Welcome to our new house! Grandma decided to move out a few months ago and although Brian and I were planning on buying her house for an investment property, we were eventually won over to the idea of moving our family there and renting our current house instead.

Our New/Old House
Our New/Old House

The bank finally approved our loan on Wednesday afternoon and we closed yesterday (Friday) morning. The closing wasn’t without drama (the house title was held by a trust in my grandma’s and deceased grandpa’s names but apparently you can’t sell a dead trustee’s home, even with one surviving) and we weren’t entirely sure it was going to happen but it did. I’m so glad to be done!

It has a 2 stall garage attached the house via a breezeway, larger kitchen than our current house, small family room with gas log fireplace, built in bookshelves, and desk, one and a half bathrooms (the full bath has pink tile!), three bedrooms all bigger than our current house but with smaller closets, a slightly smaller living room at the front of the house, a rectangular (instead of square) dining area, a full basement with laundry, woodshop for Brian (he is thrilled to get to work), unfinished space that will eventually be Brians’s office, and ample storage space. The biggest draw was the HUGE mostly-fenced backyard that backs up to an elementary school’s playground and the lot’s location on a dead-end street.

We have loads of plans for the interior and exterior that will take years for us to DIY. We’ll be making mostly cosmetic changes within the next few weeks and doing lots of cleaning while saving for a big kitchen gut-and-rebuild and completely remodeling the full bathroom as well. I’m hoping to take some before photos soon so we can track our progress as time goes on.

Brian and I spent the night at the house last night, in the tradition of our family. We spent the evening collecting papers from drawers, emptying closets and cabinets, throwing away wire hangers, exploring the garage, pulling down and washing window obscuring curtains (YAY!), and counting lightbulbs. You may think the lightbulb thing is a little strange but there was at least half of all lightbulbs missing from every fixture in the house. The full bathroom was the worst with only one 40 watt bulb in a 4 60-100 watt fixture! Apparently my grandparents were so frugal that they didn’t want to spent any extra money being able to see at night. We’ve hired someone from church to help Brian paint the bedrooms, full bathroom, and family room (ladders aren’t so much my thing right now) so we can move in sooner. We’re also hiring one of our college students to help clean so that process can move along swiftly. My parents are moving the furniture they had stored in the house tomorrow and I’m hoping I can spend a nap time or two there this coming week cleaning and polishing the hardwood floors.

Ben came down with a fever yesterday and has been droopy and sad but doesn’t really show any other symptoms. We’re keeping him drugged so his fever doesn’t spike too high (it’s been 103 unmedicated) and you can hardly tell that he isn’t feeling normal other than his tendency to sit in laps and snuggle for longer than 10 seconds at a time. It looks like we won’t be going to church this weekend since we can’t expose other kids to whatever this is (teething? odd virus? cold?) so maybe we’ll get to go hiking or do another family activity (Like vacuuming the new house! That’s fun, right?!)

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