This last week has been a doozy in about one million ways. We went to go see a house in a neighborhood we love in Bountiful last Friday. Robert had found it on Zillow a day or two before and both of us were really excited about it. When we pulled up and walked in, I had a really good feeling, but as I walked through the whole thing I became incredibly overwhelmed with all that needed to be done to update it. It had lots of potential but I just wasn't sure we were up for the task of catching it up with this century. There's a giant old swing set in the backyard and as the kids were swinging and eating peaches from the peach tree in the yard, they all announced that they felt like this was the one. Even Lou, who has been SO anti-moving since the first day we spoke of it. I was surprised, but we weren't in a rush to put in an offer. Later that day, though, we threw caution to the wind and decided to put one in, just to see if we had a shot. We could always back out, right? Well, there was another offer on the table and the following day, during Eldon's baptism, I got a text and saw from our friend Lance, our realtor, that the seller had decided to take the other offer. Apparently it was a family who was living out of a hotel and was desperate to find a house. I knew there was a good chance we wouldn't get it, but I was surprised at the disappointment I felt when it officially went to someone else. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.
On Tuesday we had an unbelievable wind storm in the upper part of Utah that produced hurricane-speed winds and made it sound like our house was going to blow over. Our house did not, but our big willow tree in the back did, along with thousands of other trees across the Wasatch front. My heart ached when I went out and saw our lawn covered in our beautiful tree. I loved that tree so much. It had made our yard feel so magical and private. The entire storm lasted more than 48 hours and I hardly slept because I was so afraid our big elm tree was going to take out our power line or smash our house. One big branch did fall on the house and then started dangling from the power line to the house, but the power company came and saved the day by climbing up on the roof and tossing the branch off the line and onto the ground. A lot of people lost power, some for days. In fact it is Sunday today and Nick and Megan still didn't have power as of last night. The power company cannot keep up. The day the wind finally subsided my heart could finally beat at a normal pace. It was honestly such a crazy couple of days. To add to it all, early on Tuesday, the day the storm really got going, Lance called and told us that the buyers for the home we'd put an offer on had backed out for some reason, and the sellers were coming back to us to see if we were still interested. Were we? I was so throw off by the storm and the weirdness of the day that I didn't even know what to say. Within a few hours, we decided to go ahead and come back with our initial offer and within a day, the sellers accepted! What?! Was this really happening? I told Lance I needed to walk through it again to make sure I felt good about it, so a few days later we did, and I felt so good. Nervous and overwhelmed, but really good.
So, here we are, after nearly four years of looking, about to buy a new house! It honestly checks off pretty much all of the boxes I wanted checked for a new house so it seemed crazy to pass it up. It's on a quiet, flat street, in a really well-kept neighborhood with lots of kids, the elementary school and church are in walking distance, it has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, the home is in great condition but I can update it how I want, it has a fireplace (two, actually), a master bathroom (although a bit small), the house is set back from the street, it has a garden and lots of fruit trees, it has a great area for outdoor dining, TONS of entertaining space inside (I'm so excited to host!!!!), an open concept kitchen/living space, a flat backyard, a big family room downstairs for the kids, an extra bedroom that I can make into my exercise room, tons of storage, a two-car garage, and great natural light. As I write all this out, I'm getting so so excited! I still can't believe this is happening! We are planning to rent out our current house, which I am also a bit nervous about. I think it's going to be a good thing because it will bring in a bit of money each month, but I'm not sure how much we are going to love being landlords.
Charlotte's family left Utah and headed to Houston yesterday. We are all so bummed out about it. Having them here all summer was such a treat. I seriously wished we lived closer to them so much. Luckily they are within a drive now, rather than a multi-day flight so I'm hopeful we might be able to go there for Thanksgiving and then they are planning to come here for Christmas. Knowing we will see each other soon softened the blow a bit.
