A Place to Call Home

Our PCS is coming up...and the housing market in the area is HOT. We had no idea how hot it was until we got to the area and started house hunting though! We are so glad we came early and looked though. For example, the first day we looked at houses, we missed out on THREE houses that day just by being late. Seriously, one house we were going to look at had a contract on Monday (we got here on Tuesday), a house we really liked but had some things we didn't like that prevented us from jumping on it right away had a contract coming in that night (sight unseen), and we were at another house when we heard that the next house on our list had gone under contract an HOUR before. In all, our real estate agency sold 41 properties in TWO DAYS. Crazy, right???

Day one was filled with LOTS of houses, most new, but a few pre-owned. We liked some, but none really jumped out at us. We knew we were going to need to sacrifice some of the things we wanted, but didn't want to sacrifice as much as some of the houses required.

We went back to our friends' house and on the way there, saw the neighborhood going up across the street from their neighborhood and talked about looking there since we had increased our budget a little since first looking into them.

We looked at more houses online that night and talked to our realtor. He mentioned the new neighborhood as well, and we agreed to look there first the next morning and then go look at the other houses.

The neighborhood is only planned to have 21 homes in it. Basically, two cul-de-sac streets. We pulled in and went in a few houses. One was HUGE and we really liked it. It was priced a little more than what we wanted to pay, but we kept it on our list. The upstairs was Brian's dream come true and I was pretty happy with the downstairs. The yard was a little small, but it had a view of a small lake on another property. It was definitely more than I wanted to clean though! LOL

The next few houses were nice, but didn't really jump out. I really want a playroom downstairs for the kids...most houses here have two stories and I don't think the babies are going to be spending much time upstairs without me or Brian, so I wanted them to have a place for playing without destroying the living room. This was pretty high on my priority. Brian wanted a "man cave" area. Most houses have a bonus room, so we were pretty sure that would end up happening!

We finally made it around to this house:

It was the same house as the model home (which wasn't open at the time, but we really liked the outside).

We walked in and on the left was the dining room. The color is a little off since I was dealing with some stress from having a 1 year old who is teething pretty hard! It's sort of a blue/green sea foam. Does that even make sense?

Here's the stair case right as you walk in,

and a view up the stairs. The door closest to the stairway is the laundry room (kinda small, but who really spends much time there anyway, right?), the next door is the Master and then you have an open loft area (Brian's "man cave"). The other 2 bedrooms and the bathroom are to the left, down the hall.

This is to the right as you walk in the door. The carpeted area is the family room and there's a hallway to the right that goes to the half bath and the garage. There's also a closet over there and another one on the wall to the left across from the hallway.

Here's the family room with the electric fireplace. In this area, it is either gas or electric. VERY few houses have wood fireplaces and those are usually really old. The electric is more for ambiance, but I think we'll be fine with that. Oh, and Brian really likes that this room is pre-wired for surround sound and wires can go through the wall for the T.V. to be mounted above the fireplace.

This is the view from the living room. This whole living area is what sold us on the house. Open living spaces really appeal to us! The door to the right opens to the back yard and covered patio (Brian is already looking into how much it would run to screen it in). The second fireplace is in a room they called a "keeping room." We will probably use it as a kid area...but not decorated like a day care. LOL Brian already has plans to put a second flat screen up above the fireplace. He has visions of two football games on at the same time.

A different view...the double doors are the pantry and I think I can already envision Austin doing homework on the computer at the desk (or playing games!). The door down the hallway is the garage door. Did you know the governement is trying to "outlaw" garbage disposals? None of the houses in this neighborhood have them! We are supposed to get one though because it was in the contract. :-)

A view of the living room, breakfast "nook" and kitchen island. Oh, and our handsome Austin!

The rest of the kitchen. The cabinets are a dark brown and we want to upgrade to granite at some point, but are not sure of the price at this point. The arched doorway is to the dining room in the front of the house.

And can I say that I am REALLY excited about this stove going into our kitchen???

Our bathroom...tile floors and nice tub and shower. The door is to the toilet room.

The cabinets in our bathroom and the door to the closet (HUGE!). There's also a door to the attic space that we plan on putting up some drywall to make into a storage space for army junk. LOL

Another bad lighting/white balance picture, but I was rushing to get to Colten. Our lot is the biggest lot in the neighborhood. We are at the end of the cul-de-sac and it's sort of the back corner lot. I couldn't get anymore pictures since I also had the problem of a battery dying!!! Anyway, we are planning a fence out back (kind of required with kids and dogs) and possibly sod since the soil here is very sandy and it's hard to grow grass. Brian also wants to extend the patio and put in a fire pit.

Overall, the house hunting wasn't too stressful. Most of the stress was the kids, as they got tired quick, and Colten skipped his morning nap both days since we were out and about. Teething wasn't easy for him and that made things worse, especially the second day. Our realtor was awesome though. He was very knowledgeable and got us everything we wanted (closing costs paid by builder, fridge, model home appliances (ie. that awesome range), ceiling fans in extra rooms (5 total), and a garbage disposal (which was featured on the listing, but not actually in any of the homes). Not to mention that he was really patient with the kids and their antics (ie. Austin dropping things off of balconies, ringing doorbells multiple times, etc).

So, there it is. Our house, but soon to be our new home! We are very excited and can't wait to move in!