Our Home Sweet Home

Here is the house we purchased. We love our address too. Its on a street called Commonwealth. All of the roads in the neighborhood are names of English towns like Essex or Shelbourne. We are also at the end of a dead end road so that there is really only one exit out of our street... that makes us feel safer, because a criminal wouldn't want to risk committing a crime on a street that is hard to get out of... not to mention one that has a cop car parked out front of a house just down the street. We don't have anyone livig behind us - just a big field that probably wont ever get developed - well atleast not anytime soon.
This is the front of our house. We have done some work on the front yard by adding a tree and a few bushes. Here is the living room in the entrance of our house. This is the stairway and entrance to the dining/kitchen/family room I love our new kitchen. Those of you who saw the kitchens we have had in the past know the space restrictions we have had. Now I get a big pantry and A LOT of counter space. Eventually we want to take that one awkward cabinet out that is over the big counter, and replace it with something that fills in the space better but does not close off the kitchen. We also want to get some bar stools that will match our future kitchen chairs. Here is our dining area... one that is lacking an actual table. Our family room: there is a half bath on the left even though it isn't pictured here. There is also the entrance to the garage on the left which is in conjunction with the utility room. This is the fourth bedroom that we have decided will be our office. If a time comes when we need another bedroom for our children, we could change things around. Here is Reagan's room. Her bed consists of two matresses stacked on top of one another. They will soon be put into a bunk bed we are currently painting white. Here is the nursery for when we have another little one, it's a little bit smaller than the other rooms, but serves its purpose. And this is our room. We want to put some sitting furniture in the corner facing the tv, and turn it into a reading nook/tv lounging area.These are the two bathrooms upstairs, 'nuf said.This is our back yard, it's a pretty good size and we are excited to do some landscaping.
The pictures were kind of off because of the light coming in from the windows and the way I faced the rooms to get the best angle so you could all see the rooms... but you get the gist. Well, home sweet home... as they say.

The Hunt

Jarod and I moved to the Caldwell area from Rexburg Idaho on July 16th. The new owners at the complex we managed wanted to hire a different set of managers and wanted us out of the complex mid semester. We were able to work out a different timeline because of the hours we had stacked up to pay for our rent. As things turned out we were very blessed and the move was worth the stress at the end of Jarod's semester. I'll discuss the things we had to get straightened out in another post.

We were graciously accepted into Jarod's Grandmother's home for the house hunt. The housing market at the time was harder than we expected. We figured there were so many houses on the market, we could take our pick of the lot in our price range. As it turned out, we couldn't be more wrong. The price range we were in was actually the same one all the other house hunters were in as well. We made our offer on the first house and got out bid, it was a short sale and in the end it looked as though the lisitng agent was in favor of another buyer... whether he was friends or family with them or they were buying from him so he could get the double commission... we don't know. There was just something fishy about the whole thing.

We found another house what we liked and thought we had made an offer in the right amount of time... but it was a fannie mae house and needed to be on the market for three days before the bids got sent to the bank. By the time the three days were up, there were counter bids and we again got outbid...

By the time we found the third house we liked, we were getting discouraged. We wanted to get settled before Jarod started his final semester of online classes. We made the offer on the right day with no other bids... but over the weekend there were three other competitors. We knew we were not going to get this house. Not only that, but the listing agent notified us she had priced the house at too much and wanted to know if we wanted to up our bid. Seeing as we went in full price at the wrong bid, we decided to stay put. Miraculously our bid was the best one despite the fact we didn't change our bid. We got the house we wanted the most out of all of the houses. It is a close to 1600 sq ft home with a living room, family room, four bedrooms, and 2 1/2 bathrooms. The yard needed fixing up and the carpets needed cleaning. We moved in on September 7th after it had closed the previous day. We had no real furniture besides our bed and a card table. Soon everything started to take shape. Pictures and details to come.

Whew! A year of Updates to Come

In just a few weeks it will have been a whole year since our last update, and I have a lot to tell. The next few days may or may not include pictures, and pictures may or may not be added in time so check back every so often.

The most recent update that isn't that well known - I can now discuss. On August 11th Jarod and I found out we were expecting again. We were so excited to have another addition to our growing family. As it turns out, before I could even get an ultrasound to see the heartbeat and see how 'well' the developing child was doing... I started spotting. We had a miscarriage on October 8th. We went to the hospital around 9:30 at night and waited for 3 hours to be told something we already had a pretty good idea about. I had absolutely no issues with my first pregnancy; so with these issues, Jarod and I were understandably scared. Luckily we had moved to the Caldwell area and had Jarod's family close by. We were able to drop Reagan off with the grandparents. Emotionally, my hormones were not going to let me be okay for a few days, but once they leveled out we were able to recognize there would be another chance for that special spirit to come to us at another time. I think considering the situation, we handled it better than expected. The one thing I was grateful for was the chance to come home to a little girl who was concerned and who loved both Jarod and me so much.

According to the grandparents, Reagan had realized that I was crying when we dropped her off. She signed the word and said, "Mommy, Crying". They told her we would be okay and she seemed to take that at face value. Right before she went to bed, they said a prayer and after it was over, Reagan wanted to say another one for us. She kept saying, "Mommy, okay." We picked her up a little before one in the morning and she was so groggy all she said as she became alert enough to know who was holding her was, "Mommy okay." as she pointed at me and instantly went back to sleep. Our sweet child was there for me to cuddle with and to cheer me up. We will be able to try again in about a month.