We have been here now for two months and are loving it. We began looking for houses last fall. We thought about what we needed and what our budget would be. We wanted to be able to still do fun things. We wanted enough bedrooms for everyone to have their own (Jason and I agreed to share) and have a room for an office. The other major thing we wanted was at least two bathrooms. I really wanted a rambler style home so we could be old and still live in our house. I would really like to not have to move again. We didn't want more that two or three steps up to the front door. And we wanted good gathering space in the family room and kitchen. The next goal was to stay in the same ward. Since we live in Utah, the ward boundaries do not cover more than a ten by two block area. There were actually 3 possibilities. Two houses had been sold to investors, so we wanted to know if they would fix up the houses and sell them again or make them rentals. The 3rd option would have been a perfectly beautiful house, but it was priced WAY out of our budget. That meant we needed to venture out of the ward boundary.
The next boundary was to stay in the same school boundaries. That gave us a few more options, but most did not fit into the basic house requirements. So then we stared looking within just the high school boundaries. We just did not find anything that felt right.
When we didn't find what we wanted, we started looking closer to Jason's work. We looked at building a house. I started to think it would just be easier to stay with my parents until the big kids were done with school, then find something.
Then we were talking to friends in the ward who mentioned their neighbors were looking to sell. They had listed their house on and off in the last few years. So, Jason called to see if they still wanted to sell. And yes they did. After looking at so many houses, this one seemed kind of small and it was one room short, but the layout was comfortable. It was also in the perfect location. After talking about it with our family, the older girls agreed to share a room and the process of paperwork to buy this house started.
Since the A&W family had not been actively looking or preparing to go to a new house, we all agreed to give the process three months. That was a very long three months. And buying a house is stressful anyway. But, on March 1st we signed all the paperwork and got our keys.
Now almost all the boxes have a place and there are even some pictures on the walls. We are very comfortable and are getting nicely settled.
