We did it, team. We bought a house! We are going to be able to move in December or January, a month or two after our rental contract ends. Luckily our landlord is willing to let us keep renting on a month-by-month basis, so we are hoping to be able to make a slow, calm move over the course of a few weeks rather than an extremely stressful frenzy of a big move like all our previous moves have been.
Ok, home details. We went with House #3 from last week's blog post: "Meh house on dream lot." We had already made up our minds that this was the decision we were going to make, and we were settling in to have to wait a month or so for it to be listed. In the meantime, I'm pretty sure our sales agent was feeling guilty for accidentally doing us dirty on the original house we wanted, and she knew we were gunning for the dream lot house now. We're pretty sure she went to bat for us and got them to list it on Saturday. We found out on Friday evening, and shortly after were told that there were going to be multiple offers, and so they were going to do a "highest and best offer" situation on Saturday.
0/5 stars, do not recommend having to do a highest and best offer. It will mess with your brain chemistry. It is so stressful not to know what anyone else is going to offer, and wanting to make your offer competitive enough that you will definitely win, but not so competitive that you're unnecessarily losing money by going way above all the other offers. In the end our offer won (we knew from the beginning we had some extra leverage because our purchase wouldn't be contingent on our home selling, our timeline was flexible, and we weren't bringing a realtor to the table for them to have to pay). It also helped that the price they initially listed the home at was WAY lower than we expected it to be, so we had a lot of wiggle room to make a competitive offer and still come out paying less than what we would have initially planned to pay. That's a lot of info, but we did win the house and we are so relieved to have a trajectory and a concrete timeline for settling into our next home now! They are hoping we will be able to close in December, but it might be January. That is a way's off because they let us buy much earlier than they usually do, and we don't mind. We'd rather be locked in now and wait a little longer to move in than have to keep waiting to be able to buy and feeling uncertain it would work out.
So now we are getting excited to settle down on our absolute dream lot! Pinch me! I have been vision-boarding a home by foothill trails, with a peaceful lot and nice views, forever. The kids will be close enough to walk to school until they are in high school. We will still be living close to all of Jack's friends. It feels so right not to have to uproot, and for lots of reasons, it feels like we were led to this exact lot over the course of the last year and a half, really since Jared took his very first interview in Utah and this neighborhood was the only one that felt right to us after weeks of neighborhood hunting. We have come to love the area where we live. The home itself is actually very similar to our rental house, but with a few elements we like better, like the primary bedroom on the main floor, a fireplace, and a 3-car garage. The things we don't like about it can be slowly changed over time, and with time the backyard will be an incredible play/entertaining space too.
That is our big update for the week! Because we are renting so close to where the home is going to be, we will likely be driving over there most nights to see what new progress has been made. The kids are so excited too. They will have so much space to play, a walking path and flat street to ride bikes, and we will have the BEST sledding hill right next door to our home. And now for some pictures from our week:
Things are starting to move again on the path to getting into our next home. The week started with some tough news--the home that we have been waiting on all year to begin construction had been downgraded significantly in terms of size, floor plan, finishes, ceiling height, etc. Basically anywhere a corner could be cut, it was going to be cut. How could this happen? It's because we will be buying in a tract home neighborhood, so we aren't under contract, and we won't be until the home is nearly finished. Homes aren't selling as quickly as the builder would like, so they are downgrading all future homes to get price points down and appeal to a wider market. This was very frustrating since the home we were hoping to buy was going to have ground broken next month. There is a verrrrrry slight chance we will be able to convince them to build just one more home with the original floor plan and features for us to buy before they make the switch, but that is highly unlikely. We are being a squeaky wheel about it, but have to assume it won't be a possibility.
The good news is, we are now looking at a different home on a different lot that just became available. We don't love the home, but the lot is so beautiful, so superior to every other lot we were considering before, that we will likely end up being grateful that the first house fell through so we can buy this better-lot one (even though we still really prefer the original house we wanted, by a ton). Essentially, sometime this month we will have to commit to one of 3 houses:
House 1: The original house on the original lot we wanted, but with all downgraded features/floor plan. We'll call this option "mid house on mid lot."
House 2: There is one final house that is about to be finished and listed that is the real true original dream home we fell in love with. It has all the upgraded features and floor plan, but is on a teeny-tiny postage stamp lot on a busy street. We'll call this option "dream house on meh lot."
House 3: The house that has a floor plan and finishes we don't like but will be on our dream lot. To paint the picture, it will be on a large 1/3-acre lot, there will be an incredible valley view out front, mountains in the backyard, and a field next door to one side that can never be built on. So we would have exactly one neighbor on any side of us. We will call this option "meh house on dream lot."
I have a sister-in-law who cannot comprehend why we would go with a tract-home builder that works this way. She is baffled and thinks we should run. Granted, her dad builds homes and they are getting all set to do a custom build on a lot they purchased a few years ago. To that I say, sounds great! That does seem like the superior way. And. It will never, ever be in our budget to do a custom build in the city where we want to live, on a lot as stunning as the "house #3" lot. If we want to stay in the neighborhood where we currently live (we really do) but get Jared into a new build, then this is the way. And we do feel really good about it. We just have some decisions to make now. I'll keep you posted. For now we're leaning heavily toward house #3 because, "You can change a house but you can't change a location."
