Our New Abode

After we learned that we needed to stay in Utah, we decided we should probably start looking for a home as soon as possible so that we could start our lives here and get settled before the baby came. With a price range in mind, we found ourselves a great realtor and got going.  We looked at numerous houses and even made a few offers (the market here is crazy right now...people aren't selling and everybody's buying, so get your offer in NOW or it'll be gone).  Our second offer was accepted and we were thrilled to get a little rambler in north Orem, but there were some issues with the home that, after inspection, we weren't comfortable with and decided to back away.  So back at square one, we continued looking again.  

One house wasn't even on the market yet when a neighbor drove by as the sale sign was being posted.  She told my mom, who then told me about it.  I couldn't find it online yet, but when Will got home from work, we looked again and found the listing.  After cruising through the pictures, we knew we had to see it. Our realtor got us an appointment and we visited it right then.  We put in an offer that evening, and a couple days later after some back and forth with the sellers (we weren't the only ones who wanted it badly), we were on the way to home ownership!  

We moved our beds in on April 27th and have loved making it our own since then.  I forgot to take some photos of the empty house, so here are some of the pictures that were posted with the listing:

This is a shot taken in early spring.  The grass is now green and the yard border is full of beautiful greenery.  

Front room:

Master room:

One of the other three bedrooms (this is the nursery and looks nothing like this now!):

We were so blessed to have all the appliances come with the house.  In case you can't tell, the cabinets on top are a dark cherry stain and the cabinets on bottom are painted black.

This is the family room:

This is the basement that they turned into a craft room and office area:

The backyard houses a nice deck, hot tub, play slide, shed, and this adorable playhouse:

We can fit both the car and the truck in here with plenty of room all around...and check out that storage space! For now it holds our holiday decor and camping gear, but we haven't hardly filled it up yet.

Overall, we love the house. It is perfect for us at this time and we couldn't be more thrilled to be here.  We have felt so welcome by our neighbors.  What a huge blessing it is to have a place to call our own!