HOUSE

We've been married 8 years (in a couple weeks) and have moved 13 times...and we get to move AGAIN!!!! However, if third time isn't the charm, maybe 14 will! We bought a brand new house-by brand new, I mean it's not even finished yet and I get to pick out the fun stuff to personalize the house, not just "new" to us!!!!!!!!!!
This has been a long time coming and has already proved to possess unforeseen hurdles, but we've gotten past them and are anxiously awaiting to hear what the closing date will be.
We applied for a Rural Development loan back in August and had to wait our turn on the waiting list. We were told it would be about 30 days-can I just say I never realized that 30 days could go by so incredible slow when you're waiting for such news as that?! It's worse than the last 30 days of pregnancy and that is s.l.0.w. Finally we broke down and called our realtor to see if he would know anything, he was told 2 weeks-so the very end of September. The very next day (a Friday)our application was pulled for processing and on Monday we found out our approval amount and went looking for a house. On Tuesday we called the realtor with the one house we wanted to look at and set up an appointment. It didn't take much to fall in love-oh, so in love! We were leaving town Thursday, so we wrote up and signed an offer Thursday morning and by Friday afternoon our offer was accepted!!! We set up an inspection for the following Tuesday and found out 10-minutes before that inspection that we were not allowed to purchase the home because of location.
This loan is specified to certain rural areas and this neighborhood, although grandfathered into the areas, had been officially released from that grandfathering just that morning! We were booted and had to find a new house-fast!! To say we took it well, would be an absolute lie. This was the dream home we didn't realize we had dreamt up! There were a few days of absolute meltdowns and anger. We have slowly gotten over it, but there are still moments of extreme sadness. When looking at other homes all we could do was compare...Jake stated that it's hard to compare gold with silver-summarizing our hunt rather well.
We looked at three homes, an overpriced, dirty place; an older, charming, but broken foundation place; and a home under construction-we didn't love any, but put some serious thought, prayer and conversation into choosing what would work for our family and still get us into a house by the end of November (I'm not gonna lie, $8000 is something I will shoot for!!)
We finally decided that the home under construction would be the best option for us, especially because it would be finished quickly and allow us to choose some of the customized features to make it ours! We signed an offer last Friday afternoon while they were putting up sheetrock.
I knew I was going to need to get some choices to them soon, so I called the Realtor after lunch today so I could do a little homework and found out I needed to have some decisions by 5 o'clock! I quickly loaded the kids and went searching for the siding store-got lost, finally found it and quickly discovered this could get overwhelming by myself. Jake works today and tomorrow and with his job he can't just get off, nor does he finish at an early hour. I made many trips to get samples of the siding and brick and back to Jake's work to get his opinion, but I did it and got my homework done with 5 minutes to spare!! I am more tired from todays adventures than from a day of cleaning and washing at home...it's amazing how drained your brain can get choosing some of these things-especially when you constantly learn new terminology!
Tomorrow I will be headed out during preschool (I will only have one child to worry about) to pick out flooring and paint. I should be able to get it done in 2 hours (I did today) and then I can actually get the laundry done...
I have gone out to the house and taken pictures to keep track of the progress, so when I get brave and connect the other computer I can download pictures and show you some fun pictures and updates!
I know that this is going to end up being a fast few weeks full of adventure. They were putting the "frame" up for the driveway today, but we are supposed to have snow all week, so we'll see when they manage to get that in-but at least they can still work on the inside! I think they finished all drywall today as well.

I have yet to meet the builder, but he was anxious to get this sold that he threw in some bonuses even...it was hard not to refuse despite struggles in deciding which home to choose.
We are moving into a new neighborhood on the north side of Hitt Road in Idaho Falls.
It is a starter home, but we will make it better ;)
3 bedroom, 2 bath upstairs at 1300 sq. ft.
decent size living room and kitchen-extra cabinet space as there isn't a "pantry" to speak of
laundry is off the garage-aka mudroom
There is a basement-unfinished at 1300 sq. ft.
We will put in 3 more bedrooms (it's intended for only 2, but you can fit 3)
One more bathroom
A family room
A food storage room-this is a big deal to us-first thing to be finished in the basement!!!
It's located in an open cal de sac on a third acre

We will once again move schools, but the kids are so excited because they know we will NOT be moving again for quite some time-they are willing to sacrifice friends from school and the ward to be stable and I can't blame them-poor kids are a little too used to change, I hope we can get into a great routine and habits once we "permanantly" move!
I have finally had some time to do a little research and the upside of this move is that I will not have to schedule in drop off and pick up at the elementary school-Bryant actually gets to ride the bus! He is so thrilled he couldn't hold still for a whole minute!!! I discovered that since we are now going to the "country" we will be attending a rather small school and one of the first grade teachers looks like she would be awesome! I sure hope they will let me "request" who I want-just reading her intro letter online made me think she would be similar to the first grade teacher I had a hundred years ago and still remember!!!

I hope to keep putting updates as regularly as possible and even get some pictures up soon. I have waited 8 years for this kind of fun, but when you're pregnant and your brain is fried, it's a little harder to enjoy-but never unforgettable!! I'm getting more and more excited daily for this change to take place even with the few con's that I cannot get rid of.