We've talked about moving - several times for different reasons.
work
family
no job
family
work
safety
more space
more space
more space
safety
work
are you seeing a theme??
I painted the master bedroom and I kid you not, the day I finished and put the room back together, Jeff came home and said 'let's move'.......what?! (that was last year)
So we decided in April to re-finance our mortgages (we have 2...just happened that way) and to take advantage of the low interest rates and the plans out there to help people re-finance. That only works if you have the loan through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac - we did not. 10% of loans and we didn't have one of them?? After filling out all the paper work for the refinance and not getting it, we start looking to move.
East Valley - Beckers!!! too much, still far from work - no.
North Phoenix - new temple, would be a great location, no.
Central Phoenix - too expensive, no.
West Valley - not anything super exciting, no.
Southwest Phoenix - stay put, move to a 'safer' neighborhood, still in SoPho - yes. Really? yes.
So we stay and limit our search to here.
We find houses to look at and they were snapped up like that! (imagine a snap...) Hours of coming on the market, cash offers. Wow, we can't compete with that.
We find a house that could work. It needs some major paint and would need some damage control after they removed all the surround sound, but it could work. No pool, 2 story (didn't want either of those) - we could make it work.
A house came on the market on Friday, we meet our realtor and I was all set to say no, we'll go with the one we found earlier that day. We get into the neighborhood - one I had seen when we first moved here. I loved the houses and there was no, no way, we could ever afford to live there. Starting price and quickly sky-rocketed to $600-700,000!! A girl can dream, right?
So here we go, so far okay. We get to the closets, I'm in love. Another closet, another closet, tandem garage, another closet, shelving, walk-in pantry (my 3 favorite words), the master bathroom is totally redone and the closet is a walk-around! I'm pretty sure if we didn't buy it, then our realtor would have. Let's take a look shall we:
the kitchen which I have already painted a nice shade of Rocky Mountain Sky - aka Palfreeman Blue (it's beautiful!!)
these are not our decorations - we had brought the kids over to take a look.
this is only 3/4 of the yard - there's a whole other section that's big enough for a pool - some day!!
did I mention walk-in pantry!?
laundry room to the garage (shelving just inside the door to the right)
guest bath (1/2)
the entry way where our piano now resides
PLAY ROOM!!
kids bath - nicely remodeled
hall closet - toys, games, blankets, and still has space!
boys to the left, girls to the right
this is the girls closet - it's big enough for two dressers and everything else with room to grow
boys
a view of the hallway from the boys bedroom door. I'm sitting at our computer desk where the picture is on the wall.
I think they love it!
Master bedroom - it's HUGE! Considering our old room was big enough for a path, not room to host a dance party!? :)
and the master bathroom - also nicely remodeled - Lea is appearing from one side of the closet, my craft table is on my side of the closet......I know!?
Needless to say, we wanted to sign and move in that day!
Mo is hiding in the center box.
with boxes piled high - what else would you do??
Thanks to everyone who helped us: brought us boxes, tape, load the truck, unload, load again and unload again at midnight.
And because we really know how to have a good time, we signed the papers, at 9 am, got the keys by 3 pm and had the truck unloaded a second time by 1 am. The kids and Jeff took a Walmart run for something....I think sheets to cover the windows. I stayed home, our new home, and tried to find a few key items: silverware, plates, cup for Jeff. We left the next day when he got home from work for a 6 week vacation! He was coming home after the first week. Party!
Don't worry we had more fun before we moved to the new house! We loved our little house - 8 years!
