Our new home part 1: The story in a Nutshell :)

Well this is extremely delayed!

The story in a Nutshell :)

Our journey to a new house a long one coming. Mike and I decided a few years ago we wanted to move closer to family and Kade, but wanted to be debt free when we made the move. 

This October we had our AMAZING realtor Rex Tedeski start looking at homes with us. We couldn't find anything we were interested in, but were in no hurry. In November when we found out that Mike was going to deploy we decided we would put our house on the market asking way more than we wanted for it, so we could lower it when he got back... 

IT SOLD 4 DAYS LATER in a snow storm no less!!! 

We now needed to move out by the end of December, so we started looking a little more determined. We had a list of things that were really important to us though, and nothing quite met up to our demands. We decided one day to just look into building, and by the end of the next day were signing papers to buy a lot :)

All of the cards sort of fell into place for the sale and build, but we needed somewhere to live. That's when our sister Mandi played hero and let us stay in her spare rooms. I may just stay here when the house is finished ;)

Our amazing family really stepped up to help us move the weekend before Mike left! There really isn't words for how blessed we are with support!

The Nutshell had lots of steps though ;)

Just to sign with the builder:

• We had to pick out a lot. We found the perfect one in the school zone we wanted, in a cul-de-sac, that has a small island so Jenna is safer while playing basketball, and a big yard.  

• We had to pick the home design we wanted... then change it to meet our long list of wants. Like an extra room, a loft, an extended garage (2 car is too small and 3 car allows for too much stuff), and the downstairs bath location to name a few. 

• The fun part was going to pick out all the finishing touches like flooring, counters, and doors. 
• We decided to put away money for allot of thing like paint, lighting, molding, and kitchen/bath upgrade  so that we can build equity imminently instead of having the builder do the work. 
• There were things we wanted that can't be added later (as easy) like the best carpet pad, insulated bedrooms. and bigger windows. 

Then once the new house was waiting for approval by the city we had to:

• Tell big brother and big sister (James was along for the whole ride)

• Move our of our 1st home...so much harder than I thought! Mike and I picked this house out when we had been dating for a month! It was the 1st home for both of our older kids, it was where we brought our baby home to. Even just writing about it now makes me tear up and miss my husband more! 

• And now we wait...