. The minute we walked in I felt WARM. Same with Karl. The house felt VERY homey and inviting. It was the first house we looked at the second time around. We had four more to check out after this house. My heart was set on BRAND NEW, but this house had clearly been taken care of and you could FEEL the love and joy through the walls. I could almost hear the laughter. It is a FAMILY house. A family of five live here. You know when you just get a “good” vibe. That’s what I had. Even about the owners. Weird. Like I feel as if they are GOOD PEOPLE.

We LOVED the backyard and the deck. SCORE! Not HUGE by any means but it backs up to a little bit of woods. NO houses right in back staring into our windows at night. Granted there is a big hill and the yard even starts to elevate some. There are houses on top of the huge hill in the back (covered in trees), but we know once summer comes, we won’t be seeing them AT ALL. The view is VERY beautiful, even in the winter. There is also an ADORABLE playhouse and a swing set out back too. I could already picture spring, summers and fall with Jackson out back and that GARDEN I’ve been DREAMING of. A drink in hand… :)

Not really our house. But it's fun to dream:) 

Isn't she a beaut? Just kidding...again!

The other part I loved was the laundry room (YES, an ENTIRE ROOM for me FINALLY) has a SLOP sink AND a door leading out to the backyard. Meaning, I could HANG UP CLOTHES OUTSIDE. I also like that the yard is fenced in too. BONUS.  No little boy running away from mommy! And maybe we can get a pet. I mean, once Jackson can take care of him or her:)

Another cool part? A wrap-around porch out front. That has always been something I LOVE as an avid reader. Granted, I haven’t read in a couple years, but someday I will again and I will be grateful for that cozy porch! It is a bonus. Same with the 3-car garage with storage shelves built in. AND a professionally completed basement with a fireplace, built-in surround sound through the walls, cute bar and a 5^th bedroom and full bathroom. And SO MUCH STORAGE (well, it seems to us coming from NONE)!  It’s beautiful.

My mom asked me to envision what I would be doing most in this house. COOKING, CLEANING and PLAYING and going on ADVENTURES.  The kitchen isn’t as fancy as most kitchens are these days, but it’s bigger than a lot of others we saw. My worry is if it's big enough to house all our kitchen stuff. And we can’t sit at the island (which was a bummer for me) and the appliances need to be updated, but I really do love this house.

There are a couple other things…like the master bedroom is quite a bit smaller than the one we have now. The master closet is HALF the size of what we have now and there is only one sink in the master bath and no closets…opposite of what we have now. BUT, I am in our bedroom, closet and bathroom THE LEAST. I have been pinning ideas on Pinterest to maximize the space we have been given the best I can. 

Pro: Less to clean, right?  

I love that there is an office when you walk through the front door that could EASILY be turned into a PLAY ROOM and we can use a bedroom upstairs for a guest room OR a workout room OR a play area OR a computer room. Whatever we want. I love when you walk in from the garage there is a big coat closet and the laundry room is right there too. A nice mud area!

I’m nervous because it’s in a different city than where we live now. And it's kind of further away from things. I’m so used to knowing where things are around me. I also know that I spend an hour and 20 minutes every Monday through Thursday night picking Jackson up and bringing us home. So much time commuting!!!!

I worry about the neighborhood. I worry that there isn’t a sidewalk on our side of the street, but that could also be a bonus too. And I worry cars might travel too fast in front of the house. BUT, there is a forest preserve RIGHT down the street with lakes and trees and animals and a PARK.

I think we have our answer… The perfect starter house for us. 

HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wish us luck!