Life is Crazy!

Thought I'd grab a spare minute (HA!) and make some kind of record of what's been going on the last few weeks.

In January, we decided we needed to move. We met with a wonderful realtor, Lisa Edgington, and decided to list the house towards the end of February. We knew we wanted to live further south to be closer to Jeremy's work, and Saratoga Springs was our city of choice.

Our listing went live on March 5th. I got a call about 10:30 that day from our realtor's office that someone wanted to come THAT DAY. I worked my tail off getting everything ready and packed up the dogs and girls and left. I think there were 3 showings that day, then several the next day and the next. We had an offer that first night, then two more the next day. Something like that. It's all a blur. We took the best of the offers, which ended up being more than our asking price. We were amazed.

Then it was hurry-up-and-find-a-house time! We looked at lots of houses in Saratoga Springs, and we found the exact neighborhood we wanted to live in. The neighborhood just felt "right" every time we drove through there. We immediately put an offer in on a house, but were outbid and put in second position, which was discouraging. We decided to keep a close eye on any MLS listings that might pop up in the neighborhood, and then, on a now-daily drive through the area, we found a move-in-ready, newly constructed home that we had previously overlooked. Jeremy met with the builder's agent the next day on his lunch hour, and I drove down that evening. Before I knew it, we were signing another offer, which was accepted, and here we are! Just waiting for all the loan paperwork to be finalized.

We close on our Kearns home on Friday, March 30th. We don't have a close date on the new house as yet, but are hoping it will be soon! It should be sometime next week. We'll probably end up in a hotel for a few days, and it will be weird to be homeless, but we'll just treat it like a little vacation.

We feel very blessed, and are confident we are doing the right thing because of how cleanly all of the pieces have fallen into place. We were so floored at how fast our house sold! Yesterday was technically our last Sunday in the Valley Ridge Ward, which I've been trying not to think too much about. I have really, really loved this ward. I am so comfortable here, and have formed some wonderful and lasting friendships. I know that the new ward will be wonderful because we will make the best of it, but I'm pretty terrified to be starting all over and not knowing a soul!

To reassure me, though, Heavenly Father offered a tender mercy yesterday evening. We drove down to see the house and drive around the neighborhood, and we stopped at one of the parks to let the girls play. Another family drove up right after we got there, and I got up the nerve to talk to the mom. Turns out they are building a home right near ours, and they were doing the same thing we were doing, taking a Sunday drive and dreaming of the day when they actually live there. She was so nice! We talked for about 1/2 hour, and I feel like I have a new friend. It made my day.

Here are some pics:

The house doesn't have any landscaping done, which bites, but we'll take care of that over the summer (I hope). We found out yesterday that the builder JUST started doing front yards on their new homes. Shoot! This house was one that someone had built, but then backed out of. We will be the first owners, but we didn't get to decide any of the building decisions.

Hardwood floors. I have no idea how to care for them. Anyone?

 The kitchen. Gotta love those white appliances! Again, we didn't get to make those choices, but they weren't quite a deal breaker.

 Bay window in the master bedroom.

 Mountains

 Mudroom!

 View to the northwest from the dining room.

 View of the lake to the east.

Hi Meredith!

I'm looking forward to setting down again. It's been quite the month!