And now for some pictures from our week:
Happy first week of preschool to Alice! She had her first day of school this week and did great. She was extremely nervous about me leaving and there were quite a few tears on that first drop off, but when I came to pick her up she was all smiles and said, "Mom, I had a great time at preschool!" She told me that she cried for a minute, then she wiped her tears away and had a fun time. They painted, danced, played, and had a snack. The two hours of preschool went by astonishingly fast. Unfortunately it isn't really time gained for me because she is starting to drop her nap. The amount of hours spent at preschool (4 hours a week) is less than the nap hours we are losing. But I'm still glad she can spend that time learning and making friends.
What brought me the most joy last week was mine and Jared's Harry Potter evenings, with a fall candle lit and treats to go with it. In Washington school didn't start until the end of September, at which point autumn really was starting. So my brain thinks it should be fall right now, even though we're still definitely in the heat of the summer. My heart is torn between sadness at leaving pool/splash pad season behind for another year, and joy at fall around the corner. You know, basic stuff.
I'm sure there is more to report from last week, but it is eclipsed by the sadness of Savvy's freak haircut incident on Saturday. Jared cuts Savvy's hair and has gotten pretty good at it over the years. But on Saturday, Savvy shook her head in the middle of the haircut and her ear got caught in the shears. It's every bit as awful as it sounds. I didn't realize how bad it was until Jared left with the kids to run an errand afterward and I was home alone with Savvy--there was a jagged tear going an inch up her ear. Jared really downplayed the ordeal at the time (either he didn't want me to panic or he felt bad since it was at his hands and he wanted to just take care of it himself . . . probably both).
If it had been me doing the haircut and this had happened, I would have immediately run her to the emergency vet. Unfortunately, a negative of Jared having gone to med school is he thinks dog stitches are a cute lil' DIY project. Like, dude, dog ears are not people ears. And dogs are not peoples. But he insisted on stitching her up himself. I asked my mom to come because she's a nurse and I wanted some peace of mind that someone would be there to hold Savvy's paw and look out for her while Jared stitched her up. I was a wreck about the ordeal and I'm not good around blood, so my job was to stay inside and keep the kids from interrupting the procedure. My dad ended up coming too and playing with the kids, so I paced around and made some lemonade instead. In the end Jared was able to get Savvy's ear fixed up, and so far her recovery is going fine, but woof. I'm so sad she had to go through that, all for a haircut she didn't want in the first place because she's a dog. I told Jared that from here on out Savvy will be getting her haircuts at the groomer, and/or if there are any future doggy lacerations for any reason, then I will be rushing her to a vet so she can be as comfortable and well taken care of as possible, with access to only the best of doggie anesthesias. Give your doggie dogs a hug. They are too pure, the goodest doggos.
I am feeling a shift in the air. A good one. A settled one. I don't know if it is because school started, or because fall is around the corner, or because we are coming up on the one-year mark of moving to Utah, or because we have solved so many family health questions over the summer and are making strides in a healthier direction. It could very well be because we have successfully (knock on wood) walked our children's bedtimes up to a more reasonable hour and Jack, while still requiring check ins, isn't sneaking out of bed all evening anymore, and so Jared and I are finally getting to spend our evenings together. We have started our Harry Potter marathon early this year. It isn't even like they're our favorite movies in the world, but we watch them every fall and so that feels very familiar and grounding, comforting. I am breathing a contented sigh.
Don't get it twisted though, back to school has been BuMpY. I could cry from relief that Jack is happy to bumble down to school in the mornings without any of the panic that plagued our first several months here after the move. Three cheers for anxiety medicine and settling in. But when Jack is home, the sibling conflicts are raging. I'm sure it's from Jack holding it together so long and so well at school, and from past experience I do think this will get better with time, but that part of back-to-school has been dreadful. I tried to take them to Thanksgiving Point after school one day, but we only lasted 7 minutes before both kids had collapsed in an emotional heap at my feet, and after I got them back into the car I turned around and let out a silent scream while shaking my fists in the air as I walked around to the driver's side. Looked up and saw a concerned-looking man watching me from his car. Hey there, it's fine.
But despite the after-school hours stretching into what feels like several days on their own, I do feel settled and happier than I have in a while. Alice will be starting her first day of preschool this coming week. That may also be bumpy. She has an extremely difficult time separating from me. I'm anticipating a rocky few weeks, and then gradually less and less rocky as her teacher and classmates become more familiar to her. Then again, I expected the same from Jack when he started preschool but it was never an issue. We'll see. Send prayers.
Jared took the kids to run several errands with him (he loves an errand) while I cleaned the house for several hours on Saturday morning. It was life-giving to get the house reset after a hectic summer and to think my own thoughts for longer than an hour. Jack will be starting flag football soon, but I'm hoping for a smattering more Saturday mornings like that throughout the fall.
I got to go thrifting at the newly re-opened Provo D.I. with my mom this week. It was extremely crowded with other shoppers hoping to stumble on treasures that had been piling up in the store during the weeks it was closed. It was extremely well stocked and I snagged some fun fall clothes and decor for our next house. And now for some pictures from our happy, bumpy week:
We're just getting off of a wonderful weekend in Bear Lake with Jared's parents. Jack spent a couple days up there just him and his grandparents. He got used to a very cushy life of phone games/movies on demand, an endless stream of treats on the house, and late night card games ending at 10:30 pm. Tough for me and Jared to walk into that and try to taper him back without being public enemies #1 and 2. But he had great bonding time with grandma and grandpa and we had so much fun all together so it's over all a win. Hopefully this can be a yearly tradition now that we're living in Utah. And now for some pictures:
Alice kept yelling, "Hey! Owice (Alice)!"
